OPS 370 Project Management Assignment Sample

Subject Code : OPS-370
University : University of Wollongong My Assignment Services is not sponsored or endorsed by this college or university.
Subject Name : Project Management 3

Individual Research Report

Contents

(1) Locate the journal article titled ‘The Project Workplace for Organizational Learning Development’ by Sense, A. J. in the International Journal of Project Management. In your opinion, what is this article primarily discussing?

(2) Describe how you consider this article’s content does or does not align with or build on your textbook content.

(3) Source at least 3 (but no more than 6) other journal articles that discuss a similar or related topic/s. Outline what each of those articles are saying and then compare and contrast all of them (including the supplied article) and articulate a summary set of issues concerning the topic identified in your research

(4) Using your summary set of issues identify and discuss what you consider to be any potential impacts/implications on or for Practitioners in the project management field

References

The above mentioned article is basically narrating about how the traditional approach of project management function can be challenged by absorbing some new type of thoughts and how project activities can improve themselves from short term goal based activities driven by exact mode of action and parallel other operational actions towards a new domain of greater learning and ability development which will eventually insert broader scale of large benefit for the company. The traditional approach was restrictive in nature while in this article we can see project management in a much more liberal role.

Here each and every project has been viewed as a scope for organizational learning covering three broad perspectives namely Cognitive- where the basic learning pattern is the enquiry for knowledge impartment irrespective of any specific targeted outcome, next is Behavioral- here the learning is targeted towards attaining some specific alterations in the operational actions of the organization and finally Sociological- where the entire process of knowledge gathering and similar other actions are nothing but an outcome of individual interaction with other members of the society both at personal and organizational level.

Based on these findings projects are now viewed to be acting as on job training centers. Each and every project presents a very vibrant and self motivated space for learning new things, projects ensure proper participation from each participating members involved in such project, helps to promote a highly interactive environment for discussing, questioning and resolving new issues at regular intervals and also offers an open mental space to search for new issues to address. So the article clearly mentions the role of a project as a very useful platform for both personal and organizational learning mechanisms. Such learning prospects from projects will always lead to better input in terms of organizational innovations and uplifting of individual competence.

(2) Describe how you consider this article’s content does or does not align with or build on your textbook content.

The content of the article is in perfect sync with the build on my textbook content because both these mediums- my text book and this article are focusing the most important aspect of project management- the human aspect. The traditional approach to project management always had more focus on the non human factors of managing a project like the processes, planning etc but as per the new approach to project management as is mentioned in both cases the prime emphasis is not on such aspects like process or planning but on the most important element that would be controlling and managing such process and planning towards the successful completion of a project, which is the human element. How an organization functions in response to a particular project as per their organizational culture and what are the priority factors which drives the organizational project management function is very important. It is to examine, analyze and infer that whether the organization is more process oriented or whether the organization is more inclined towards the manpower aspect of the organizational employees, will ultimately shape the fate of the project.

Projects are the main point of action for any organization. It is based on successful completion of such projects that an organization can actually aim for achieving the various organizational goals and strive towards success. The article states correctly that in the current scenario of cut throat competition every organization is looking for innovative ways of managing their projects that will give them an edge over their competitors in the long run. Flexibility of action has been given prime importance in today’s context, the project should be managed as per the need of the hour and there should not be a blind following of traditional approaches of project management just for the sake of following it. The knowledge and learning from each project would actually add up to the overall knowledge base of the organization as a whole.

Kerzner, Harold. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons, 2017.

This article narrated the change of organizational attitude towards project management with advent of time. It explained how project management has gained importance as one of the most prime business functions and how the success or failure of a project influences the various other functions of the organization as well. It has shown that how the management of each and every organization are adopting project management as an important mean for achieving their organizational goals.

Meredith, Jack R., Samuel J. Mantel Jr, and Scott M. Shafer. Project management: a managerial approach. John Wiley & Sons, 2017.

This article states the gradual development in the domain of project management from the organizational point of view. How fast project management has acquired prominence over the last few decades has also been discussed here. The examples in this article showed that the success rate of project completions adopting traditional methods are yielding better results compared to the modern and unconventional ways of project management. Mainly because project management in most cases is still seen as a mid tier activity hence its success depends on lot of other factors like management decisions of project designing or project execution etc, over which they have little or no control.

Heagney, Joseph. Fundamentals of project management. Amacom, 2016.

This article discussed on factors like culture, talent and process all together to ensure the success of any project. Those companies where project management actions are controlled by these aspects have accomplished outputs which are two and half times better for booming project achievement. They said organizations following the fundamentals of project management would always get better outcome. Such healthy practices would also help to develop a pool of talented project managers who would prove to be very useful for driving future projects and would become the most valuable assets of the organization.

All the above mentioned 3 articles and the supplied article showed the ever increasing importance of project management in the modern framework of business organizations and in comparison they all had a common point of giving more importance to the people driving a project than the process of driving the project however the second article stated that conventional methods of project management has given better results compared to unconventional methods which is in contrast with the main theme of the remaining 3 articles.

The summary set of issues concerning the topic identified in my article is as follows:

Importance of project management in achieving overall organizational goals
More emphasis on successful use of human resources to ensure the success of the project
Project management acts as a learning platform for the organization and for the involved employees as well.
Project management is no more a short term goal oriented matter rather it is a continuous process of organizational development
The modern approach to project management is more innovative and better result oriented compared to the traditional approach.

(4) Using your summary set of issues identify and discuss what you consider to be any potential impacts/implications on or for Practitioners in the project management field

Referring to the summary set of issues mentioned above let us discuss about the following identified potential factors that would impact the current field of project management:

Shifting from a process oriented project management approach to a more human relation oriented project management approach. More importance is being given to WHO is driving the project rather than how the project is being driven. Previously there would have been hardly any take away from the short term projects but at present the learning gathered from each project adds on to the overall knowledge base of the organization. Taking into account the current hard-hitting competitive market the established traditions of project management has been replaced by recent inventive ways and more varied advances of project management. Rather than an insignificant function it is now treated as one of the most integrated functions for achieving the business goals of an organization.

References

Heagney, Joseph. Fundamentals of project management. Amacom, 2016.

Kerzner, Harold. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons, 2017.

Meredith, Jack R., Samuel J. Mantel Jr, and Scott M. Shafer. Project management: a managerial approach. John Wiley & Sons, 2017.

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