Week 5 Checkpoint
1. Livingston made some mistakes initially. Describe at least two of them and provide how you would handle the situations.
Livingston did make a critical mistake initially of choosing the project manager from a different department. So that was one of the mistakes that he had made. With choosing a project manager, from a different department Livingston is looking at possible resentment arising from of all functional departments. Although Livingston’s did make the right move of appointing a project manager to help in improved cost and control management, however, it did not necessarily go about appointing the project manager in the right manner and may face resentment. Another problem that Livingston had was communication problems, the company will also have to deal with having two same but separate computer systems running simultaneously. This double work can lead to miscommunication between sections of the company and may create more problems obtaining government contracts in the short run. The EDP manager did however identify that this would be a problem early on and having two systems could not be helped
2. How do you think the functional employees feel? Support how you might feel if you were in their position by citing points from the case study?
As I stated in the earlier question functional employees may feel resentment to the new project manager for the hiring of outside the normal department. The functional employees may also feel that the modified matrix structure Livingston is adopting is not going to do well do to a crucial task of the company’s future is not being assigned with the project management team. This is a big problem because the new matrix structure is still being developed and may not necessarily survive as of yet.
3. Are there any other alternatives? Explain at least three alternatives.
One alternative Livingston’s could have done to help this whole transition process would have been to pick a project manager from within the
Livingston did make a critical mistake initially of choosing the project manager from a different department. So that was one of the mistakes that he had made. With choosing a project manager, from a different department Livingston is looking at possible resentment arising from of all functional departments. Although Livingston’s did make the right move of appointing a project manager to help in improved cost and control management, however, it did not necessarily go about appointing the project manager in the right manner and may face resentment. Another problem that Livingston had was communication problems, the company will also have to deal with having two same but separate computer systems running simultaneously. This double work can lead to miscommunication between sections of the company and may create more problems obtaining government contracts in the short run. The EDP manager did however identify that this would be a problem early on and having two systems could not be helped
2. How do you think the functional employees feel? Support how you might feel if you were in their position by citing points from the case study?
As I stated in the earlier question functional employees may feel resentment to the new project manager for the hiring of outside the normal department. The functional employees may also feel that the modified matrix structure Livingston is adopting is not going to do well do to a crucial task of the company’s future is not being assigned with the project management team. This is a big problem because the new matrix structure is still being developed and may not necessarily survive as of yet.
3. Are there any other alternatives? Explain at least three alternatives.
One alternative Livingston’s could have done to help this whole transition process would have been to pick a project manager from within the