Introduction
The paper mainly focuses on project management and people. The main aim of the paper is to analyze the effectiveness of project group and individual decision making in project management. It is found that proper decision making plays a great role in achieving success within a project (Kaner, 2014). The paper identifies number of cases that helps in illustrating the success as well as failures of decision making strategies within the project with proper reasons. Moreover, the paper also discusses the processes that are helpful in improving the contribution of people in project management.
Effectiveness of group and individual decision making in project management
According to Shepherd, Williams and Patzelt (2015), an individual generally makes proper prompt decisions for the success of the project. It is found that individuals generally do not escape from responsibilities as they are generally accountable for their own performance as well as acts and thus individual’s decision within the project creates a positive impact on the project. In addition to this, it is found that individual decision making is quite helpful in saving time, money as well as energy as individuals generally make logical as well as prompt decision making (Hair et al. 2015). Moreover, the decisions that are made by the individuals within the group are very much rational as well as focussed for achieving the goals and objectives of the project quite effectively. While making decisions for the project, individuals generally utilizes decision making approaches (Pitt et al. 2015). The approaches that are generally used by individuals while making decisions related with the project generally includes analytical approach, intuitive decision-making approach as well as luck approach.
On the other hand, it is stated by Pitt, Monks, Crowe and Vasilakis (2015) that group decision making within the project is taken in order to achieve success. It is found that groups within the project generally tends to have greater knowledge base as all the members who are associated with the group have different specialities. Group decision making process also helps in providing greater number of alternatives for resolving the problems and issues that are associated with the project. It is found that greater number of alternatives generally helps in offering more perspective for a problem (Ramsey et al. 2015). The implementation of various types of decisions will be effectively implemented by a group of individuals by eliminating the personal biases so that the decision that is made in context to the project are quite reliable as well as dependable on various decisions. The group decision making helps in making better decisions for the project. It is found that in order to undertake group decision making, the approaches or methods that are utilized include unanimity, majority, plurality as well as dictatorship (Hoffmann, Montori and Del Mar 2014).
3.Identification of the cases that illustrates the success as well failure of different decision-making strategies with reasons
According to Shepherd, Williams and Patzelt (2015) the decision-making strategies that are generally utilized by the organizations in order to effectively manage the project are elaborated below:
Strategic decision making
It is stated by O'doherty, Cockburn and Pauli (2017) that strategic decisions help in concerning about the direction of the company which generally includes new strategic alliances as well as products which are generally handled by the CEO of the organization. As per the reference for business, it is found that the companies are generally forced for competing on the edge for developing proper as well as continuous flow of competitive advantage in context to other competitors of the market.
Example: AJ who is one of the program managers in a multinational company engages in meeting the demands of the customers by motivating the global team of the project (Zivkovic et al. 2014) However, it is found that the company suddenly faced recession in the economy and management for cutting down budget of the project. In spite of budget recession, it is found that the customer-based training within the organization is unavoidable. In order to manage such situations, AJ undertake strategic decisions for enhancing the revenue of the organization and for competing with other organizations so that the financial crisis that the company faces will be minimized.
The decision that is taken b AJ becomes successful and thus the entire project that the organization faces get resolved by taking proper steps. The main reason behind the success of the decision making is mainly based on the analysis that is done in order to analyze the main root cause of the problem. Proper analysis assists in making group decisions for achieving success so that the project can be completed successfully.
Intuitive analysis
This decision-making procedure is utilized by the entrepreneurs for making quick decision for the success of the project. This type of decision making is generally done without collecting all the data as well as information that are generally required and the decision is only done by trusting the instincts of one (Kaner, 2014). It is found that intuitive decision making can be considered dangerous so it is necessary to be careful for getting much information.
Example: The long dilemma that exists whether effective managerial action is served properly in analytical judgemental form or in intuitive judgemental form (Klein 2015). It is found that within an IT project, the project manager loses hope of finishing the project within deadline due to the flaws and problems that are mainly associated with the project. In such situations, the organization utilizes their power of intuitive analysis and makes proper decision within the project. However, the intuitive decision that is made within this project does not work and as a result the decision that is made within the project fails.
The main reason behind the failure of the project is that the decision is generally made based on intuitive analysis and no logical thinking was applied while taking decisions. It is found that instincts do not always works and in this case the decision that is taken by the project manager for resolving the problem of project deadline does not gets resolved.
Systematic analysis
It is found that systematic analysis mainly involves collection of various types of information as possible in order to make proper analysis in a proper logical way for making best option (Hoffmann et al. 2014). It is found that managers must prepare themselves in order to make proper decisions by practising pre-decision making. This process of decision making is generally undertaken on the basis of analysis and analysis seems wrong.
Example: It is found that within the development of networking project, the project manager faces budget shortfall (Skjærseth and Wettestad 2016). The financial crisis within the project is so much that the project manager faces difficulty in managing the project effectively. In order to manage such situation, the project manager undertakes collection of various types of data as well as documents that are associated with the project for making proper decisions that will be helpful in resolving the issues and challenges. However, after analysis, the decision that is made is successful for the organization.
The main reason behind the success of the decision is proper analysis on the financial aspect of the project by ensuring that the budget of the project is utilized properly. It further assist in providing proper logical decisions which not only resolves the problem of project construction nut also mitigates the problems and issues that are associated with financial crisis.
Principle based decision making
According to Savery (2015), principle-based decision making is used widely that generally relies on the principles as well as beliefs of ethics. It is found that unlike the procedure of decision making, the principles which are generally utilized are considered to be unethical. This two-step procedure generally initiated with the selection as well as communication of principles that is mainly utilized with proper applications of principles. As per the reference, it is found that such types of principles are mainly in decision making process which generally help the organization properly with the changes over time.
Example: It is found that in a multinational organization, a project that deals with the development of ERP system is undertaken. It is analyzed that the technical engineer who is associated with the project identifies a bug within the project and they generally reveal it to the project team so that the issues and challenges can be easily resolved (Hoffmann, Montori, and Del Mar 2014). However, as the project team engaged in removing that bug from the project that further extends the timeline of the project as well as cost that is associated with the project. On the other hand, it is analyzed that revealing the information related with the ERP system, the problem or disaster that would have occurred is avoided successfully.
The main reason behind the success of the decision is that, the technical manager utilizes the method of principle decision making and concludes to reveal the challenges and issues that are associated with the bug in order to avoid any major disaster within the organization. The decision that is taken is considered to be successful as it generally avoids a disaster.
Process of improving the people contribution to project management
The contribution of people within project management can be improved by undertaking steps that are listed below:
Understanding the end goal: As a project has a defined deadline thus it is quite important that each of the staffs who are generally contributing within the project have proper understanding as well as knowledge about the desired end result. This is considered to be very much important for the team members of the project (Joslin and Muller 2015). By proper understanding the desired or achieved results, they can be able to make proper decisions that generally will be helpful in reducing confusion as well as rework.
Identification of clear roles: Each of the person must know their responsibilities as well as roles. It is found that it is quite necessary to have proper clarification about the roles and responsibilities of the project team member so that they can be able to understand their contribution with the project and can make proper decisions within the project for achieving success.
Collaboration: It is identified to be essential to understand the role as well as well as responsibilities for properly collaborating with the team members of the project. It is considered to be imperative for the success of the project and also helps in increasing the involvement of people within the project for achieving success (Todorovic et al. 2014).
Recognizing interdependencies: The most important aspect of improving the contribution of people within the project is to understand the links and interdependencies of the project (Sanchez 2015). If all the interdependencies as well as links of the project are understood then it generally can enhance the contribution of the people within the project. Recognizing and working with the project interdependencies is necessary for making proper decision within the project.
Communicating: Proper communication within the project team members not only increases collaboration within team members but also the contribution of the project employees within the project also increases. It is found that with the help of communication, the work that are associated with the project can be completed quite effectively within short period of time.
Categorizing the work of the project: The work of the project is broken down into number of sub categories so that the work of the project can be managed quite effectively. Breaking the tasks into number of sub tasks are quite beneficial for tracking the project and for staying on track much more easily (Kaiser, El Arbi and Ahlemann 2015).
Conclusion
It can be concluded that both individual as well as group decision making procedure is important for the success of the project. It is found that individual decision-making assists in making logical as well as prompt decision making within the project. On the other hand, group decision making process also helps in providing greater number of alternatives for resolving the problems and issues that are associated with the project. The paper also illustrates number of decisions making strategies for evaluating the success as well as failures of decision-making approaches with the help of proper case study. Moreover, the paper also provides steps for improving the contribution of people within the project.
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