Kerzner Office Equipment

This case provides an opportunity to explore some of the issues surrounding the startup of a project and formation of a team.

Read the case study found on page 409 in your textbook. You should then answer the four below questions thoroughly utilizing the concepts found in your text book.

1.Critique Brigg’s management of the first meeting. What, if anything, should she have done differently?

Given the time constraint and late start, Briggs probably accomplished as much as she could in this meeting. At the same time, one might question how the other members felt upon leaving the meeting. First, many of the members seem less than enthusiastic about the project. Second, the members don’t have a good idea about how they are going to accomplish the project and what kind of involvement it will require from them. She should have anticipated the meeting times dilemma and avoided the jousting by simply requesting the schedule information up front.

2.What barriers is she likely to encounter in completing this project?

She probably will have a difficult time trying to establish a team identity. This could stem from lack of full time involvement from team members. They may often engaged in other activities in their departments rather than focusing on what they needed to focus on. Creating a shared vision with her team members could be difficult due to their being a lack of unity within the team itself. Managing a project reward system could be difficult. Members like Cara and Megan are already motivated by the project but other members like Nick need some other form of motivation. Another difficult area would be managing conflicts within the project. Conflicts and disagreements may regularly occur since all members are from different departments who may have different experiences and skills.

3.What can she do to overcome these barriers? You must use the table provided below and identify at least 6 barriers and the associated solutions.

Barriers
Solutions
Lack of Team Identity
Effectively Arranging Meetings – Meetings provide the platform to communicate project information. Moreover members of the team will understand that they don’t work along but with a team and each of their contributions are equally important for the projects success.

Team Name – developing a team name with logos would help identifying team members and their collective effort. Lack of Shared Vision
PM needs to actively participate in collecting different participants ideas on how they weigh different attributes of the project.

Keeping vision building meetings and encouraging members to contribute their ideas further Lack an Effective Reward
Monitory and non-monitory rewards motivate employees

Recognizing the successful team members

PM needs to identify employee performance and they should write letters of commendation for members performance. Conflict with the Project Team
PM must be required to encourage functional conflict since it improves the understanding of the objective, and he/she needs to be able to manage dysfunctional conflicts

Manager needs to mediate and arbitrate the conflict and if the issues have become worse then the managers need to eliminate both the conflicting parties Limited, part-time involvement
Asses individual availability and assign tasks accordingly
No experience individuals
Provide strong direction and create opportunities to get to know each other

4.What should she do between now and the next meeting?

She should prepare and circulate an agenda that is meeting minutes for next meeting and against each item put a time and person who should be responsible for it. She should decide on where the next meeting should be held and its duration and assure that members are aware of the time and location of next meeting. She should prepare the summary for the coming meeting to be clear about what she needs to discuss with her team members so that the team will have a positive influence on her. She should decide on whether brainstorming is necessary and if conflicts are likely to occur, if so how would she handle the conflicts.