Communication Strategies: Kudos Pizzeria - Case Study Example

Communication Strategies Introduction Kudos Pizzeria is a pizza restaurant which is to be established in Lido Beach. It will provide both eat-in as well as delivery services. Three owners of this proposed establishment have analyzed the target market and have found out that the market is of low competition and also it is a potential customer based area. The venue is conveniently crowded by both tourists and local younger couples over the years. Only one competitor of this proposed restaurant is located in 3 miles away from the chosen location. The owners have come up with this business and location after finding some opportunities with respect to the target location. Generally beach areas are populated with tourists and young families who always desire a source of balanced meal nearby. Currently the visitors in Lido Beach are found to survive with only carbonated drinks and packaged snacks. Therefore, the owners have come up with this business opportunity of pizza restaurant in this location. This report presents the effective communication strategies for some possible critical situation that might takes place in the away of project implementation or project development process. These will help the company to efficiently and successfully complete the project within estimated duration of time. Situation 1 Nature of the situation and impact on project success First possible situation is that a technical team member has requested a transfer due to project team conflicts. This is a very common situation in project development process. For overall completion of projects, multiple teams work together for different purpose and different categories of work. A project like establishment of a pizza restaurant consists of multiple activities carried by different teams. Each team has individual objective but the overall goal or mission is same. So, there are different teams working together and in each team few people works together for similar works. Conflicts among the team members are very common in project development process which results a major decline of a team’s overall output. Conflicts might happen for many reasons. It might be unequal work pressure of each employee of a particular team. It also can be for major difference in the performance level of each worker in a team which results a higher work pressure on one or few efficient employees. Communication gap among the employees or between the employees of a team and supervisor or team leads might results conflicts in a project team. Lac of transparent subjective communication is responsible for conflicts in a team, lower output and delays in completion of projects, lack of quality works etc. These are the key barriers to project success (Dyer & Dyer, 2010, p.91). Communication strategy Internal communication strategy consist of both away communication process i.e. information or tasks comes according to hierarchical order and acceptance or feedback of those from the team members should be reached to the top management according reverse hierarchical order. This reduces conflicts in a group for most of the common reasons. All employees need to be clearly informed the objectives, goals, mission of a project so that they can adjust their mentality towards the successful completion of the project. The employee needs to be asked for the reasons of conflicts and impact on the performance level by project manager. Then supervisor should clearly communicate with them with solution of conflicts among all the employees (Camilleri, 2011, p.280). Improvement of communication strategy for future Conflicts in a team might results employees demanding for transfer to another team or another project or even leaving the organization. So, communication strategy needs to be developed with respect to control of possible team conflicts in future. Effective two away communication in team helps to formation of a supportive or collaborative and knowledge sharing work culture where possibilities of conflicts is reduced. It helps all the employees to understand and response each other needs which control the future conflicts in the team. Backup plan If the above strategies are not useful for control of team conflicts then there needs to be effective back up plan to be implemented at crucial moments. The team led or supervisor needs to assess the root cause of conflicts from the person who applies for transfer to other team. If any team member is responsible for spreading wrong information to other members or intestinally reduces performance then that employees needs to be immediately terminated from work. It enhances the responsibilities as well overall performance of the team as they can see the result of inefficient work. Situation 2 Nature of the situation and impact on project success Second possible situation is that one of the team members of a project team applies for a week’s vacation for a major holiday session but unfortunately that is time period when critical project deadlines are followed for faster successful completion of project in estimated time. This is also a very common situation in a project development process. Different cultured people works together in a team and they have major vacations in different times around the year. The project manager needs to take into consideration of all theses festive holidays of different cultured people. It is not possible for a project manager for giving a week’s leaves to all the employees in a team in all major holiday seasons. Therefore, this situation is an expected result of development of inefficient project implementation plan. Lack of both away communications among the workers and the project managers or team leads are responsible for this type of situation to be occurred even at crucial period of time. Communication strategy Implementation of effective communication strategy can control this types of situations not be occurred. Project manager needs to communicate with each of team members regarding their major holiday seasons before developing time frame for over completion of the project. It will help the project manager for estimating the time needed for completion of project. In this situation is not controlled, project manager can only try to motivate the employee to work during that holidays for extra payment excluding the salaries given. Another way is to divide the work to rest employees and ensure for incentives for this ext5ra work but this leads to increase of wage cost. Improvement of communication strategy for future To control this type of situation not to be occurred in future, the project manager should efficiently communicate with the employees for understanding their holiday needs and make alternative strategies for maintain the average flow of output. Project time frame and employees’ payment structure needs to be developed considering these holidays during the development process. Introduction of adequate incentives is required at the time of festive holidays so that other team members are accept the extra work pressure and they needs to be agree with this condition at the beginning of project (Simmons, n.d.). Backup plan If the above communication strategy is effective for controlling this types of situations the manager needs to hire part time workers to engage them on behalf of those employees who apply for a week’s holidays and more. Another way is to make aware all of the team members that no one can apply for long holidays until the completion of each project. They will be given incentive for working on the holidays. This will become major motivational factor for the workers for not to take long holidays. Situation 3 Nature of the situation and impact on project success Third major possible situation is that risk associated with a project like development of a pizza restaurant has not been reviewed. Project manager or developer of project implementation plan needs to consider all possible risk associated with a project. If possible risks are not reviewed at the beginning of project development process then there will be a possibility of inefficient project development and delayed completion of project. Successful completion of a project needs efficient implementation of each activities of the project development process. So, possible risks need to be reviewed to assess contingency strategies to minimize the negative impact of risks on the output. Otherwise effects of risks might become major barrier such as postpone of a project. Communication strategy Effective communication strategy helps to counter the possible risks associated with each activity of a project. External environmental risks are the major risks in the away of project development process. Project manager needs to assess those risks at the time of development of project implementation plan so that contingency strategies are developed to counter the possible risks. For example, all activities of a project need to be environmentally positive. Delayed completion of each activity, increased cost, lack of supply of efficient manpower, technology failure, lack of raw material, sufficient flow of working capital are the major risks of a project. So, the project manager should make aware all the employees about the possible risks at beginning of a project so that the workers can counter with the effect of risks to get maximum output (Sanchez, 2004, p.37). Improvement of communication strategy for future Project manager needs to allow all the team members to take participate with the decision making process of project implementation plan. It will help to assess all possible risk and impact of those risks on project development. This is best use of two away communications for strategic decision which is beneficial for controlling risks as the workers are responsible for work with different risks. Backup plan If the review of risks at initial time does not minimize affect of risk then the project manager needs to develop alternative plan immediately to bypass the affect of risks on work progress. This is a tough activity for the project manager. But, it is highly essential for project manager to develop alternative strategies to minimize cost of operation, alternative use of technology in case of technology failure, outsourcing internal works in case of lower supply of manpower etc (Hedeman, Heemst, & Fredriksz, 2010, p.121). Reference Camilleri, E. (2011). Project Success: Critical Factors and Behaviours. Gower Publishing Ltd. Dyer, W.G. & Dyer, J.H. (2010). Team Building: Proven Strategies for Improving Team Performance. John Wiley & Sons. Hedeman, B., Heemst, G.V. & Fredriksz, H. (2010). Project Management. Van Haren Publishing. Sanchez, P.M. (2004). Neuronal Risk Assessment System for Construction Projects. Expert Verlag. Simmons, M.D. (No Date). Communication Strategies at a Fortune 500 Company: The Impact on Performance. Retrieved from http://edweb.sdsu.edu/people/arossett/pie/Interventions/communication_1.htm. Read More