Reluctant Workers Scenario Overview -- Tim Recently

Reluctant Workers

Scenario Overview -- Tim recently changed jobs to work for a company as a project manager. While he was initially excited about the opportunity, he is unsure now and made an appointment to talk with Phil Davies, the Direct of Project Management.Tim expressed his concerns about motivating his team, and cited several examples showing that work was not their top priority. Davies tried to help Tim understand that the average age in Project Management was 46, most were set in their ways, and many might resent Tim's relatively young age (30) and lack of experience.

It is clear that Tim has a problem within his department, and with his management style in relation to the employee base. We can use a base of three important skills lacking at present: Team-Building, Leadership, and Support Building.

Leadership -- Being a leader and being a manager are two different skills. Although sometimes they are used to mean the same thing, in essence the leader is a stratgic coach and guide while a manager "manages" tactics. Tim's department needs both. To win over his department, he needs to ensure that they understand his competence, but know that he is responsible for certain actions. At present, his employees do not trust him, nor do they see any reason to change behaviors

Team-Building -- Essentially, there is no team spirit, no team goals, no team anything. Workers may be at the top of their pay-scale, and are thus no longer motivated by salary. In fact, the key issue in Tim's Deparment seems to surround the issue of motivation and a team atmosphere. This atmosphere needs to be one Tim encourages, provides opportunities, and motivational coaches the staff.

Management Support Building -- Because the team does not know or trust Tim, it is difficult for him to build support. They have become patterned in their behaviors and response to management, and are in a bit of a rut; one that is both self-sabotaging and unproductive. Tim must learn how to build support, how to find commonality, and how to express his vision for the department into a strategic and tactical plan.

Company Support- The support Tim received thus far seems to be a bit passive aggressive as opposed to helpful and dynamic. Comments from Phil do not engender a company culture that wishes to grow and change:

"Realize that in a project environment, people thing that they come first and that the project is second. This is a way of life in our organization."

"They're set in their ways… some of our pepole may just resent seeing a thirty-year-old project manager."

"Many of our people are at the top of their pay grades and have no place to go. They must look elsewhere for interests."

Recommendations- Tim's first task is to try to reinvent the department. This may take some time, and may require a great deal of extra effort at first. Tim must engender trust, but he must also lead by example, not be afraid to get his "hands dirty," and to show his team that he values them as a team, but also has the expertise to go with his title. We do not know about the demographics or psychographics of his department, but Tim must clearly be supportive of diversity and create an inclusive work enviroment -- key word being inclusive. He can do this through department meetings, group projects, working with individuals, and finding additional motivators rather than salary (e.g. concert or sporting tickets, additional time off, contests, etc.)

Leadership -- Tim's power as a leader does not need to be coercive, but more a servant leadership style in which Tim is inspiring and can lead by example. This form of leadership assumes competition and conflict, which is not negative because it brings alternative viewpoints to light that may otherwise have been left uncovered. Research findings, in fact, show that moral identity contributes to leadership acument and vice versa. The identity of the expectations of the leader's role within the organization will shape the manner in which moral and ethical paradigms can be used to make decisions (Baldoni, 2008).

Team Building -- Clearly, the organization has allowed the Project Management department to become very individualized. This might be accomplished through out of the box thinking; team projects rather than individual work -- cross-functional teams, process teams, TQM teams. Team bonuses could be made available based on team performance, product launches, or performance; individual performance or department performance could be measured based on exceeding standards, feedback, and goals. Additionally, if performance on teams is part of overall work evaluation, it will be seen as specific standards that are required for the job. Each team member could be expected to be an expert within their field, as well as develop some clear knowledge of the macro-process, making them more valuable to the company. This could even be as simple as dividing up the group into a Red and Blue team and have fun competitions, etc. (Dyer, 2007).