Project Management

Susan Steele and John wood are both employees of Cerberus Corporation, both in management positions. Susan Steele has been appointed by Tom stern, a facilities manager, to lead a project aimed at transforming the office look, by replacing the old furniture with the new corporate furniture.  As a project manager, Susan Steele has encountered a conflict with one of the unit planning managers, Jon Wood. As the Photographic Chemical Division (PCD) unit planning manager, Jon finds himself in a fixed corner. He has been given a go ahead by the general manager to move his unit from where it was located, to a more convenient location. The PCD unit is experiencing financial difficulties and a fierce competition, forcing it to opt for price cuttings.

As a project implementation tool, Susan had appointed a team of four individuals which comprises of a site safety or ergonomics engineer, a space planner, a move coordinator and an accounting liaison for facilities. The team had agreed unanimously on their first meeting, to replace the old furniture with the new one. Kari, The accounting liaison for facilities overseer, insisted that the cost of any replacement should be catered for by the affected individual unit, but not by the facility, collectively.

This finds Jon and Susan in a disagreement over furniture transfer. Jon insists that he cannot spend a total sum of two thousand dollars on new filling cabinets, just because the grey top of the old ones is not matching. Susan insists that she cannot go against the corporation policy, she declines authorizing the transfer of old furniture. The case ends with a persisting state of antagonism.

Susan has a point for not abiding to the Jon’s decision to move with the old cabinets to the new location. On the other hand, Jon is an experienced manager, with a vast knowledge on what goes around in the corporation, mostly in his unit. In this case, it appears that Susan did not inform all the unit managers on the new policies regarding the furniture change. As a project manager, she needs to uphold better communication skills and involve unit heads in decision making. In this case, team work is not well practiced in the Cerberus corporation, worst still, the two members of staff happen to meet for the very first time during this crisis. With a case of such magnitude, Susan will require to convene an urgent meeting, which will include all unit heads and include her team as well as the facilities manager, Tom Stern. In the meeting, the issue will be discussed in details, and better conclusions will be arrived at.

To avoid such an occurrence, Steele would have communicated the introduction of the new policies with all unit managers before going ahead to implement them. In Cerberus organization, there appear to be communication breakdown between departments. This makes policy implementation hard because the affected parties are not well informed on the new corporation moves. At first, Steele ought to have consulted the unit heads and include them in the very first meeting so as to reach at a common conclusion. This way, such a conflict would have been avoided.

In Cerberus corporation, it appears like decisions are made single handed without consultations. Tom Stern appoints Steele, who is not well experienced, to head the project without consulting the general manager. The new project implementation team makes decision without consulting the unit managers, this leads to a hitter debate which ends up in a conflict. Regular meetings are also not held in this corporation, two managers of related departments happen to meet during crisis, making the consensus impossible.  The corporation needs to revise its communication channel between departments and uphold team building activities to make it easier for project implementation heads, and avoid future conflicts.