Principles of Management: DCQ50212 Topic 1

Introduction to Management: DCQ50212 Topic 1

• This topic aims to provide an understanding of these core concepts: the principles of management, organizational structure and management processes, and construction project stage planning.

Principles of Management

• Management encompasses planning, organizing, and controlling operations related to people, materials, machines, methods, money, and markets.
• Management involves providing direction, coordination, and leadership.
• The goal of project management is to achieve set objectives.

Management Process

• The steps of the management process are:
  • Planning
  • Organizing
  • Staffing
  • Directing
  • Controlling

Planning

• Planning is the primary function of management that determines a course of action for achieving desired results and goals.
• Planning starts the management process; other processes depend on the planning process.
• Planning aids in visualizing future problems and prepares management with potential solutions.
• Planning means establishing a broad outline to complete work tasks and determining required procedures.
• Planning designs a methodical process to achieve organizational goals, preparing the organization for the future.

Objectives of Planning in Construction

• Key objectives include:
  • Arranging activities appropriately
  • Creating realistic time scheduling
  • Estimating resources and planning
  • Implementing time and cost controlling
  • Easing contract administration

Organizing

• Organizing brings resources, such as people, materials and machines, together to properly fulfill objectives.
• Organizing arranges ways and means to execute a project or business.
• Organizing provides administrative structure and facilities for the proposed plan's execution.
• Organizing involves:
  • Departmentalization
  • Establishing control spans
  • Delegating authority
  • Establishing superior-subordinate relationships
  • Providing coordination mechanisms for project activities

Staffing

• Staffing provides manpower for the execution of a business plan or project.
• Staffing includes recruiting, selecting, appraising, and developing personnel.
• Staffing is needed from the start and throughout project expansion and diversification.
• Project units need efficient, stable, and cooperative staff to function properly.
• Effectively, staffing involves putting "the right man for the right job".

Directing (Leading)

• Directing involves guiding and instructing individuals to perform work correctly.
• Managers are responsible for working as leaders for their subordinates.
• Clear plans and sound organization require a manager to direct and lead their men for achieving the objectives
• Directing includes communicating, leading, and motivating team members.
• Effective leading involves engaging in directing and coordinating work of group members.
• Leadership is the reciprocal process of personnel mobilization, with shared values, for economic, political, and other resources.
• These resources can be important within certain contexts of competition and conflict.
• The goal is to realize objectives that are independently or mutually held by both leaders and followers.

Definition of a Leader

• A leader is someone:
  • Skilled in influencing people for a specific purpose or reason
  • Who holds an important and challenging managerial position
  • Who influences or prompts cooperation with the organization's interests in mind
  • Who creates positive attitudes toward organizational work and goals
  • Who directs, motivates, communicates, and coordinates

Effective Leadership Factors

• Factors of effective leadership include:
  • Share Vision: Having a clear idea of goals and articulating them passionately; ensuring the team understands their contribution.
  • Lead by Example: Building credibility by setting the right examples.
  • Demonstrate Integrity: Drawing on values for ethical decisions and being genuine and consistent
  • Communicate Effectively: Communicating clearly, concisely, and tactfully as a crucial skill, inspiring and energizing staff.
  • Make Hard Decisions: Making fast, difficult choices with limited data, taking responsibility, and following through
  • Recognize Success: Consistently recognizing achievement.
  • Empower Others: Giving a sense of ownership; communicating goals and deadlines while granting autonomy.
  • Motivate and Inspire: Driving the team forward with passion; investing time in determining strengths, assuring contribution value.

Controlling

• Controlling establishes performance standards.
• Controlling measures work in progress and interprets results achieved.
• Controlling takes corrective actions and is continuous.
• Controlling is a continuous supervisory activity.
• Controlling means monitoring performance and taking action to ensure desired results are achieved.
• Controlling ensures the right things are done correctly and on time.

Construction Project Control

• Good project controls ensure construction projects are completed on time and within budget.
• Project controls also maintains overall quality.
• Project controls can significantly improve customer relations by consistently providing quality, timely, and cost-effective results.
• Some companies may lack the experience or staff to perform proper project controls.
• Staff augmentation can help companies maintain construction projects on track.
• Maintaining proper control requires thoroughly analyzing where the project stands versus where it should be.
• Proper control also evaluates potential and relevant risks.
• If a construction project deviates from budget timelines, corrective action must be taken.
• Effective controls manages costs and scheduling, from the start to finish line.

Maintaining Proper Control Involves:

• Thorough analysis of the project's current standing compared to the target.
• Evaluation of upcoming factors and their potential effects.
• Corrective actions for budget, timeline, or quality deviations
• All stages of a construction project, from estimate to completion
• All people, processes, and tools to manage cost and schedule
• Careful evaluation of project outcome risks

Determining Necessary Level of Control

• Too much control can lead to significant cost increases that divert resources from major tasks.
• Too little control can result in delays, errors, and poor quality.
• The needed level of control is influenced by:
  • Project complexity
  • Organizational maturity
  • Team experience
  • Cost requirements
  • Project importance

Steps in Project Control

• Core project control steps are:
  • Hold meetings
  • Perform quality control
  • Track work progress
  • Respond to changes
  • Manage issues

Hold Meetings

• Meetings assemble and manage an effective project team to achieve defined goals.
• Project managers provide work overviews, current goals, issues, and effective team communications during meetings.
• Every meeting starts with an agenda; the project manager must write and share this document with all attendees.
• Conducting meetings enables accomplishing tasks for control processes:
  • Review/reassign team roles
  • Provide project executive direction
  • Notify on project status and open issues
  • Provide guidance to team
  • Make executable decisions
  • Establish/review success criteria

Perform Quality Control

• By controlling project quality, product completeness and development are in line with expectations.
• Quality control involves technical and business staff in setting:
  • Technical standards
  • Business expectations
  • Product requirements
• Quality control starts at project initiation and lasts until product delivery.
• Quality control ensures activities are approved for the project to continue to the next phases. Key tasks for project managers to perform for quality control include:
  • Creating a quality review schedule
  • Developing an agenda for people involved in the control process
  • Assigning stage quality control reviewers
  • Allocating roles such as a facilitator and author
  • Documenting and recording all actions and decisions taken
  • Ensuring appropriate follow-up actions are taken.
  • Notifying stakeholders of project status.

Track Work Progress

• Tracking work progress involves monitoring, measuring, and controlling project progress.
• Tracking ensures the project work is being done on schedule and is going in the right direction.
• Key steps for a project manager include tracking progress and ensuring effective control:
  • Capturing task performance data
  • Updating schedule by using task performance data
  • Estimating remaining costs
  • Capture non-staff costs incurred
  • Consider re-planning work by tracking the previous data
  • Adjusting staff availability
  • Involving additional resources
  • Measuring team performance and determining issues
  • Motivating personnel
  • Taking corrective actions by resolving performance issues

Respond to Changes

• Controlling changes aims to define and implement work additions at any stage.
• Project managers ensure the scope, schedule, and cost remains relevant by effectively managing changes to improve the delivery, quality, and customer services.
• Key to-do actions for project managers when responding to project changes:
  • Receiving and reviewing the change requests
  • Assigning change requests to competent team members
  • Reviewing and approving alternative solutions; updating change requests accordingly
  • Approving updated change requests
  • Creating action plans for implementing the changes
  • Defining implementation time
  • Monitoring progress and quality
  • Enable changes to completed products

Manage Issues

• Issue management resolves any issue affecting a project's success.
• Through issue management:
  • Identify issues
  • Assess impacts
  • Develop resolution actions
  • Take action and track progress
    • The purpose of issue management is to enable project managers to ensure the project is carried out as planned, to make sure the business rules and laws can be enforced in case of deviations.
• Issue management tasks:
  • Identifying and recording issues
  • Creating an issue log
  • Assessing impacts on scope, schedule, and cost
  • Finding solutions for issues
  • Reviewing, correcting, and accepting recommendations for managing issues
  • Execute the resolution
  • Monitoring progress on issues

Types of Organizational Structure

• The types of organizational structure include:
  • Functional based
  • Production based
  • Geographic based
  • Matrix

Functional Based Structure

• Functional-based structures departmentalizes an organization based on common job functions.
• This structure allows for high specialization and easy scalability.
• The downside is that the structure creates barriers between functions and being inefficient for multiple products or markets.

Production Based Structure

• In a production-based structure, each division within the organization is focused on a specific product line.
• Production based structure is ideal for organizations with multiple products and can shorten product development cycles.
• The downside is that it can be difficult to scale if there are divided duplicate resources.

Geographic Based Structure

• Geographic-based structures divide based on territories, regions, or districts.
• It is best suited for organizations needing to be near supply sources or customers.
• A downside is that decision-making can be decentralized, if geography has vast distances.

Matrix Structure

• In a matrix structure, all employees have dual reporting relationships.
• Functional reporting takes precedence over product-based reporting.
• It can add flexibility and more balanced decision-making due to 2 chains of command.
• The complexity can be a notable downside, which can lead to confused employees.

Planning in Construction Project

• Phases of planning include:
  • Pre-contract planning
  • Post-contract planning

Construction Project Planning Types

• The types of planning include:
  • Master planning
  • Short-term planning

Pre-Tender Planning

• Involves activities in the tendering process prior to project award, including budgeting and scheduling.
• The reasons for pre-tender planning are:
  • Establishing contract period
  • Identifying the construction methods
  • Accessing bid price affecting items
  • Aiding the buildup of contract preliminaries and plant expenditures
  • Aiding the tendering process

Pre-Tender Planning Procedures:

• Tendering policy based off decision to tender.
• Pre-tender arrangements, specifically the initial meeting.
• Site visit report information
• In-depth statement that includes, works, equipment, workers, labour and time.
• Source of estimating information
• Information on obtaining subcontractor quotation

Learn the core concepts of project management. Understand principles of management, organizational structures and management processes. Planning is the primary function of management to achieve desired results.