Recently, Kathy Smith, a project manager for a large industrial construction organization, was assigned to oversee a multimillion-dollar chemical plant construction project in Southeast Asia. Kathy had earned this assignment after completing a number of smaller construction assignments in North America over the past three years. This was her first overseas assignment and she was eager to make a good impression, particularly given the size and scope of the project. Successfully completing this project would increase her visibility within the organization dramatically and earmark her as a candidate for upper management. Kathy had good project management skills; in particular, she was organized and highly self-motivated. Team members at her last two project assignments used to joke that just trying to keep up with her was a full-time job. Kathy wasted no time settling in to oversee the development of the chemical plant. Operating under her normal work approach, Kathy routinely required her staff and the senior members of the project team to work long hours, ignoring weekend breaks if important milestones were coming up, and generally adopting a round the-clock work approach for the project. Unfortunately, in expecting her team, made up of local
residents, to change their work habits to accommodate her expectations, Kathy completely misread the individuals
on her team. They bitterly resented her overbearing style, unwillingness to consult them on key
questions, and aloof nature. Rather than directly confront her, however, team members began a campaign
of passive resistance to her leadership. They would purposely drag their feet on important assignments
or cite insurmountable problems when none, in fact, existed. Kathy’s standard response was to push herself
and her project team harder, barraging subordinates with increasingly urgent communications demanding
faster performance. To her bewilderment, nothing seemed to work. The project quickly became bogged down due
to poor team performance and ended up costing the project organization large penalties for late delivery.
Although Kathy had many traits that worked in her favor, she was seriously lacking in the ability to recognize
the feelings and expectations of others and take them into consideration.
Questions
1. Discuss how Kathy lacked sufficient emotional
intelligence to be effective in her new project
manager assignment.
2. Of the various dimensions of emotional intelligence,
which dimension(s) did she appear to lack
most? What evidence can you cite to support this
contention?
This assignment involves that the student read the case study and answer all questions at the end of the case study in a 4-5 page paper. Your answers must include substantial support from at least two (2) scholarly journal articles on project management.
Should be written in should be in APA formatting (title page, reference page, NO abstract page, in-text citations, running head, page numbers, Times New Roman 12 font, 1 inch margins, double-spacing, etc…).