Leadership and Management Thoeries

Leadership and motivational theories are an excellent concept and both of these theories are very useful tools for project managers. A project manager may know about the concept of leadership and motivational theories but knowing when to apply the theories in a project environment is the key to superior project management. The notion that not every project is the same also applies to leadership and motivational theories. By applying these theories at the right time to the right team member can ensure that a project will be a successful one. For example, a project manager can apply the leadership theory of participative, also known as the democratic style and involve the team leader with team members to make a decision involving the project’s success.

This theory gives the team leader and the team member’s motivation to do more work, a satisfaction of importance to the project’s success, and develops people skills. According to Hodgkinson, J. (2009) it states that, “Invites ideas from the team for decision‐making process, and goes with the majority. Also known as Consultative or Participative, this style will usually result in a good decision.” An example when a project manager may apply a motivational theory, such as the Participative Motivational theory, in a project environment occurs when the team needs to uniting. The participative motivational theory can empower the team members and make them united as a team. This may be accomplished through the task delegation technique. The task delegation technique hands the authority and responsibility of some tasks over to the team members. They will believe that their skills in the project are important and will motivate them to accomplish the task at hand with success.

References
Asapm.org (2009). Leadership Styles for Program and Project Managers. Retrieved August 18, 2012 from, www.asapm.org/asapmag/articles/LeadershipStyles.pdf