Instructions For this assignment, read the case study, “Heublein: Planning a Project Management and Control System” starting on page 222 of your textbook. Once you have read and reviewed the case scen

Running head: CASE STUDY: ACORN INDUSTRIES

Case Study: Acorn Industries

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Looking at the historical organizational changes of Acorn industries, describe how you would organize the business now for greater effectiveness. Include a new (updated) organizational chart and explain your rationale for making these changes.

Considering the previous changes that occurred at the Acorn industries related to the problems experienced by the General Manager, the expansion and growth of the company between 1996 and 1997, effective interaction between functional departments, increased responsibilities of the project manager, it is necessary to bring improvement in the organization structure of the company to meet their current business needs. With the same consideration, the recommended organizational structure for Acorn Industries is as follow:

Figure 1: Acorn Industries New Proposed Structure (Self-Created)

The study recommends the above organizational structure to the company because the market competition has increased massively in recent times, and it is necessary for the company to capture maximum share to experience operational and economic stability ( Mantel & Shafer,

2018). The structure will benefit the company to offer cost-effective and innovative solutions to the customers supporting the company to develop a trusted relationship with the client to grab new projects. According to Creasy et al., (2017), the organization must provide a suitable opportunity to project manager to ensure effective communication with all the project stakeholders. It will contribute to the project team’s productivity, sharing constant knowledge and skills among the team members (Demirkesen & Ozorhon, 2017). The current structure will ensure that all the competent and technical staff members are available for a particular role to give their best for the achievements. The R&D section involved in the structure will ensure maximum innovation building by the organization to produce appropriate results (Meredith et al., 2019). The technical and marketing department leads can also offer recommendations to the project manager to ensure achieving the financial and technical outcomes of the project through this structure.

Explain the risks associated with your new organizational structure on the overall organization and the effectiveness of a project management system, including discussion around project scope and structure.

Acorn Industries has made fair changes within its business structure; however, there are still various risks present, carrying the potential to hinder its performance. The General Manager of the company must make efforts to mitigate the same hazards. The project managers’ segregation is the first risk present at the project (Demirksen & Ozorhon, 2017). All the project managers must operate independently to ensure successful project completion as per the project’s scope. The program manager needs to focus on the effective alignment between different project objectives to encourage collaboration and coordination between the project managers. Such a

gesture by the program manager will help the project managers contribute to the project’s success (Meredith et al., 2019). Another critical risk associated with Acorn Industries s the conflict between the marketing department and the program manager concerning the project scope through technical or financial outcomes (Ika et al., 2020). The general manager needs to develop and implement a suitable communication plan for the stakeholders to allow maximum coordination and minimum conflict.

Describe the Key Management Incentive Program (KMIP) and how your new organization structure would impact it. Address any challenges that might arise with the implementation of the new organizational structure.

The Key Management Incentive Program will offer financial rewards to the employees over the successful completing of their tasks making a fair contribution toward their motivation, satisfaction, and performance level. The use of Vrooms Expectancy theory in this regard will help the company to achieve the required results. Creasy, Fan, & Johnson (2017) inform that KMIP will benefit Acorn Industries to improve the organizational value rather than appropriate task completion. The KMIP will be taking profit as well as teamwork into consideration. Acorn Industries must communicate KMIP in written form. They must ensure to set a single standard criterion for all the employers. The company’s new organizational structure will also take substantial value from KMIP (Ika et al, 2020). As the financial rewards will be available to the employees based on the effective organizational performance in the market, all the employees will coordinate and collaborate effectively to complete their delegated tasks. However, Acorn Industries might experience a challenge related to the new organizational structure by which some PM might claim missing the target achievement because of resource unavailability.

(Silvius, 2017). The same reason, the program manager must prioritize activities completion as per the organizational needs and project plan. He should also communicate the effects of the activities with the project managers.

Describe how changes in organizational structure and scope might impact the overall project management process at Acorn.

The organizational structure change and scope carry the potential to contribute towards the project management efficiency. It will benefit the organization to offer expert services to the project clients. It means that the company will grab and complete more projects with the increased client base, and the same benefit will migrate towards the employees ( Creasy, Fan, & Johnson, 2017 ). The expertise of the employees will also improve due to multi-functioning contributing towards their motivation level. The employees can deliver maximum performance and productivity to the projects using the latest technologies and their improved skills. The employees’ satisfaction level will improve as they will be moving towards a suitable career path (Ika et al., 2020). It will also lessen the operational expenses of the organization to generate more profits. Overall, Acorn Industries will be able to emerge as a top-quality technical problem solver in the market.

References

Creasy, T., Y., & Johnson, N. (2017). Practitioners’ preference: which project planning components offer the most promise? International Journal of Project Organisation and Management, 9(2), 113. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijpom.2017.085290

Demirkesen, S., & Ozorhon, B. (2017). Impact of integration management on construction project management performance. International Journal of Project Management, 35(8), 1639-1654. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2017.09.008

Ika, L.A., Sōderlund, J., Munro, L.T., & Landoni, P. (2020). Cross-learning project management and international development: Analysis and research agenda. International Journal of Project Management, 38(8), 548-558. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2020.10.005

Meredith, J. R. Shafer, S.M., & Mantel, S.J. (2019). Project management a strategic managerial approach. John Wiley and Son Australia, Ltd.

Mantel, S. J., & Shafer, S. M. (2018). Project management: a managerial approach. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Silvius, G. (2017). Sustainability as a new school of thought in project management. Journal of Cleaner Production, 166, 1479-1493. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.08.121