Regency Project Is That There Does Not

¶ … Regency Project is that there does not appear to be a coherent termination method. At best, this project is abandoned, because it has lost its leader and champion. Financing is starting to dry up for the project, but overall the project is still ongoing and there is no real sense that it will ever be completed. Over time, without adequate leadership or funding, the project will simply wither its way out of existence.

There are several motivation issues for employees that have been assigned to a project that is earmarked for termination. The first is that the assignment is almost an insult. The employee feels that their contribution to the company is not valued because they have been assigned to a project that is to be terminated. Their talents and skills are simply not being utilized and the result is that they do not feel any motivation, because they feel already that they are being punished.

The second issue is that the employee sees that even if they do good work, the project is really not being subject to a lot of evaluation and scrutiny. The problems with the project are bigger than themselves, so when managers look at the project they are unlikely to give much consideration to the people working on the project. Thus, doing a good job is bound to go unnoticed, so there is no real motivation to do a good job. Further, there is the issue of intrinsic motivation.

Employees like to feel as though they are contributing to something important. A small contribution to a major project is better than a major contribution to a meaningless project. This need for achievement and actualization is something that cannot truly be fulfilled when working on a project that is doomed to failure.

Thus, this form of motivation is entirely missing and the result is that the employee is unlikely to put in a good effort, and may resent being assigned to this project in the first place because it is seen as punishment. 3. There is the suspicion that Shapiro is keeping the project alive because it was his idea. Therefore, there is an element of personal prestige attached to this project, and if the project is stopped then that will affect negatively the personal prestige that Shapiro feels and enjoys.

This could simply be an ego thing, or it could be that Shapiro's ongoing status or his rise within the company is in part tied to the project. If that is the case, and the project fails, that invalidates a lot of the reason why Shapiro was promoted in the first place. Whatever the reason, there is the strong suspicion that keeping the project alive is more in Shapiro's best interests than the best interests of anybody else within the organization. II.

I agree with the first part, but not the second part. The first part argues that team members are unlikely to want to contribute to this project because it is seen as a dead end. This is true. The project has not enjoyed any particular success and with reduced funding and a lack of direction it definitely has the feel of a project that is a waste of time.

This removes all sense of intrinsic motivation that workers feel, and they might also feel that it removes extrinsic motivation as well. This is because their efforts are likely to go unnoticed -- there is no career prestige or upward mobility that will come from this project. I disagree with the second part, because it contradicts the facts of the case.

The case states that Shapiro has been VP for over a year, thus he is not a new VP and the status of the project cannot be expected to change materially at present. If his promotion was going to raise the stature of this project, that would already be evident, yet the new budget shows a reduction in funding, directly refuting the idea that Shapiro is going to drive this project forward. III. I would argue that this is good news.

I believe in the maxim of not throwing good money after bad, and that applies to my own career as well. Just because I have been working on the project does not mean that I want to see it through. I feel that if the project is going nowhere, it is better to cancel it and get everybody working on more productive things right away. I cannot rebut this.