Next weeks continuing questions

PJM460 MOD5 Peer Discussion Responses

Please
reply to both student POST1: and student POST2: in at least 200 words. I
have included the original post only as reference.

Original post:

Select and briefly describe an organization. Compare and contrast
leadership challenges of a Project Manager and a Functional Manager in
that organization, using a Project Management example for the Project
Manager and an Operations Management example for the Operations Manager.

POST1:

The
organization I am choosing to write about in this discussion post is
Lockheed Martin. Lockheed Martin is the world’s largest aerospace and
defense contractor by sales, size, and revenue. Lockheed Martin consists
of four business units, Aeronautics, Missiles & Fire Control,
Rotary Mission Systems, and Space. Lockheed Martin’s net earnings for
2019 were $6.2 billion. Leadership challenges that arise within the
organization between a Project Manager and a Functional Manager usually
typically fall within conflicting priorities and the proper allocation
of resources between functional and project teams. Lockheed Martin’s
typical operations is structured similar to the standard operations
management approach, broken into function, with production operations
being the focus, operations support functions including Engineering,
Production Control, and Supply Chain and Business support functions
including Finance and Facilities / Maintenance. These functional groups
in-turn have functional managers, whom support the synergized effort of
meeting business operations goals and objectives. The dynamic of project
teams within Lockheed Martin differ based upon the size and complexity
of the site. Larger sites have dedicated function of Project Managers,
Operations Engineers, etc. Luckily, where I work (a smaller site, <
400 individuals), all Project Managers are actually Project Leads, who
in-turn report directly to functional managers, as projects are viewed
as support to meet operations goals.

Leadership challenges of a Project Manager within Lockheed Martin (at
my site) comprise of driving follow-through, initiative, and motivation
from members of the project team. Though everyone on the project team
has the same goal, the scope of work performed in their functional role
usually take precedence.

Leadership challenges of a Functional or Operations Manager within
Lockheed Martin (at my site) include being able to effectively
communicate across a large, diverse, and dynamic team. Effective
communication is key to all management and leadership activities. One
must be able to adopt their style of communicating to account for the
given audience of the organization. Driving performance and
accountability at all levels.

Similarities between the Project Manager and Operations manager
include communication. Being able to effectively communicate will result
in the successful mitigation of both of their challenges.

References

Lussier, R. N., & Achua, C. F. (2016). Leadership: Theory, Application & Skill Development. Australia: Cengage Learning.

Project Management Institute [PMI]. (2017). A Guide to the Project
Management Body of Knowledge (Links to an external site.) (PMBOK ® Guide
— 6th ed.). Newton Square, PA: PMI Publications

POST2:

The company I am using for an example is Precision Machined Products.
It is a machine shop that producing precision machined products for
satellites, military, and space crafts. It is a highly demanded business
due to the lack of competitors across the USA. I have knowledge of this
workplace because my husband was the Operations Manager there for 7
years. It is a high stress job with constant demand and high
expectations. There is small amount of room for errors due to the
importance of the use of their products.

As the operations manager my husband was in charge of all the Project
Managers and assigned them their tasks. He was also in charge of the
budget, conflict resolution, and hiring. He also ran the shop floor and
helped the machinist accomplish their designated timeline for their
projects. Along with these many tasks, he was also in charge of
communicating with the customers, discussing delays or issues, and
bringing in new customers for future projects. To do these many jobs he
had to travel to California at least once a month to Ball Aerospace to
discuss their needs. As you can see, he was being spread very thin and
the company refused to hire other employees to help complete these many
talks.

The project managers he was in charge of had smaller tasks and
itemized list of most important to least important to accomplish. They
had to work together sometimes to accomplish the requested tasks. One PM
in particular started training with my husband and was even traveling
with his but she was struggling with all the responsibility and her
confidence in her role.

In this situation there was a significant different between the
operations manager and the project manager. The OM was in charge of the
PM and would delegate any task that could be accomplished to the PMs. It
was a difficult work environment for both the OM and the PMs and they
have a very high turnover of employees. (On a brighter note, my husband
found a new job where he is in charge of 60 employees building the Dream
Chaser Space Vehicle to re-supply the International Space Station).

Precision Machined Products. (2020). Retrieved from http://www.pmpmach.com/website/

Sierra Nevada Corporation. (2020). Retrieved from https://www.sncorp.com/