The EPD division of Allentown Materials Corporation has serious problems in cross-functional conflict and coordination. These issues hurt the division’s performance on new product development, service, morale, and decision making. Part of the reason for these issues could be due to declining market conditions and poor divisional performance but there seems to be fundamental organization problems. EPD markets have been shifting as a result of decline in military spending by government. The result has been increasing sales in the computer, telecommunications, and consumer electronics markets, which required rapid development of product extensions at competitive prices and good service and not unique technological advantage in the product. Inability to Marketing to forecast and develop accurate estimate created more uncertainty. Even though EPD operates in an uncertain environment, yet in terms of management and organization, it is similar to Allentown that participates in much of more certain and stable OEM businesses where Allentown had technological advantage and capital requirements have prevented serious competition. The division has differences between functions in structure, goals, time horizons and personal orientations of people. Market planning as a function has been eliminated due to cost cutting, and Product Development is working on projects similar to those of corporate R&D. There is greater need of coordination but there are no processes in place for coordination other than organization’s hierarchy and decision making of the Vice President. Most coordination and decision making is handled at the top in the monthly Product Development meetings , but this processes is not successful due to almost 10 – 12 new products di... ... middle of paper ... ... his subordinates and other key people. He should clarify is expectations, set a tone and direction as well as settle conflicts and inspire the division by following through. He should develop a more receptive view of conflicts and based on the situation encourage constructive conflict. As a long term … A program should be developed for identifying potential project managers and consciously developing them through cross-functional work experience and various trainings. These trainings should not only include technical marketing and product development but also on communication and group effectiveness. If there is no corporate training program in place then EPD should initiate this program within its division. There should be a change in accounting and control system, which places gross margin responsibility at the plant. Marketing department should be like GE MDO…
Interpersonal skills. Project Managers also serve as mentors to employees on how to appropriately implement Six Sigma procedures (Knapp, 2015, p. 856). The “role modeling, teaching, and coaching” performed by the project managers “helps facilitate others who are internalizing the desired values” (Knapp, 2015, p. 856). Therefore, in addition to guiding projects, project managers build the culture that is vital to the success of an organization. This additional function of a project manager emphasizes the importance of including the project manager into the hierarchy with the appropriate span of
Product managers guide new products through a complex process that includes conception, creation and commercialization (Gorchels, 2012). As this process continues, it is vital that the organization have a coherent process which it can utilize to identify products that should not continue down the development process. While there are several different processes that product managers can use to facilitate this process, this paper will focus on the stage-gate process and the critical path method.
Implementation of separate division to handle product development has disrupted the previous cohesive interaction between prior existing divisions. New product development division has taken on a life of its own, opting to market its new developments instead of passing the new products to the other divisions to handle their usual responsibilities.
Recognizing and understanding what causes conflict in the business environment during its early stages, is the key to fast resolution of the issue. There are many warning signs. Lundine (1996) highlights five early detection signs.
...e is usually planned which is derived from the change in market (i.e. products, customer needs, action of competitors).
Conflict is a difference in opinion. The leader must devise ways of dealing with conflict in the team. The focus is to promote a healthy discussion that does not lead to division in the team . The team members come from different department and thus may have differing opinion on tackling the problem. The leader should be able to reconcile the different opinions into one strategy. In such cases, the negotiation skill becomes vital (Harrison, 1971). The leader must negotiate with the team member to strike a balance on the decision. Furthermore, the decision made by the team must be presented to the management and approved. The leader must convince the management that the proposal is viable, and its implementation will be beneficial to the organisation. The ability of the leader to negotiate for resources will enhance the success of the
People work in groups or teams everyday whether in their career, education, political organization, church, or any other social setting. Conflict while working in teams or groups is inevitable. When taking people of different backgrounds, personalities, moral, and ethical beliefs and putting them together in a group, conflict will arise. The key to achieving your team goals is to construct and conquer your goals with keeping the greater good of the team in mind. Conflict as it arises should be combated and abated through swift and thorough resolution techniques. When dealt with properly conflict resolution can give rise to a cohesive and productive team.
Many people believe that in order to succeed in a business that is having difficulties, it is important to focus on a particular area in order to be better productive in each of them, and be able to reach the goal. Instead, Goldratt and Jonah demonstrates that is important to focus on the company as a whole, but at the same time, it shows that it is incorrectly to only focus in an specific manufacturing department, or one plant, or a department within the plant, because people should not be concerned in local optimums.
The successful operations of the company revolve around the undertaking of strategic responses to market dynamics and performance of their brands. The company consistently applies changes to the various systems in its production line to address not only i...
Custom Chip, Inc case describes the situation of a company where lack of coordination and cooperation among different departments is hindering them to achieve their common or ultimate goal as a single business entity. Applications engineering, product engineering and manufacturing are all inclined towards achieving their individual objectives and timelines rather than collaborating and synergizing their efforts in order to attain a common goal of effective production with improved cost reduction. Few of the primary reasons are insufficient and unorganized company policies for coordination and cooperation, poor networking with in the organization especially on management level, lack of communication and influence among managers and VPs, insufficient human resource, and measuring a department's effectiveness solely on its performance based on individual objectives, rather than checking its effects on over all company's performance.
They need experienced project managers to lead them through the process of implementing project management as they are just starting the journey towards project management maturity. It is necessary for them to outsource for a longer period of time and not just for training in order to follow the right direction on their PM implementation.
This model distinguishes six possible sources of conflict that may arise: incompatible goals, differentiation, interdependence, scarce resources, ambiguous rules, and communication problem (McShane and Von Glinow 332-333). Incompatible goals involves that “the goal of one person or department seem to interfere with another person’s or department’s goal” (McShane and Von Glinow 333). Differentiation is described as the “difference among people, departments, and other entities regarding their training, values, beliefs, and experiences” (McShane and Von Glinow 333). Interdependence “occurs where individuals operate interdependently except for reliance on a common source or authority” (McShane and Von Glinow 335). Scarce Resources are a source of conflict when several persons or units require the same recourse to fulfill their goals. Ambiguous Rules occur as a source of conflict because “uncertainty increases the risk that one party intends to interfere with the other party’s goals” (McShane and Von Glinow 335). Communication Problems are a source of conflict “due to the lack of opportunity, ability, or motivation to communicate effectively” (McShane and Von Glinow 333).
In the globalized economy, Successful project managers are in much demand across many industries. Organizations strongly need experienced project managers to lead their staff to accomplish their business goals and deliver successful projects. In an increasingly complex environment, project managers need to turn into many roles and have all kinds of responsibilities at each level of management within an organization. Good project managers are not born. They need to be trained. They develop their skills through study, practise and experience. They become better project managers after they finish a successful project each time. They learn new techniques and apply them on their projects. They learn their lessons from failed projects and then improve to be better project managers in the future.
Project management involves all activities that encompass scheduling, planning, and controlling projects. A successful project manager ensure that an organization’s resources are being used both efficiently and effectively. Most projects need to be uniquely developed require a sense of customization and the ability to adapt to any posed challenges. The scope of effective project management includes defining what the project is and what is being expected to be accomplished. Projects are imposed to fulfill a certain need and project managers must have the ability to create the proper definition. Goals and the means used to attain those goals have to be clearly stated. Project Managers must also have the ability to plan
Project managers have to improve their skills every day to deal with the organizational change and especially the world’s Megatrends. However, it can be a challenge for a project manager to comprehend what skills they should be improved, what sections of project management knowledge that should be tried to perceive, and how to measure and enhance their performance.