Organizational Context
On request of the manager of the Project Management Office I shall review Telstra Corporation’s approach towards project team leadership. The implications of leadership in the completion of a project and the direction of a team are huge (National Research Council, 2015). Therefore, the proper prerequisites that make a good leader have to be analyzed rationally. Moreover, there should be certain objective parameters that shall help one distinguish a good leader from one who is not. Therefore, the following project shall aim at analyzing the leadership requirements for a team in Testra Corporation keeping in mind the organizational objectives and the scope of growth and development. In the following section the specific context of the review shall be elaborated upon and the existing literature in the topic shall be reviewed upon in order to arrive at suitable recommendations that shall solve the project team leadership issues in the corporation.
The project is related to the review of a project of the project team leadership. The organization on which the whole of the study has been focused can be said to be an Australian based Telecommunication company. The name of the company is Telstra Corporation. A project has been taken up by the company in order to develop their existing telecommunication machineries and apparatus. The company and the marketing team has proposed the building up of high facility towers in order to introduce new and developed spectrum in the telecommunication facilities and pave way for the initiation of 5G services in the telecommunication line. Due to all these things, teams have been formed. This assignment shall mainly deal with covering aspects of leadership related to these team who are working for bringing this new kind of development. This report is related to the specific area or kind of project in the organization. The project teams shall be structured with members consisting of 10 highly skilled and knowledgeable individuals. Staffs in the company having a minimum of 2 years’ experience shall only be chosen for this special kind of project. The issues and problems that shall be encountered is selection of the right kind of staffs for this special kind of project and imparting them with the accurate kind of training which shall help them in succeeding with their roles.
The design and structuring of project teams, including selection of team members and ensuring appropriate competencies:
Leadership: Theory and Practice by P.G. Northouse
One of the most seminal texts on leadership in the present business context in the world the relevance of this book in the current project lies in the fact that it bridges the gap between popular and very general conceptions of leadership and more nuanced and specialized academic notions. This book, to being with, shall first provide a wide and expansive view of leadership and the various approaches towards it. Moreover, it treats the concept in the organizational context very comprehensively highlighting both the theoretical and practical aspects of it (Kerzner and Kerzner, 2017). Therefore, it shall provide a solid groundwork from which to base our future understanding of the leadership requirements in Telstra. However, the book offers a very general understanding of the idea of leadership and can help us little in getting a more specific knowledge in context of the organization. Therefore, for a beginning, this book shall give one an introductory insight into the process of team leadership.
Leadership: A Communicative Perspective by G.T. Fairhurst and S.L. Counnaghton
This book offers a slightly different perspective towards the problem of inculcating and developing leadership qualities. The approach towards leadership in the book in more suited for team and offers a wide range of approaches in developing team leadership which shall help in the successful completion of a project. Its difference from other books lies in the fact that it essentially conceives of leadership as a communicative phenomenon rather than situation where one member dominates over others in a team. This leads to the cultivation of a pluralistic functioning where all members in the team can contribute according to their talents and abilities and thus contribute towards better performance. In the context of Telstra Corporation, I think that a communicative type of leadership shall be the most relevant for the achievement of the organizational goals. Developing the communication between the team members shall expose their strengths and weaknesses and therefore, let the management decide whether they are suitable for the work of that specific team (Walker, 2015). Therefore, this book shall provide one with the sufficient knowledge for the building of teams according to the professional requirements.
Literature Review
Leadership Team Coaching: Developing Collective Transformational Leadership by P. Hawkins
Unlike the other two books mentioned above, this one focuses on the training of team members in order to develop leadership. Also, it views the objective of leadership to be transformational in nature. Therefore, the aim of leadership would be to bring about changes in the current process that would increase the performance and the productivity of the team. This encompasses the collective development of all the team members and thereby, the subsequent development of leadership (Levi, 2015).
Creating a collaborative and productive project team environment:
Creating and maintaining high?performing collaborative research teams: the importance of diversity and interpersonal skills by Kendra S Cheruvelil, Patricia A Soranno, Kathleen C Weathers, Paul C Hanson, Simon J Goring, Christopher T Filstrup and Emily K Read:
This journal directs the manner in which teams can be effectively created in a kind of competitive working culture of an organization. This is peer reviewed journal which describes the need of collaborative research teams and the ensuring of diversity in the workforce and presence of accurate interpersonal skills. Greater emphasis has to be given on the teamwork training in order to inculcate a positive working spirit among the team members and making them more and more productive. This shall help in making the environment suitable for the working of the team on the bias of united and communal terms. The concept of individualism has to be effectively taken up in a collective form in order to make function different kind of diverse team members coming from different backgrounds.
Figure 1: The fundamentals of establishing a high collaborative and productive project team environment
(Source: Lee and Bozeman, 2015)
However, the book does not give an accurate guidance to how this kind of united approach can be taken up or initiate between diverse kind of team members. It is implied that the leader applying this thing has to learn the things from his own experience and by working with various team members.
Reinventing Project-Based Learning: Your Field Guide to Real-World Projects by Suzie Boss and Jane Krauss:
This book acts a field guide into suggesting numerous ways regarding how a project has to be started and what kind of things are essential in order to take up a project. The fact related to designing and creating of productive team members has been mentioned in this book and the whole idea has been projected from a real life project work aspect. It can be said that this book has directed the ways how the team members have to be selected and trained so that a homogenous kind of working environment and relationship can be established between them and how these all things shall help in ensuring minimal disputed and a smooth and hassle free team working environment (Resta and Laferrière, 2017). It also describes how the mind has to be set up for the setting up of the teams and how the tasks can be easily being achieved in a competitive kind of working environment. The book still does not guide the reader into creative ways by which major disputes can be cleared off in a team based working environment. This can be said to be the major weakness of the argument presented by it.
Recommendations for Telstra Corporation
Creating Effective Collaborative Learning Groups in an Online Environment by Jane Brindley, Lisa Marie Blaschke and Christine Walti:
This article is a peer reviewed article and it pays a heed into how the teams can be made more interactive and what kind of steps can be followed to make the communication better between all of the team members. It can be said that effective kind of communication between the collaborative team members can help in elevating the productivity of the team members and the environment can be made better by it (Boud and Sampson, 2014). It says that members have to be divided into smaller teams so that the leadership and control over the activity of the team can be made more efficient. However, the book does not show the way by which team members can be effectively divided into small teams.
Based on the books referred to in the context of the building of the teams and their leadership, certain points have to be considered. First of all, the kind of leadership that shall be necessary for the specific project shall have to be conceived of. In a telecommunication company which relies on the use of the latest technology and mechanization a proper acquaintance with the technicalities of operation of the technology is a necessary requirement. Therefore, the leader shall be chosen on the basis of technical proficiency and also in accordance with the ability to impart knowledge to others (Harper, 2015).
Now that we can assume that the leader is sufficiently proficient in his field of work in order to help others overcome their shortcomings, another prerequisite that becomes relevant in this situation is that he/she shall be a good communicator. The communication skills of the team members shall have to be put to test and a training programme shall have to be devised accordingly in order to help them overcome their barriers to effective communication (Katzenbach and Smith, 2015).
Thirdly, there has to be other characteristics in a leader that shall distinguish him/her from other members in a team. This shall include traits that are not altogether professional in nature. It is intrinsic to the personality of the leader. For example, the leader shall be more concerned with the completion of the project and the development of the organization rather than the growth of his individual career. A leader’s function is not strictly defined to a specific role. Therefore, the leader has to be willing to perform tasks that he might not have done otherwise (Börsch-Supan and Weiss, 2016).
The organization can make use of different kind of tools and techniques in order to make the teams more homogenous and efficient. It can be said that the teams have to be provided with the best kind of trainingthat shall help them contemplating about the things that need to be done and on what areas they have to put up more efforts and ensure proper development. It has to be ensured that all the shortcomings are being effectively covered up by all of the team members. Team can be effectively made and maintained by taking into consideration the diversity among the workforce and how to give equal importance to all of the working members (Lussier and Hendon, 2017). They need to be taught about how to establish and help in the initiation of the machineries and tools to lay the groundwork for the development of new spectrum in the telecommunication facilities and pave way for the initiation of 5G services in the telecommunication line in the country of Australia. The teams have to be structured as per their educational qualification and in that a collective approach in the whole world can be easily achieved. It has to be also said that the right kind of leadership also has to be imparted on the workforce in order to guide them into right kind of actions and helping them in taking the effective manner and line of decisions related to their work (Woodcock, 2017).
Conclusion
Therefore, as we can observe, the project team leadership has been successfully reviewed upon. Initially, there were certain impediments to the development of a project team leadership but however, as it can be seen, a proper framework of theoretical knowledge and practical understanding of the specific organizational needs is essential in embarking upon the project. From the above review it one can see that there are several steps in the building of the team and its leadership. The idea of leadership shall have to be impressed upon the members and their abilities evaluated. In context of the evaluation a specific approach needs to be devised that shall address the needs of the team in line with the objectives and the interests of the organization. Finally, after the team has been formed, it shall have to be sub-divided into smaller units that shall handle different tasks. These units are expected to function in close proximity and cooperation with one another.
References
Börsch-Supan, A. and Weiss, M., 2016. Productivity and age: Evidence from work teams at the assembly line. The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, 7, pp.30-42.
Boud, D. and Sampson, J., 2014. Peer learning in higher education: Learning from and with each other. Routledge.
Harper, C., 2015. Organizations: Structures, processes and outcomes. Routledge.
Katzenbach, J.R. and Smith, D.K., 2015. The wisdom of teams: Creating the high-performance organization. Harvard Business Review Press.
Kerzner, H. and Kerzner, H.R., 2017. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Lee, S. and Bozeman, B., 2015. The impact of research collaboration on scientific productivity. Social studies of science, 35(5), pp.673-702.
Levi, D., 2015. Group dynamics for teams. Sage Publications.
Lussier, R.N. and Hendon, J.R., 2017. Human resource management: Functions, applications, and skill development. Sage publications.
National Research Council, 2015. Enhancing the effectiveness of team science. National Academies Press.
Resta, P. and Laferrière, T., 2017. Technology in support of collaborative learning. Educational Psychology Review, 19(1), pp.65-83.
Walker, A., 2015. Project management in construction. John Wiley & Sons.
Woodcock, M., 2017. Team development manual. Routledge.
Börsch-Supan, A. and Weiss, M., 2016. Productivity and age: Evidence from work teams at the assembly line. The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, 7, pp.30-42.
Boss, S. and Kraus, J., 2018. Reinventing Project-Based Learning. [online] Google Books. Available at: <https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=raapCgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR13&dq=Creating+a+collaborative+and+productive+project+team+environment+peer+reviewed&ots=5psdgYsVJD&sig=8ll9FprCALJiSiRsWOzHfJXEVJY#v=onepage&q&f=false> [Accessed 25 Aug. 2018].
Brindley, J., Marie Blaschke, L. and Walti, C., 2018. Creating Effective Collaborative Learning Groups in an Online Environment. [online] irrodl.org. Available at: <https://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/675> [Accessed 25 Aug. 2018].
Cheruvelil, K., Soranno, P., Weathers, K., Hanson, P., Goring, S., Filstrup, C. and Read, E., 2014. Creating and maintaining high-performing collaborative research teams: the importance of diversity and interpersonal skills. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 12(1), pp.31-38.
Boud, D. and Sampson, J., 2014. Peer learning in higher education: Learning from and with each other. Routledge.
Fairhurst, G. and Connaughton, S., 2018. Leadership: A communicative perspective – Gail T Fairhurst, Stacey L Connaughton, 2014. [online] Journals.sagepub.com. Available at: <https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1742715013509396> [Accessed 25 Aug. 2018].
Harper, C., 2015. Organizations: Structures, processes and outcomes. Routledge.
Hawkins, P., 2018. Leadership Team Coaching. [online] Google Books. Available at: <https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=3IkpDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=Leadership+Team+Coaching:+Developing+Collective+Transformational+Leadership+by+P.+Hawkins&ots=vd3kGXwrSH&sig=K6SUNcvcF2bvUTSnFBs1fPbhMME#v=onepage&q=Leadership%20Team%20Coaching%3A%20Developing%20Collective%20Transformational%20Leadership%20by%20P.%20Hawkins&f=false> [Accessed 25 Aug. 2018].
Katzenbach, J.R. and Smith, D.K., 2015. The wisdom of teams: Creating the high-performance organization. Harvard Business Review Press.
Kerzner, H. and Kerzner, H.R., 2017. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Lee, S. and Bozeman, B., 2015. The impact of research collaboration on scientific productivity. Social studies of science, 35(5), pp.673-702.
Levi, D., 2015. Group dynamics for teams. Sage Publications.
Lussier, R.N. and Hendon, J.R., 2017. Human resource management: Functions, applications, and skill development. Sage publications.
National Research Council, 2015. Enhancing the effectiveness of team science. National Academies Press.
Northouse, P., 2018. [online] Available at: <https://www.researchgate.net/publication/31692065_Leadership_theory_and_practice_PG_Northouse> [Accessed 25 Aug. 2018].
Resta, P. and Laferrière, T., 2017. Technology in support of collaborative learning. Educational Psychology Review, 19(1), pp.65-83.
Walker, A., 2015. Project management in construction. John Wiley & Sons.
Woodcock, M., 2017. Team development manual. Routledge
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