Question

CASE STUDY – THE RELUCTANT PROJECT TEAM
JJ Okocha started a new job 6 months ago. His new position was project manager. At first,
he had starts in his eyes about becoming the best project manager that his company had ever
seen. Now he is not sure if project management is worth the effort. He made an appointment
to see Phil Davies the director of project management.
JJ Okocha: “Phil I am a little unhappy with the way things are going. I just cannot seem to
motivate my project team. Every day at 4:30pm all my people clean off their desks and go
home. I have had people walk out of late afternoon team meetings because they were afraid
that they would miss their car pool. I have to schedule morning team meetings now.”
Phil Davies: “Look, JJ. You are going to have to realize that in a project environment people
think that they come first and that the project comes second. This is the way of life in our
organization.”
JJ Okocha: “I have continually asked my team to come to me if they have problems. I find
that people do not think that they need help and therefore do not want it. I just cannot get
them to communicate more”.
Phil Davies: “The average age of our employees is about 46. Most of our people have been
here for twenty years. They are set in their ways. You are the first person that we have hired
in the past 3 years. Some of our people may just resent seeing a 35-year-old project
manager.”
JJ Okocha: “I discovered a guy in the accounting department who has an excellent head
on his shoulders. He is very interested in project management. I asked his boss if he would
release him for a position in project management, and his boss just laughed at me, saying
something to the effect that as long as that guys is doing a good job for him, he will never be
released for an assignment elsewhere in the company. His boss seems more worried about
his personal empire than he does than what is in the best interest of the project or company.”
“We had a test scheduled for last week. The client’s top management was planning on flying
in for first hand observations. Two of my core project team members said that they had
programmed vacation days coming, and that they would not change under any conditions.
One guy was going fishing and the other was planning to spend a few days working with
fatherless children in our community. Surely, they could change their plans for the test.”
Phil Davies: “Many of our people have social responsibilities and outside interests. We
encourage social responsibilities and only hope that the outside interests do not interfere with
their jobs.”

“There is one thing you should understand about our people. With an average age of 46 many
of them are at the top of their pay grades and have no place to go. They must look elsewhere
for interests. These are the people you have to work with and motivate. Perhaps you should
do some reading on human behaviour and how to motivate project teams.”

What should Phil Davies do in his position as Director of Project Management? (30
marks)

Answer 1

Answer

✓ after analysing the above case, it can be understood that JJ is in a serious issues with the project team members and is not able to motivate them. This is because of the reluctant behaviour of the members and wrongful encouragement of such behaviour by the director Phil Davies. The members, though are senior in age to the project manager, but are responsible to listen and support him with what is expected from them.

Phil Davies need to bring major changes in the workplace culture and policies. He need to prioritise the work/project activities and need to guide the members for their efforts. Phil must support and help project manager by changing the workplace policies regarding the leaves, holidays, social responsibility, and also about assigning the employees to a particular activity whenever required irrespective of the department he is serving. He needs to conduct meeting or conference with the team members to make them understand how important their contribution is for the firm and how their reluctance can impact and halt the project progress.

He needs to use warning and some stricter actions to stop behaviours and acts that compromises the project work and need to have proper schedule of work and a more clear communication system. He needs to tell the members, they can take leaves and serve the community when they get done with their portion of work. And must be instructed to listen and support the project manager.