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Strategic HR Management
Formal power will come from position of the project manager that he keeps in the organization or specifically with reference to the project. The HR project manager will also be the initiator of his project which means that the objectives will be set by him. These objectives will be set after consultation with the heads of other departments so that the whole organization is on the same page for this particular project. The consequence of this power will be that the subordinates will know that their manager is in a position to write a good or bad performance report for them which can affect their careers. This power will also present the manager with an increased level of responsibility because he will be responsible for the overall project performance. If we specifically talk about the HR project, the project management will be responsible for hiring the right people for the right jobs. He will also be responsible for designing the job descriptions for all the relevant posts. His formal powers will allow him to include whatever he wants to in these documents and then hire the best people for these jobs. These powers will also allow him to set objectives for this project and also check whether the project is going in the right direction or not CITATION Mar071 \l 1033 (Huemann, Keegan, & Turner, 2007). The appreciation or otherwise of the personnel working at the project is also in the hands of project management. The project management will be the best judge because he wrote down the job descriptions of employees. The human aspect of the project will be the most affected by formal powers of project management. If the manager is overly using his formal power, it may result in people leaving their jobs.
Reward’s power is based upon getting something out of others provided they will be rewarded later. The best example of applying this power will be when staff members have done something well and they are offered a reward. Another application will be negotiating with a party which may be an employee union in this case. During such negotiations, other party must have in their minds that the project manager is in a position to reward them either in a positive or a negative way. In both cases, other party will negotiate keeping the position of project management in mind.
Project is not clearly visible to all levels of management
One issue that comes up during a project is that all levels of management are not able to see what actually is happening in it. The top management complains that it cannot see what is actually happening in the project and whether the project schedules have been duly followed or not. The initial presentation has been made by the project manager and after that he keeps things to himself regarding project schedules. It becomes too late to re-direct the resources or cancel the project all together. Project managers have a lot of things to think about and they are not able to communicate project schedules and other aspects to the top management. The HR project manager may be too busy in resetting the job descriptions of various team members that he may not be able to get timely information from the lower staff and give that to the higher management. The lower staff will say that they do not get the appropriate information from their project manager regarding the tasks they have top perform. Another issue is that they do not know which tasks have to be prioritized.
Unclear project objectives
This issue arises because the organizations may take more projects than it can easily handle or even in a single project, project manager is not able to lay down project objectives clearly. Top management must play a key role in this issue by making sure that the project objectives are stated clearly and are aligned with strategic objectives of the organization. Project managers have a key role in resolving this issue because they are the ones who set up the objectives related to project and communicate these objectives to the lower staff members. Project managers also have the responsibility to talk to the top management regarding alignment of strategic objectives with project objectives. The team members are over worked because they are not communicated about strategic and project objectives and ultimately, they will quit the organization. The solution lies with clear communication between all levels of management regarding project and organizational objectives. Other aspect is that there must be clear communication of these objectives across all managerial levels.
Lack of resources
The lack of prioritization of tasks from project team will lead to extra pressure on available resources. The resources are often pressurized when top management asks too much of the project managers or the organization has taken up more projects than its resources allow it to handle. An average team member will have increased workload in this scenario CITATION Ian05 \l 1033 (Clark & Colling, 2005). Project managers often state that they have been given less resources than are required to complete the projects at hand. The lack of resources will affect the team members the most because they have to bear all the pressures regarding completion of projects on time. The solution of this problem is that there should be a proper allocation of available resources which is done after taking all levels of management into confidence. Particularly, the financial resources are the ones which are the most important for any project.
Inability to meet deadlines
A project is completed as a sum of smaller activities which have to be completed within their stipulated time so that the whole project is completed according to given time frame. The initial time frames are set by the project manager who sees all aspects of project. The top management puts pressure on the project managers by asking about updates too frequently and the team members do not know how to meet deadlines because they are not given the adequate resources and are not given clear instructions. The solution to this problem is clear communication between all levels of management so that clear deadlines can be set by project managers and the same can be communicated to top and lower managers. Failure to meet deadlines at one stage of project will mean that the whole project will be delivered late.
The major challenge faced by project managers will be to bring the whole team on a single note. A virtual project team may consist of members from various time zones which will make it harder for them to be communicate to each other effectively. Language barriers also pose serious issues to the project team especially in case of global project teams. Adherence to equal opportunity laws and avoiding any discrimination on any basis is also an important aspect. All these issues exaggerate when the project site is in one place and people giving technical assistance are at some other place. The project manager must select people from similar time zones to work for a single project. While selecting the members, managers must make sure that they understand English to a certain extent. If it is absolutely necessary to hire a person, a translator may be arranged to solve the issue CITATION Cat08 \l 1033 (L.Welch, E.Welch, & Tahvanainen, 2008).
Communication plan will be started from the project manager and he will disseminate all information regarding project to the top management as well as the team members. This will be beneficial because he is the person who will have the most accurate and updated knowledge about the progress and requirements of a given project.The structure will be a simple one where the main responsibility will remain with the project manager. The purpose of this communication plan will be that all aspects of the projects are communicated to all the concerned authorities and there is an appropriate way of taking feedback from them. Various methods will be used to communicate the details all over the organization. Top management will receive emails regarding all the necessary information whereas the team members will receive instructions in written form. Some general aspects of project will be communicated with the help of notice board. The top management will be updated once or twice a week regarding the progress on project whereas team members will be directed on daily basis so that there is no ambiguity regarding what to do and what to expect from the members. The timing can be changed according to the phase in which project is in and relative importance of the project. The HR project will be important because it may provide a stream of future employees to the company. Initially, all team members will be given a mutual presentation so that they can know what the project is all about and what will be their particular duties. It is very important to use appropriate methods to communicate the progress of this project to the top management. If this particular project cannot be completed within the stipulated time, organization may not be able to take up similar projects in the future.
References
BIBLIOGRAPHY Clark, I., & Colling, T. (2005). The management of human resources in project management‐led organizations. Personnel Review.
Huemann, M., Keegan, A., & Turner, J. (2007). Human resource management in the project-oriented company: A review. International Journal of Project Management, 315-323.
L.Welch, C., E.Welch, D., & Tahvanainen, M. (2008). Managing the HR dimension of international project operations. The international journal of human Resource Management.
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