Assignment:
A project manager working for an aerospace company in San Diego is placed in charge of a major project in her company, ranked number 10 on the list of 125 prioritized projects. Her team members are mostly junior-level professionals with little experience working in project management and also in working on their own without close supervision. This presents a problem for her because the bulk of the project work is to be conducted by this team, which is a virtual team operating in three locations in the United States, one location in Europe, and one location in Asia. She has limited funding for a face-to-face meeting with all of the team members and will need to rely on conference calls and emails for most communications among the team. The company does not have a standard project management methodology but is considering establishing an enterprise project management office.
While she has managed projects before, the project manager?s teams were staffed with more senior professionals, many of whom were PMPs, each with a history of self-directed performance, and the teams were co-located, so it was easy to meet regularly and discuss issues of concern.
"For this new project, she makes the false assumption that her laissez-faire management style, which was successful in the past, will still be appropriate. She believes she can leave much of the direction up to the team.
However, as the project evolves, problems surface because the laissez-faire approach is not working. The team members often have conflicts that she must resolve, and team members are often unsure about how to proceed effectively to do their assigned work. Some are not even certain what they are supposed to be doing on this project. These problems stemmed from a need for greater monitoring and structure for this team, their junior-level status, and the challenges associated with working in a virtual environment.
Consider the following questions:
