Project management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Project management - Essay Example External groups, Individuals, Clients, Contractors, Funding Partners, Consultants, Employees and Work Force, and other government / regulatory organizations can be identified as stakeholders in a project, (Bourne, 2010). Further, categorizing the stakeholders according to the degree or level of impact they can put on a project activity or can get impacted by it. This knowledge of stakeholders assists in evaluating how the various interests of stakeholders should be addressed and managed in an efficient manner. 1.1. Role of Stakeholder Management The role of stakeholder management is to create utility for the project manager in order to get acquainted with all the participants / stakeholders of the project and their respective interests, create an equilibrium between the inputs / contribution and the incentive given by and to the stakeholder, set up an unbiased basis for effectively managing individual stakeholder requirements, decide the participation level of each stakeholder during the planning and execution part of the project, promoting stakeholder interests in the project through effective communication strategy and offering rewards to shareholders. Stakeholder analysis can be carried out at the commencement of the project or at regular intervals during the execution to track the changes in the attitudes of project stakeholders as the project advances, (Patrick, 2008). 1.2 Significance The significance of Stakeholder management lies in the need to make clear the consequences of predicted modifications, potential risks, and opportunities that face the project. Stakeholder management is also vital since it helps to identify the risks and planning for strategies to reduce the effects of risks on the project, (Deming, 1982). 1.3 Stakeholder Categories Stakeholders can be easily classified into four different categories depending upon their potential to collaborate or threaten the project execution or results. 1. Supportive stakeholders are those who do not wis h to threaten the project proceedings and desire to support the project goals and objectives. These types of supportive stakeholders may include the suppliers, funding organizations, company management and consultants. 2. Marginal Stakeholders are those who are neither extremely menacing nor helpful, even though they possess a large stake in the project and can affect the decisions, but are not in general concerned. These may consist of environmentalist groups, and media. 3. Non Supportive Stakeholders are those that have an elevated potential to influence the project in a threatening manner but are short on the potential for cooperation and are the most worrying source of concern for the project manager. These may include the labor unions, governmental organizations, and at times the media. 4. The  mixed stakeholders possess an equal potential to assist or threaten the project and usually consist of clients, end users of the project, (Rowley, 1997). 1.4 Efficient management of St akeholder management Lastly, in order to effectively manage stakeholders within a project environment, it is

Critically discuss the following statement with reference to the Best Essay

Critically discuss the following statement with reference to the Best Practice and Best Fit approaches to strategic Human Re - Essay Example What makes some organisations prosper while others fail? Is applying the ‘best practices’ more successful than applying the ‘best fit’ approach to strategic HRM. These are questions that need to be addressed for a firm to develop the right strategy to drive it to success. According to Boxall and Purcell (2000, p. 193), ‘there are various principles and processes of good labour management but the methods firm adopt to reach their performance goals are affected by societal, sectoral, and organisational factors.’ This is a statement that needs to be explored further bearing in mind the importance attached to SHRM by firms as a means of achieving effectiveness and thus will be the subject of this research. To explore this issue further, the paper will first define the concepts used since various definitions affect the results of any research. Concepts such as strategy, strategic management, HR strategy and business strategy need to be understood for better evaluation of the different approaches involved. It will then discuss the ‘best fit’ and ‘best practice’ approaches to strategic human resource management (SHRM), their strengths as well as weaknesses. Though both approaches have been known to work for organisations, it should be argued that the ‘best practice’ approach is the most suitable in achieving organisational success. Besides the two approaches, the resource-based view of the firm is also worthy noting since it can solve the problems of ‘best fit’ and ‘best practice’ approaches. Definitions The strategic human resource management is derived from two concepts: strategy and HRM. Strategy is defined by Armstrong (2006, p. 113 cited in Johnstone and Scholes, 1993) as ‘the direction and scope of an organisation over longer time which matches its resources to its changing environment and in particular, to its markets, customers and clients to meet shar eholder expectations.’ The strategy is developed by managers to give the firm purpose and direction and as such, for strategy to be developed the firm has to have specific goals it wants to pursue and indicated in its vision and mission statement. It is essential in informing the stakeholders where the company is heading so that all their behaviours can be directed in the same direction. There are various levels of strategy: corporate, business and HR strategy. The corporate strategy is designed to direct the whole organisation whether local or global. It is developed at the top level of the corporation. Business strategy on the other hand, it designed for specific business units to achieve competitive advantage (Armstrong, 2006). HR strategies are aimed at ensuring the employees perform according to expected standards for organisational success, and these will be the concern for this paper. It is a pattern of strategic choices in labour management (Boxall and Purcell, 2000, p. 184). Human resource management is defined by Boxall and Purcell (2000, p. 184) as ‘anything and everything associated with management of employment relations in the firm’. They acknowledge the use of various management styles in contemporary workplaces depending on organisation context and the leadership in place. HRM concept has evolved over time from traditional personnel management to the now popular international SHRM and thus has been the object of debate in social sciences and academics. Theorists have come up with various methods of