Major Project

HRM Reflection

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Contents

1. HRM Project Reflection...........................................................................................................3

2. Conclusion..............................................................................................................................7

References......................................................................................................................................8

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1. HRM Project Reflection

This reflective report will provide a detailed and comprehensive insight

into the HRM trip, what activities took place during the HRM trip

including the outdoor and indoor activities, individual and team

performance related to project management theory.

A few weeks after we have started our final year, we were informed

about a HRM trip to Headingley campus. The underlying purpose of this

trip was to assess and investigate our project management skills.

Moreover, to experience these skills in the field with other students,

and to share thoughts and ideas with them. For me as a project

management student, I believe that this trip was important for us

before we gradate and start our professional career. Personally I had a

similar experience from last year where we went to another city, for

the same purpose. I believe that last year experience was an

advantage for me to improve and enhance my project management

skills on this year’s trip and of course my previous experience has also

assisted me a great deal on the trip. In this reflection I am going to

explain in detail everything about this year’s trip.

In week five, we were split in to six groups in order to start preparing

for the trip. We were told to meet up as a group every week before the

trip. In the first meeting, the first thing everyone did was introducing

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themselves to the rest of the group, as a team working in one group it

was very important to know each other. Moreover we had a group

discussion to get to know everyone’s strength and weakness so we can

get the best results from each person. There were a number of team

based activities to be completed before we go to Headingley campus.

We have also predicted what risks we may face during the trip, we

have managed to list a number of solutions in order to avoid these

risks. I really enjoyed working in a team environment and the team

also jelled together very well. The team worked efficiently and

effectively under the guidance and leadership of team leader. The

team leader was encouraging and motivating to all the team members

in order to get the most out of them. The team leader also gave the

opportunity to all the team members to share their opinions. Allan

(1996, page 15) in his research states that motivation skill is a

significant trait of an effective leader since the motivation skill assist

the leader in order to get the best out of his team. The encouragement

and motivation assists the team in accomplishing all the tasks

effectively and efficiently.

Lock (1996, page 32) in his research underlying the importance of

motivation with regards to the team working and states that;

‘This is part of the management communication agenda required to

encourage and motivate all the team members. A well motivated and

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adequately supported group can be a joy to work with. A poorly

informed and less enthusiastic group with uncertain level of statue and

with vague authority and responsibility is more than likely to be poorly

and badly motivated, sluggish to accomplishing the results, expensive

to run and awfully exasperating to work with’.

The team leader had a democratic style since the leader asked all of

the team members to come with their individual ideas and then went

with the consensus. Additionally the team leader had the underlying

skills to effectively control and manage the team. Maylor (2003, page

180) argues that the ‘initial approach to leadership was the traits

approach the context was militaristic, aligned to the nation that born

leaders are type of individuals who could lead a group of people out of

trenches and into the attack’.

With my group we took some time understanding the activities and

explaining the ambiguous tasks to each other so everyone knows

clearly what we are going to do at the rest of the day trip. There was

roles and responsibilities that we have shared together, each one

members was responsible of one role, these roles includes (Resident,

Sponsor, Supplier, Activist, Legal, Accounts and Government Body). My

personal role was the legal stakeholder, I was responsible of making

sure that the sponsor is legally covered and liaises with government

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and nuclear body. Other duties within my team are supplier, sponsor,

local resident, activist and a representative for the government body.

Later we gave a copy to all groups, introducing our activities. This

sheet contains useful information to guide those who are going to do

the activity, information such as important instruction about how the

task will work, and how they can achieve the main objective.

At that stage, we were helping the first group by answering their

questions. Moreover, highlighting the ambiguous points. I was clearly

looking at other groups, watching their way of communication and,

what really impressed me at that stage was the leadership skills of

some of the students who acted like professional project managers,

convincing others to accept their decisions. It was also great to watch

teams discussing their point of view for the benefit of other group. It

gave me an advantage for later tasks where we have worked as a

team to achieve other groups’ objectives. Furthermore, we were

surprised of some of the questions we have received; as some of the

questions were totally confusing. In general we were very helpful for

other groups and I believe we have answered all questions in a very

clear way.

When the first group started the first activity, our role was to direct and

supervise them to achieve the task. The first task was to transport the

trolley without breaking the eggs it contains, and without using

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external factors like their hands. The goal for them was to find a way to

deliver the trolley from point A to point B. In case they needed any

more equipment like an extra egg or a rope etc.., we will charge them

by deducting from their total prize.

In recent years, working in teams has become really important and

vital for researchers and practitioners. Majority of the academic studies

have team work central to their underlying effectiveness and success.

According to Manze and Sims (2001) organization is responsibility of a

team leader, and assisting and supporting the team members in order

to get the best out of them and to get the things right in the first

instance.

Time was an important part in any activity. Unfortunately, the group

took long time in some unimportant steps to achieve their subtask. I

believe that mangers should focus mostly on main and important

steps, sub steps can be achieved after completing the main ones. In a

limited time activity, time management must be highly considered,

wasting long time on unimportant steps can cause a failure for the

whole activity. Starting with sub steps in a highly risky way to start any

project or activity, it might cost the group a long time to finish from the

sub tasks and later it might not linked to the main ones. This is the

reason why main tasks are impotent to be in order, main tasks comes

first and must be achieved before the sub tasks. It was a risky step to

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start with sub tasks; however they were lucky to achieve the objective

at the end on time.

Later, another group came to work on our activity. We did the same

help and guidance instructions as we did with the previous group.

They did not take our activity seriously; this can be clearly seen from

some of their unimportant questions. They also did not take the

enough equipment to assure the activity completion. In any project,

project manager should consider any unexpected events; therefore, he

should decide the exact amount needed of the requirements in order

to avoid any risks such as a delay in a project completion; otherwise

they will have to get the needed requirements at a later stage which

will affect the activity time.

2. Conclusion

To conclude, working in team environment helped a great deal in

improving my team working skills. Besides this the experience and

knowledge I gained from this activity helped me a great deal in

completing my studies. Also, I learned a lot of things from this activity,

for instance working with individuals from different cultural

backgrounds, differing opinions helped me in improving and enhancing

my team working skills.

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References

Allan, J., (1996), ‘How to be better at motivating people’, First Published in 1996, page

15

Hamilton, A., (2001), ‘Managing project for success’, First Published in 2001, Thomas

Telford Books, page 112

Lock, D., (2001), ‘The essentials of project management’, First Published in 1996, Gower

Publishing Limited, 2001

Maylor, H., (2003), ‘Project Management’, Third Edition, Published in Great Britain,

Page 180

Manz, C.E., and Sim, H.P., (1993), ‘Leading Workers to Lead Themselves: The External

Leadership of Self-Managed Work Teams’, Administrative Science Qaulity, Volume 32,

Number 1, page 106-28

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