PM0013 – Managing Human Resources in Projects / Assignment Set- 1

Q.1. Write short notes on

a. Matrix Organizational chart
Ans: Superimposing a group or interdisciplinary team of project specialists, such as scientific and
engineering personnel, on a functional organizational design. In a matrix organization members
have dual allegiance, to a particular assignment or project and to their organizational
department.
An advantage to the matrix structure lies in the efficient use
of resources because of ease of access. This structure also
demonstrates efficient communication both vertically and
horizontally. Because of this, once the projects have ended,
the team members are likely to receive a job elsewhere in
the organization.A disadvantage of the matrix structure is
complexity, which can be difficult to manage. For example,
if the functional manager and the project manager do not
communicate well, the team members can be caught in the
middle, causing confusion.

Q.1.b. Hierarchical Organizational chart

Ans: In a hierarchical organisation employees are ranked at various levels within the
organisation, each level is one above the other. At each stage in the chain, one person has a
number of workers directly under them, within their span of control. A tall hierarchical
organisation has many levels and a flat hierarchical organisation will only have a few. The chain
of command (i.e. the way authority is organized) is a typical pyramid shape.

Above: A traditional hierarchy, senior managers make up the board of directors and are
responsible for establishing strategy and overall business direction, whilst middle managers have
responsibility for a specific function such as finance or marketing.
A traditional hierarchical structure clearly defines each employee’s role within the organisation
and defines the nature of their relationship with other employees. Hierarchical organisations are
often tall with narrow spans of control, which gets wider as we move down the structure. They
are often centralised with the most important decisions being taken by senior management.

In the twentieth century as organisations grow bigger, hierarchical organisations were popular
because they could ensure command and control of the organisation. However with the advent of
globalisation and widespread use of technology, in the 1990’s tall hierarchical organisations
began to downsize and reduce their workforce. Technology was able to carry out many of the
functions previously carried out by humans.

Q.1.c. Horizontal Organizational chart

Ans: The definition of a company organizational structure refers to how people and processes are
managed. Vertical structures the decision making at the top. Horizontal structures have more of
a team approach.
– Building a Team: In vertical organizations, where power
comes from the top, work can become very fragmented
and communication is lost. Building a team that is
empowered to solve problems and make decisions is
part of the horizontal organizational structure.
– Designing the Process: Getting the work done is critical.
A horizontal structure provides employees with the
tools and skills needed. Cross function (from
department to department) communication and
creative thinking is encouraged.

– Evaluating Results: Evaluating results of a horizontal structure is important. Questions need to

be answered such as how the work is getting done, are the teams working well together, and
is everyone engaged.
– Increased Employee Satisfaction: Horizontal structures offer many different opportunities to
employees. Where some companies have somewhat rigid job descriptions, the horizontal
organization strives for performance improvement and new learning through the cross
functional projects.
– Continuous Improvement: Continuous improvement may be a major initiative of companies.
The horizontal structure brings many positive changes, but no structure is perfect. Reviews of
processes and procedures can identify weaknesses in the structure.

Q.2 Explain staffing management plan. Also describe Responsibility Assignment Matrix
Ans: A. Staffing Management Plan: After employing individuals to work for your company, you
must create a proper Project Management procedure that allows feedback and maximum
productivity to occur. A staffing management plan or process is ultimately a document that
explains the various human resources requirements that will be met for both staff management
and employees alike. The plan is essentially a portion of the project management plan in which
allows projects to be successful by properly managing various teams to complete tasks
effectively and efficiently. A project management plan is created to showcase specific target
goals as well as project deadlines for various tasks that your company may need to complete. A
staffing management plan can be created in two ways – whether informal and broad, or formal
and a detail, each staffing management plan is tailored to the various needs of each specific
project. The information provided within said staffing management plan is determined by the
application being completed as well as the size of the project. Thus, creating a staffing
management plan that is tailored to your business is imperative to its overall success in your
daily operations.

B. Responsibility Assignment Matrix: The act of putting together the detailed project plan that will
eventually drive the overall management of the engagement can be an arduous process. Unless
your projects are always straightforward and always the same, you can’t really just apply a
cookie cutter template to it. You have to re-invent the wheel for each project most of the time.
Time is always a critical factor because up front
planning on the project is something that the sales guy
who priced the project for the customer rarely takes
into consideration. So, as the project manager, you’re
often already behind the eight ball just as you get the
project handed to you. You have some time / effort
built into the original estimate for planning, but not as
much as you probably need. But as we all know, good
up front planning can go a long way in determining the
success of your project.

If you have the time, putting together a Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM) can be very
beneficial in ensuring that all aspects of the project and associated tasks and responsibilities are
well covered before you actually start work on the engagement. The RAM is a tool that identifies
how project participants interact with the activities of the project. The most common type of
interaction is responsibility for completing an activity. But consider other situations, such as
these: a technical expert who must be consulted on several activities, management approvals
that are required before initiating an activity, or a client representative who must be notified
when certain activities have been completed. The RAM provides an opportunity for documenting
these types of people-project interactions. The figure above illustrates an example of a
Responsibility Assignment Matrix.

Q.3. Describe in brief the following HR theories:

a. Maslow’s theory:
Ans: In 1943, Abraham Maslow's article A Theory of Human Motivation appeared in Psychological
Review, which were further expanded upon in his book: Toward a Psychology of Being In this
article, Abraham Maslow attempted to formulate a needs-based framework of human motivation
and based upon his clinical experiences with humans, rather than prior pyschology theories of his
day from leaders in the field of psychology such as Freud and B.F. Skinner, which were largely
theoretical or based upon animal behavior. From Maslow's theory of motivation, modern leaders
and executive managers find means of employee motivation for the purposes of employee and
workforce management.

The basis of Maslow's theory of motivation is that human

beings are motivated by unsatisfied needs, and that certain
lower needs need to be satisfied before higher needs can be
addressed. Per the teachings of Abraham Maslow, there are
general needs (physiological, safety, love, and esteem) which
have to be fulfilled before a person is able to act unselfishly.
These needs were dubbed "deficiency needs." While a person
is motivated to fulfil these basal desires, they continue to
move toward growth, and eventually self-actualization. The
satisfaction of these needs is quite healthy while preventing
their gratification makes us ill or act evilly.

As a result, for adequate workplace motivation, it is important that leadership understands which
needs are active for individual employee motivation. In this regard, Abraham Maslow's model
indicates that basic, low-level needs such as physiological requirements and safety must be
satisfied before higher-level needs such as self-fulfilment are pursued. As depicted in this
hierarchical diagram, sometimes called 'Maslow's Needs Pyramid' or 'Maslow's Needs Triangle',
when a need is satisfied it no longer motivates and the next higher need takes its place.

Q.3.b. McGregor theory

Ans: Douglas McGregor’s theory of motivation or XY theory proposes that organisations follow
one of two approaches in their management of people. Below is a summary of each theory.
Theory X: This theory is also referred to as “the authoritarian management style”, as it states
that the average person needs to be coerced (even threatened with punishment), into working
towards organisational objectives.
– The average employee does not like work and will attempt to avoid it.
– As employees are lazy they do not want responsibility and have no ambition.
– Individuals prefer to be directed and want security above everything else.
– Individuals need to be closely supervised and controlled.
Theory Y: Also known as “the participative management style”, a theory Y organisation’s view of
people is the opposite of an organisation applying theory X.
– The average employee likes work, and is self-motivated.
– Employees can learn to not only accept but seek greater responsibility.
– Individuals are ambitious not lazy, and work is as natural as rest and play.
– Individuals exercise self control and self-direction to achieve objectives that they are
committed to. Threats of punishment are unnecessary.
– The rewards of achievement generate commitment from employees.
– If individuals are given freedom there is opportunity to increase productivity.
Managers applying theory Y believe that if employees are given the opportunity, they will
develop a desire to be imaginative and creative at work. They will therefore try and remove
obstacles that prevent employees from realising their potential. They believe that negative
attitudes such as avoidance of responsibility are caused by experience and are not “inherent
characteristics”. Therefore by creating the positive experiences and conditions such negatives
can be banished.

McGregor’s theory of X and Y represents two extremes, which probably aren’t applied in full by
today’s organisations. However the theory has provided the foundations for today’s management
strategy and elements of it can be seen in other management evaluations

Q.4 List and explain in brief the six phases of the business knowledge areas to be processes by a
project manager.
Ans: The business analysis body of knowledge defines 6 knowledge areas, which group together
related sets of tasks and techniques. Each of these tasks and techniques describes the typical
knowledge, skills, processes, and deliverables that the business analyst requires to be able to
perform those tasks competently.
1. Business analysis planning and monitoring: how business analysts plan the tasks and
activities for business analysis. It covers stakeholder analysis, selecting an approach to
managing issues, risks and requirements; deciding how to monitor and report on
requirements activities; and negotiating how to manage change on a project.
2. Elicitation: how business analysts work with stakeholders to help them understand their
requirements within the scope of a project. It covers eliciting requirements; brainstorming;
analysing documents; running focus groups; analysing system interfaces; interviewing;
observing; prototyping; facilitating requirements workshops; reverse engineering existing
systems; and collecting input via surveys and questionnaires.
3. Requirements management and communication: how business analysts ensure that the
project team and stakeholders stay in agreement on project scope. It covers
communicating requirements; resolving conflicts; gaining formal approval; base lining and
tracking requirements through to implementation.
4. Enterprise analysis: how business analysts take a business need: define that need; identify
gaps in current capabilities that stop that need being met; then if change is required, to
propose an approach and scope for finding a solution and building the case to justify the
work. It explores assessing business architecture; undertaking capability gap analysis;
feasibility studies; defining the solution scope; and developing a business case.
5. Requirements analysis: how business analysts work with the whole project team towards
defining a solution that should meet the agreed requirements. It covers documenting and
analysing business, stakeholder, functional, and non-functional (quality of service)
requirements; modelling the business domain using process diagrams, flowcharts, data
models; exploring behaviour models using use case, user experience design, storyboards,
wireframes, user profiles and user stories; and finally verifying and validating
requirements.
6. Solution assessment and validation: how business analysts assess proposed solutions to
help the stakeholders select the solution which best fits their requirements, and once
selected how the business should prove that the solution meets those requirements and
ultimately whether the project has met its objectives. It covers evaluating alternate
solutions, quality assurance processes, support through implementation, and post-
implementation reviews.
Q.5. Write short notes on the following knowledge areas:
a. Time management
Ans: Time management is the act or process of exercising conscious control over the amount of
time spent on specific activities, especially to increase efficiency or productivity. Time
management may be aided by a range of skills, tools, and techniques used to manage time when
accomplishing specific tasks, projects and goals. This set encompasses a wide scope of activities,
and these include planning, allocating, setting goals, delegation, analysis of time spent,
monitoring, organizing, scheduling, and prioritizing. Initially, time management referred to just
business or work activities, but eventually the term broadened to include personal activities as
well. A time management system is a designed combination of processes, tools, techniques, and
methods. Usually time management is a necessity in any project development as it determines
the project completion time and scope.

Q.5.b. Human resource management

Ans: Human Resource Management (HRM) is the function within an organization that focuses on
recruitment of, management of, and providing direction for the people who work in the
organization. Human Resource Management can also be performed by line managers. Human
Resource Management is the organizational function that deals with issues related to people
such as compensation, hiring, performance management, organization development, safety,
wellness, benefits, employee motivation, communication, administration, and training.

Human Resource Management is also a strategic and comprehensive approach to managing

people and the workplace culture and environment. Effective HRM enables employees to
contribute effectively and productively to the overall company direction and the accomplishment
of the organization's goals and objectives.

Q.5.c. risk management

Ans: Risk Management is the name given to a logical and systematic method of identifying,
analysing, treating and monitoring the risks involved in any activity or process. It is a
methodology that helps managers make best use of their available resources. Risk management
encompasses three processes: risk assessment, risk mitigation, and evaluation and assessment.

Minimizing negative impact on an organization and need for sound basis in decision making are
the fundamental reasons organizations implement a risk management process for their IT
systems. Effective risk management must be totally integrated into the SDLC.

Step 1: Risk assessment: Risk assessment is the first process in the risk management
methodology. Organizations use risk assessment to determine the extent of the potential threat
and the risk associated with an IT system throughout its SDLC. The output of this process helps
to identify appropriate controls for reducing or eliminating risk during the risk mitigation process.

Step 2: Threat Identification: A threat is the potential for a particular threat-source to successfully
exercise a particular vulnerability. Vulnerability is a weakness that can be accidentally triggered
or intentionally exploited. A threat-source does not present a risk when there is no vulnerability
that can be exercised. In determining the likelihood of a threat, one must consider threat-
sources, potential vulnerabilities, and existing controls.

Step 3:

Q.6 Explain effect of an individual’s behaviour in work environment

Ans: Every company asks how they can make lazy employees into hard workers. Once in awhile
there are workers that just seem to be getting lazy. It is generally found that the employees were
not lazy when they were hired on, but have become so with the passing of time. To know how to
make lazy employees into hard workers, a company must understand why the employees have
become lazy. One can’t motivate employees but can only remove the barriers to motivation.
People motivate themselves. The more de-motivator we remove, the less lazy employees
become barriers to motivation are the following- a. Misalignment of values, b. Lack of respect for
employees, c. Poor boss-employee relationship, d. Lack of employee self–actualization.

It’s an established fact that there are many differences between the work environment, attitude,
perspective etc of a public sector and private sector employees and both can’t be handled with
the same stick and hence it’s necessary first of all to take into account the differences and then
only we can discuss about the measures to be taken for motivating the employees.

The study by Eleni T. Stavrou, Christakis Charalambous and Stelios Spiliotis utilizes an innovative
research methodology (Kohonen’s Self-Organizing Maps (SOMs), Neural Network Analysis) to
explore the connection between human resource management as a source of competitive
advantage and perceived organizational performance in the European Union’s private and public
sectors. While practices in these two sectors did not differ significantly, three diverse but
overlapping HRM models did emerge, each of which involved a different set of EU member
states. Training & Development practices were strongly related to performance in all three
models and Communication practices in two. These results show the usefulness of an innovative
technique when applied to research so far conducted through traditional methodologies, and
brings to the surface questions about the universal applicability of the widely accepted
relationship between superior HRM and superior business performance.

According to the empirical research finding, high-intensity internal marketing generates positive
impact upon employee involvement and low-intensity internal marketing results in negative
impact upon employee involvement; the effect of sentiment relationship upon employee
involvement is prominent and positive; employees with personality traits of internal control
reveal higher level of involvement than those with external control.

A. Learning and forgetting phenomena: A learning curve could be defined as a graph that
reflects the fact that as workers repeat their jobs, they improve performance. The idea of
the learning curve is that improvement occurs because workers learn how to do a job
better as they produce more and more units. Nevertheless, it is generally accepted that
other related factors such as job redesign, work and time analysis, and worker motivation
also improve performance overtime.
B. Skill improvement and deterioration curves: Generalizing the concept of learning and
forgetting phenomena, the following relationship can be established between the amount
of time a worker performs a particular operation and his (her) skill improvement. Once a
worker is assigned to a workstation, his (her) skill improves as he (she) performs the same
operation for an extended period of time.
C. Motivation (boredom recovery) and boredom curves: The importance of emotions in the
workplace is being growingly recognized (Ashkanasy et al., 2002). However, the study of
boredom at work is still a neglected issue as pointed out by Fisher (1993) more than a
decade ago (Game, 2007). Boredom at work is a common complaint among employees. It
is defined as an undesirable transient state in which individuals feel an extreme lack of
interest in their current activity (Fisher, 1993). Boredom has been criticized for employee’s
absenteeism, accidents, performance variation, and lack of job satisfaction.

Q.6 List & explain the 3 major issues related to delegation which need close scrutiny.
Ans: To reduce the risk a manager should select the tasks to be delegated carefully and select
the right people to do them. You should be very careful when delegating tasks that have already
been delegated - to you. The person delegating the task has already reduced their direct control
and may be very reluctant to reduce it further. When delegating, tasks that should be considered
first include: routine tasks where progress is measurable, tasks that can be planned clearly well
in advance and tasks that one of your team has expressed a genuine interest in taking on. Don't
delegate only unpleasant tasks. In order to bring out the best in your subordinates you should
offer them a mix of tasks. Conversely, don't keep all the unpleasant tasks for yourself. It is
important not to hold back all the jobs that you personally dislike, considering it unfair to give
these to others. Make sure that you set aside sufficient time to actually specify delegated tasks
and go through them with the relevant members of staff. Ensure that tasks are not delegated at
the last minute, each member of staff have their own responsibilities into which they must find
the time for the delegated work. Work delegated at the last minute may not be done properly, if
at all. Tasks can be viewed as easy to delegate, difficult to delegate, high risk to delegate or low
risk to delegate.

Difficult Easy
Low • Do not rush, set aside the time • Can enrich people’s roles
Risk needed • Balance ‘boring’ & ‘interesting’
• Make sure it is a good investment • Encourage them to ‘pull’ advice from
of time (i.e pay back in the long you rather than ‘pushing’ advice onto
term) them
• Encourage questions to promote • Recognise efforts
understanding
High • Don’t delegate • Choose ‘delegatee’ carefully
Risk • Build rapport and trust
• Build in check-points
• Offer experience and guidance
• Advise what Critical Success
Factors and warning flags to look
for
• Operate an ‘open door’ policy
Delegation Matrix
As a general guide you could choose to delegate those items that are easy to delegate and are of
low risk, and to keep those items that are difficult to delegate and are of high risk.

When delegating, remember to:

○ Delegate the outcome, not the process
○ Recognise that different people will achieve things via different routes
○ Recognise what you need to feel comfortable in the delegation process, and making
sure to meet that in some way so that it is a 'winwin' situation
○ Anticipate what might go wrong, and ask enough questions in the 'delegation
discussion' to allow you both to put in contingency plans
 ○ Summarise clearly what was agreed and to put this in writing if appropriate
○ Clearly communicate the importance of the task, the reason it needs doing and why
they have been chosen to do it
Do delegate:
○ The authority to do the task
○ The responsibility to get the task completed
○ The outcome that you want to see
Do not delegate:
○ The process by which the task should be achieved
○ The accountability (if it all goes wrong the buck stops with the ‘delegator’ not with the
‘delagatee’)
In the case of high risk tasks:
○ Offer your experience for recommended steps or processes
○ Only impose processes if they are regulatory or recognised procedures
○ Encourage them to ask for information and advice from you rather than you pushing
unwanted advice onto them
○ Make sure that what you think you communicated to them is actually what was heard.
Always manage expectations at the outset during the ‘delegation discussion’:
• Precise timescales for completion of the task including:
○ Date
○ Time (including time zone if appropriate)
• Agreed ‘checkpoints’ that accommodate both working styles
○ A micro manager may need to compromise by agreeing on check points a little less
frequently than s/he would like if working with someone who prefers a more hands-off
approach, and vice versa
○ What do you expect to see at the checkpoint meetings?
○ Should they prepare outputs or just be prepared to talk about progress?
○ How long will the checkpoint meetings last?
• Explain the ‘conditions’ that would meet the satisfactory outcome of the delegation.
○ How precisely do you need to define the outcome?
○ What would not meet the needs of the delegation?
○ What would over meet the needs and so potentially be a waste of effort or even
counter productive?
○ What would be just right?
○ Which sources of information have to be consulted?
○ If they get stuck or come across a problem or aren’t able to fulfil their obligation what
action should they take?