Leadership Skills
Essays

When an individual applies for admission to an MBA program, there is, at the outset, the assumption that the applicant has the intellectual ability and maturity, plus the motivation, the time and the discipline to be…

How Passengers Rate the Competence of Pilot and Crew

Of the myriad of articles that could be potentially assigned to students, my selections would center on the most practical and pragmatic aspects of project management. I'd also orient the articles more to case studies and away from the highly theoretically based, equation-centric studies of product management constraint theory and modeling. I'd want to infuse a sense of enthusiasm and insight into how project management is transforming enterprise globally and making them more competitive in the process. With criterion in mind the first article would be a study of how project management was able to completely turn around a major telecommunications network project and get it back on track and achieved in the city of Los Angeles (Imam, Dhillon, 1989). This case study brings the very pragmatic aspects of how project management theories can transform the most complex and cost-constrained projects, taking what would surely be a failed initiative and making it successful. The successful completion of the telecommunications network throughout Los Angeles in this first article shows what's possible with project management techniques and strategies applied to very complex, potentially challenging situations. In keeping with this case-based approach to showing the value of project management, the second article centers on how European Aerospace plc was able to also transform its core operations and stay competitive in turbulent markets as a result of successful project management planning, execution and continual monitoring (Quayle, 1999). What makes this second article such an excellent study for anyone looking to teach project management is the coverage of concepts, frameworks and advanced scheduling techniques while also concentrating on customer-centered growth of the business (Quayle, 1999). Staying customer-centric is another factor or variable the company had to contend with while keeping a very complex project continually moving forward. The ability to intermediate across so many factors and still emerge successful and on schedule differentiates this article from many others that are otherwise comparable from a case study standpoint (Quayle, 1999). The third article or study I would recommend is one that deals with the toughest aspect of project management, which is change management. The article, Selling Project Management to Senior Executives: The Case for Avoiding Crisis Sales (Thomas, Delisle, Jugdev, Buckle, 2002), shows just how difficult it is to make change permanent in any complex project management scenario. This article provides useful insights into how best to overcome resistance to change and keep a project moving forward. The ability of a project manager to gain consensus and keep a project moving forward is also shown, which is a critical skill for anyone teaching others how to manage projects as well. Finally, this study touches on the most critical skills that any practitioner or professor needs to have a mastery of, both in theory and practice, and that is how to get projects done with people who may not always buy into the direction and concepts, schedules and costs, of the project. Change management is very critical in project management and must be covered in this set of three articles.

Wal-Mart Stores is a multinational retailer in America. Wal-Mart is one of the world's most famous departmental stores. Wal-Mart is a chain of stores which runs discount and warehouse stores. In 2000, the company managed to get the 18th position as being the world's largest corporation in the Forbes list. Wal-Mart consists of over two million employees, and that makes it the largest privately held employer of the world. The company runs the largest discount departmental stores in America. Wal-Mart stores are divided into three groups, i.e. discount stores, markets and supercentres.

Leadership is power, exercise of influence of an authority that seeks to inspire the conduct of others (individuals or groups) in order to get them to voluntarily achieve clearly defined objectives.

In the business world, and particularly in the context of big companies, change is often at the order of the day. The problem is, however, that change also incurs a large amount of uncertainty and conflict, not only…

The crux of the Penn State/ Joe Paterno controversy was the mythical atmosphere of the team and the fact that Paterno's personal agenda and weaknesses transcended the objective FO the team. He saw himself as a cult figure, structured the team around that, and this led to the team's collapse.

McDonald's has often been blamed for the negative impact its foods products have upon the population. And in the context in which more and more people suffer from nutrition related illnesses, McDonald's is becoming the…

Organizational Development deals with various aspects of workforce management including motivation theories, leadership, hire and fire, and employee training. With the constant ongoing evolutions in the current…

The desired outcomes of disputants in conflicts include (but are not limited to): fairness, efficiency, effectiveness, and participant satisfaction.