{"id":6736,"date":"2021-10-10T16:36:45","date_gmt":"2021-10-10T16:36:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/assignmenttutors.net\/blog\/read-the-case-study-communication-failures-starting-on-page-329-and\/"},"modified":"2021-10-10T16:36:45","modified_gmt":"2021-10-10T16:36:45","slug":"read-the-case-study-communication-failures-starting-on-page-329-and","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/assignmenttutors.net\/blog\/read-the-case-study-communication-failures-starting-on-page-329-and\/","title":{"rendered":"Read the case study “communication failures” starting on page 329 and"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Budget: $5<\/p>\n

Due date: 9:00PM 03\/24\/2018 PST<\/p>\n

—-CASE STUDY—<\/p>\n

COMMUNICATION FAILURES1<\/p>\n

Herb had been with the company for more than eight years and had worked<\/p>\n

on various R&D and product enhancement projects for external clients. He<\/p>\n

had a Ph.D. in engineering and had developed a reputation as a subject matter expert. Because<\/p>\n

of his specialized skills, he worked by himself most of the time and interfaced with the various<\/p>\n

project teams only during project team meetings. All of that was about to change.<\/p>\n

Herb\u2019s company had just won a two-year contract from one of its best customers. The<\/p>\n

first year of the contract would be R&D and the second year would be manufacturing. The<\/p>\n

company made the decision that the best person qualified to be the project manager was Herb<\/p>\n

because of his knowledge of R&D and manufacturing. Unfortunately, Herb had never taken<\/p>\n

any courses in project management, and because of his limited involvement with previous<\/p>\n

project teams, there were risks in assigning him as the project manager. But management<\/p>\n

believed he could do the job.<\/p>\n

Herb\u2019s team consisted of fourteen people, most of whom would be full<\/p>\n

time for at least the first year of the project. The four people that Herb<\/p>\n

would be interfacing with on a daily basis were Alice, Bob, Betty, and Frank.<\/p>\n

\u25cf Alice was a seasoned veteran who worked with Herb in R&D. Alice had been with<\/p>\n

the company longer than Herb and would coordinate the efforts of the R&D personnel.<\/p>\n

\u25cf Bob also had been with the company longer that Herb and had spent his career in<\/p>\n

engineering. Bob would coordinate the engineering efforts and drafting.<\/p>\n

\u25cf Betty was relatively new to the company. She would be responsible for all reports,<\/p>\n

records management, and procurements.<\/p>\n

\u25cf Frank, a five-year employee with the company, was a manufacturing engineer.<\/p>\n

Unlike Alice, Bob, and Betty, Frank would be part time on the project until it was<\/p>\n

time to prepare the manufacturing plans.<\/p>\n

For the first two months of the program, work seemed to be progressing as planned.<\/p>\n

Everyone understood their role on the project and there were no critical issues.<\/p>\n

Herb held weekly teams meetings every Friday from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately the next team meeting would fall on Friday the 13th, and<\/p>\n

that bothered Herb because he was somewhat superstitious. He was considering canceling the<\/p>\n

team meeting just for that week but decided against it.<\/p>\n

At 9:00 a.m., on Friday the 13th, Herb met with his project sponsor as he always did in the<\/p>\n

past. Two days before, Herb casually talked to his sponsor in the hallway and the sponsor told Herb<\/p>\n

that on Friday the sponsor would like to discuss the cash flow projections for the next six months<\/p>\n

and have a discussion on ways to reduce some of the expenditures. The sponsor had seen some<\/p>\n

expenditures that bothered him. As soon as Herb entered the sponsor\u2019s office, the sponsor said:<\/p>\n

It looks like you have no report with you. I specifically recall asking you for a report on the cash<\/p>\n

flow projections.<\/p>\n

Herb was somewhat displeased over this. Herb specifically recalled that this was to be a<\/p>\n

discussion only and no report was requested. But Herb knew that \u201crank has its privileges\u201d and<\/p>\n

questioning the sponsor\u2019s communication skills would be wrong. Obviously, this was not a<\/p>\n

good start to Friday the 13th.<\/p>\n

At 10:00 a.m., Alice came into Herb\u2019s office and he could see from the expression on her<\/p>\n

face that she was somewhat distraught. Alice then spoke:<\/p>\n

Herb, last Monday I told you that the company was considering me for promotion and the<\/p>\n

announcements would be made this morning. Well, I did not get promoted. How come you<\/p>\n

never wrote a letter of recommendation for me?<\/p>\n

Herb remembered the conversation vividly. Alice did say that she was being considered for<\/p>\n

promotion but never asked him to write a letter of recommendation. Did Alice expect Herb to<\/p>\n

read between the lines and try to figure out what she really meant?<\/p>\n

Herb expressed his sincere apologies for what happened. Unfortunately, this did not make<\/p>\n

Alice feel any better as she stormed out of Herb\u2019s office. Obviously, Herb\u2019s day was getting<\/p>\n

worse and it was Friday the 13th.<\/p>\n

330 MANAGEMENT FUNCTIONS<\/p>\n

The Team Is Formed<\/p>\n

Friday the 13th<\/p>\n

No sooner had Alice exited the doorway to Herb\u2019s office when Bob entered. Herb could<\/p>\n

tell that Bob had a problem. Bob then stated:<\/p>\n

In one of our team meetings last month, you stated that you had personally contacted some of my<\/p>\n

engineering technicians and told them to perform this week\u2019s tests at 70\u00b0F, 90\u00b0F and 110\u00b0F. You<\/p>\n

and I know that the specifications called for testing at 60\u00b0F, 80\u00b0F and 100\u00b0F. That\u2019s the way it was<\/p>\n

always done and you were asking them to perform the tests at different intervals than the specifications<\/p>\n

called for.<\/p>\n

Well, it seems that the engineering technicians forgot the conversation you had with them and<\/p>\n

did the tests according to the specification criteria. I assumed that you had followed up your conversation<\/p>\n

with them with a memo, but that was not the case. It seems that they forgot.<\/p>\n

When dealing with my engineering technicians, the standard rule is, \u201cif it\u2019s not in writing, then<\/p>\n

it hasn\u2019t been said.\u201d From now on, I would recommend that you let me provide the direction to my<\/p>\n

engineering technicians. My responsibility is engineering and all requests of my engineering personnel<\/p>\n

should go through me.<\/p>\n

Yes, Friday the 13th had become a very bad day for Herb. What else could go wrong, Herb<\/p>\n

thought? It was now 11:30 a.m. and almost time for lunch. Herb was considering locking his<\/p>\n

office door so that nobody could find him and then disconnecting his phone. But in walked<\/p>\n

Betty and Frank, and once again he could tell by the expressions on their faces that they had a<\/p>\n

problem. Frank spoke first:<\/p>\n

I just received confirmation from procurement that they purchased certain materials which<\/p>\n

we will need when we begin manufacturing. We are a year away from beginning manufacturing<\/p>\n

and, if the final design changes in the slightest, we will be stuck with costly raw<\/p>\n

materials that cannot be used. Also, my manufacturing budget did not have the cash flow<\/p>\n

for early procurement. I should be involved in all procurement decisions involving manufacturing.<\/p>\n

I might have been able to get it cheaper that Betty did. So, how was this decision<\/p>\n

made without me?<\/p>\n

Before Herb could say anything, Betty spoke up:<\/p>\n

Last month, Herb, you asked me to look into the cost of procuring these materials. I found a<\/p>\n

great price at one of the vendors and made the decision to purchase them. I thought that this was<\/p>\n

what you wanted me to do. This is how we did it in the last company I worked for.<\/p>\n

Herb then remarked:<\/p>\n

I just wanted you to determine what the cost would be, not to make the final procurement decision,<\/p>\n

which is not your responsibility.<\/p>\n

Friday the 13th was becoming possibly the worst day in Herb\u2019s life. Herb decided not to<\/p>\n

take any further chances. As soon as Betty and Frank left, Herb immediately sent out e-mails<\/p>\n

to all of the team members canceling the team meeting scheduled for 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. that<\/p>\n

afternoon.<\/p>\n

Case Studies 331<\/p>\n

————-<\/p>\n

QUESTIONS<\/p>\n

1. How important are communication skills in project management?<\/p>\n

2. Was Herb the right person to be assigned as the project manager?<\/p>\n

3. There were communications issues with Alice, Bob, Betty, and Frank. For each<\/p>\n

communication issue, where was the breakdown in communications: encoding,<\/p>\n

decoding, feedback, and so on?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Budget: $5 Due date: 9:00PM 03\/24\/2018 PST —-CASE STUDY— COMMUNICATION FAILURES1 Herb had been with the company for more than eight years and had worked on various R&D and product enhancement projects for external clients. He had a Ph.D. in engineering and had developed a reputation as a subject matter expert. Because of his specialized […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-homework-help"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/assignmenttutors.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/assignmenttutors.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/assignmenttutors.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/assignmenttutors.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/assignmenttutors.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/assignmenttutors.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6736\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/assignmenttutors.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/assignmenttutors.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/assignmenttutors.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}