PROJECT TEAMS AND LEADERSHIP (BUSI 3613)

CASE STUDY

Project Manager's Juggler Act during Project Spade

A story of Jeena juggling between Responsibilities and Commitment to Manage Crosscultural and Cross-generational Teams

Spade Project Case Study

Jeena  parked  her  car  in  the  driveway  and  walked  towards  the  home.  She unlocked  it,  saw  some  mail  in  the  postbox.  Saw  a  letter  from  the  higher commission of Pakistan, curiously opened it and smiled. This is something her brain was suggesting that she would receive some type of acknowledgement. She took a shower and sat in a rocking chair to enjoy hot coffee. She sips and had again glance at the letter on the table, her brain said, “it is time to review the chain of events on the Spade project and strategize her next venture”.

Spade Project was the name of high-tech security system project developed in collaboration  by  Pakistan  Higher  Authority  and  U.S.  Department  of  Defense (DoD).  This  project  was  funded  and  approved   by  Federal  Government  of Pakistan,  Islamabad.  Jeena,  being  the  project  manager,  led  the  team  of  25 professional hardware and 20 software engineers.

Jeena was born in a Christian family in Pakistan, but her family migrated to United States when she was only 9 years old. Turning 18, she joined the U.S Air Force and used the education stipend to complete her dual (electrical and mechanical engineering) degree program. She joined the Delta Corporation (DC), a huge defense company with over $40 billion (about $120 per person in the US) annual sales and a workforce of 1500 professionals. It was a wing of the U.S Department of Defense after graduation and worked on several projects. After a few years of experience on multiple projects, she moved to the management and persuaded MBA, specializing in project management. Money was the key motivator behind her decision to become a project manager because she felt confident that she was good at it. After working on couple of the projects, she got an opportunity disguised in challenge when she was offered by DC to lead a project – Spade and was grouped with 45 professionals (20 hardware experts from DC and 5 from Pakistan, while 15 software engineers from DC and 5 from Pakistan). Among those, there were some she knew since her internship days while some she will meet for the first time (especially professionals from Pakistan) when she officially consents to lead the Project Spade. She got this opportunity because she was always ahead of schedule and on completion time. She was a single mother but was proud of her professional growth and financial stability to send her only son to state university for medicines.

She was often watching news regularly and the situation of suicide bombing and extremist  groups  under  the  wing  of  Pakistan  Taliban  were  operating  in  the Northern part of Pakistan, KPK having shoulder border with Afghanistan. She always thought about it that being from minority in Pakistan, how it would have been if she was still in Pakistan? However, she did not know that fate would take her again to the land of her birth.

DC under the contract with DoD informed her that there is a strategic collaboration between DoD and Pakistan High Commission, and in different phases she would be  required  frequent  travel  Pakistan  for  this  project.  Delta  Corporation  was renowned for sending employees worldwide on international projects. Their key business  areas  were   Defense  and  Security  Mechanism,   Information  and Technology  Services,  and  Electronic  Systems.  Delta  Corporation  saw  the strategic collaboration as an opportunity to grow as a major player in the market because of its political affiliations and technical expertise. Spade was one such project that was to design, develop and install a security system for government of Pakistan, at the heart of war against terror.

Jeena was overwhelmed with the excitement, but her concerns were rational before even she started the project Spade. A few of the concerns were leaving her son behind while she was travelling back and forth. Multiplied with anxiety of going to a land that was highly unsecured for people, she followed the news of the kidnaping and murdering of a Jewish (minority) journalist (Daniel Peal). She somehow managed to deal with those issued but her stress became evident with growing professional concerns.

Dealing with the project team members, having practical field knowledge but cultural differences and English as second language may pose communication challenges. These were concerns of a personal nature. The other type of concern was technical inherent risks in the project. Theoretically, design fundamentals were  realistic,  and  Delta  has  a  100%  success  rate,  reflecting  strong  proven technology. The residual risks were often covered from corner to corner by Risk Analysis Wing (ARW). However, the technology was never applied in the field of Defense and Security Mechanism across the national boundaries. Hence, this was the first of its own kind of project. Jeena knew from professional experience that real world applications and simulations (lab preparations) are entirely different things. She knew there would be times that would test her temperament and the patience and determination of her cross-cultural team. Later, this turned out to be true.

The involvement of her team was also a grave concern. Like a grid, team was split in various ways, such as having local and foreigner team members, having hardware  and  software  engineers.  Their  approaches  and  set  of  skills  were different thus while dealing with problems, they had a natural distinct approach. Moreover, there were new interns and seniors, reflecting the generational gap among members and sub-teams. With the passage of time many differences became visible. Interestingly, hardware engineers on both end, U.S and Pakistan were all former military personnel with strong patriotism, deep religious beliefs, and conservative family values, reflecting collectivism stance in work patterns.

These mature members were mostly calm and focused on their tasks. On the other hand, electrical engineers were civilians with a more secular stance, modern lifestyles, and individualistic nature. These individuals were single, noisy, and carefree  in  their  manners.  Former  army  personnel  were   more  into  world economic, political changes, playing chess, physical activities, daily exercises, and impact of globalization whereas young personnel were more about music, smart gadgets, movies, play stations, playing online games, efficiency cars, and watching Tik Toks.

There was also a feeling of resentment among hardware employees in the U.S side because of no raise in the salary package for them while electrical engineers got premium hike and facilities. On the other hand, In Pakistan, the electrical engineers were not happy due to little raise while hardware engineers were given all  privileges  and  good  salary  packages.  Though,  it  was  not  Jeena’s  direct concern, but a protest and demotivating behavior of electrical engineers were affecting the project. However, Jeena clarified to demotivate employees on east and west coast that they will make more money from the incentives of finishing the project on time. At least, she was successful in ensuring that team members were meeting the deadlines and achieving the milestones in a timely manner.

Jeena did one thing right from the start that she kept meeting her team (in-person as well as on Zoom) to ensure they are on the same page. She arranged different team-building activities and distributed roles and responsibilities among members so there is no overlap and no interference in one another’s domain. Jeena always carried portfolios and boxes. She had a clear project plan. She hired a long-term regional soccer coach to develop a high-performance team that would also help in finding ways to deal with cross-cultural and cross-generational issues. After a few interactive sessions, Jeena saw more team coordination and sense of unity among team members. It helped her in carrying out the project and the entire team stood together united to complete the project in a timely manner and were ready to overcome the technical challenges. Teams and sub-teams work together to accomplish project goals.

Project  followed  total  quality  management  technique  (TQM),  reflecting  on checking the project on different stages and ensuring rigorous tests are done before proceeding to the next stage. Though it is time-consuming there is no compromise over the quality, especially when money and reputation are at stake. From initial designing to verification of total system performance, everything was checked.   The   key   milestones   were   accomplished   through   testing   each development within the project. The curiosity among members was visible in each stage and often displayed a range of emotions from disappointment (due to minor technical glitches) to joy (due to resolving the issues through collaboration and coordination).  The team worked tirelessly to make up for the time lost and had to make a lot of compromises regarding their family and personal time. Jeena also had to go through the same. She was away from her son during travels and long working hours to ensure she stayed with her team in their thick and thin times.

The second test was done on schedule, and this time the team was prepared for errors. Unfortunately, the system failed to function properly. It took almost a month to fix the  reoccurring  issue.  The  agitation  was  very visible  among the team members, despite being trained for such situations. There was also the strain feeling as west coast team (U.S) blaming the east coast team (Pakistan) for their laziness. Jeena was in Pakistan working closely with the team.  In the fifth week, the system performed functionality to perfection. This was the first time there was a celebration among members and the workspace became a talent show. Team members  from  different  age  bracket  showed  their  dance  move  while  team members joining on Zoom (from Pakistan) were eagerly playing drums on table. Jeena was still in Pakistan, happy for her team but was missing her son terribly. She knew there are compromises she had to make but she was smiling and happy to see the younger teammates teaching use of smart gadgets to old members while  somewhere  another  young  employee  was  listening  and  enjoying  the conversation among two oldies about geo-politics in Europe.

Jeena received a call from her son’s college about the decline in his grades. This was another issue that Jeena had to go through alone. She could not let her personal life problems affect  her adversely. She  must find a way to balance personal and professional commitments. Despite those issues, she started her day with status meetings, giving guidance to those seeking and reviewing their performance. The objectives were clearly set for teams, and they were given general guidelines to achieve those new objectives. Despite some whispers she firmly believed and continued with the meetings as she thought they would help in the direction of positive attitude building and reminding the team members about their final goal. Like a jugular, she had to juggle between personal and professional responsibilities. However, she ensured that she never missed out on the meetings. She stood her team and encouraged them. There were times that her  team  was  going  through  personal  tragedies  (such  as  a  member  from Pakistan’s electrical team lost his younger brother in a tragic bomb blast). Jeena ensured she was there for her all-team members to pass through their difficult phases.

Jeena, despite having deep internal fears about the last testing stages, remains calm and composed. The clock was ticking, and her team was racing against time. In the final test, the system launched. Her heartbeat was faster, and she was not sure if it would be a success. The young member pressed the button and the system worked. There were joys and celebrations again. From west to east coast team members were chanting “Jeena Jeena – together we did it”.

In the present, looking at the appreciation letter, she was happy. However, the son’s grade was worrisome, but she thought it was time to sleep. She will deal with it. As she turned off the light to retire to the bed, a text message popped up on screen, it reads, “Project Club has stuck, we need you to take over from the current project manager”.

Questions:

i.         On the scale of 1-to-10 (1-extremely poor and  10-outstanding) rates the effectiveness  of  Jeena  as  a  project  manager?  Justify  your  rating  by providing references from the case at hand.

ii.        What were  some of the prominent challenges Jeena had to face while working with  the  diverse  cross-cultural  and  cross-generational  group? Discuss the types of conflicts and her approaches. (Provide in-text citation to define the concepts of conflict).

iii.       Jeena tackled distinct risks and issues during the project. Name some of them  and  discuss  how  it  could  have  had  an  adverse  impact  on  the completion of the project?

iv.       Do you think that Jeena did right to ensure team building and even going out-of-the-way to help and support her team members, despite hearing whispers and criticism about her daily meetings.

v.        Do  you  think  Jeena  was  more  of  a  people-oriented  or  task-oriented manager? She compromised on her son’s grading to accomplish the task. If you were in her place, what would you have done differently?

Brief Description

This case focuses on understanding the project manager’s approach while  managing cross-cultural and cross-generational teams coupled with personal responsibilities,

Read the following case study. Provide a summary of the case and use examples from the case to:

•    Discuss the ways in which various decision making can impact the success of a project.

•   Suggest alternative ways/approaches that might have led to better project outcomes.

•    Highlight the leadership style. that were utilized in the case. Give examples specifically from the case.

•    Identify instances in which soft/people skills were utilized. How effective were these?

Case Study

Haque, A. U. (2024). Project Manager's Juggler Act during Project Spade. © Yorkville University.

Submission Instructions

Submission should be a maximum of 3 pages double-spaced (excluding title page and reference page) and should follow APA referencing style.

All submissions should be done through Turnitin with a similarity level no greater than 15%.

Late Submission Policy

•   This assignment is subject to the Late Submission penalty policy, namely 5% per day for three days.

•   This page will close and will not allow further submissions after this Late Submission period has expired.

•    In the event of an emergency situation that prevents you from submitting within this time frame, special permission must be obtained from your instructor. Documentation substantiating emergency is required. In such a circumstance, if the extension is granted, the Professor will reopen the submission function for you on an individual basis.

•    Please do not email your submissions to your Professor, either before or after the due date; all coursework should be submitted through Turnitin in the online course (Brightspace).

Evaluation and Feedback

Unit Case Study 3 will be marked in its entirety out of 100. The following rubric indicates the criteria students are to adhere to, and their relative weights to the assignment overall.

Grades and/or feedback will be made available to students no later than one week after submission.