Abstract

The research is focusing on project management and their challenges. Different managers
are familiar with specific project management strategies that accomplish(ed) desired results.
However, many projects have failed to achieve specified goals because of poor management
styles, planning, and decision-making and because of failure to create conducive working
environments. This research project is an attempt to share ideas on specific issues that have
retarded effectiveness and efficiency in project implementation. The company studied was
not mentioned only because of ethical reasons. However, the observations are still critically
important and relevant if you are a project manager.

Wellington Jonga
 Project Implementation: An amateur’s
analysis and synthesis of practical
problems confronting managers

Introduction

A project is the practical tool that realises what could be referred to as development or even
change as philosophies of life. Development is relative because the term is only functional
when subjected to comparison. If we consider countries all of them are developed but when
compared some of them are more developed than others. Those that are less developed
copy or they borrow development strategies from the advanced ones. There is no human
being or country whose situation is static. The point of departure therefore is that
development is the capacity of a system to move from a situation considered archaic or
poor to a better state.

There is need to distinguish development from change. Change is the transition from one
state to another. Change can be positive or negative. However in development there is
automatic positive change. Development brings qualitative change. It improves the
functioning of a system.

Projects are the smallest elements in a development process. They are like atoms of in a
chemistry of development. Gittinger referred to projects as the’ cutting edge of
development’. There effective and efficient implementation fulfil the goals and objectives of
a policy, plan or programme.

A project therefore is the fifth element in a development plan. The breakdown is as follows:

 In development planning the starting point is to conceptualise the politics. It could

be organizational politics in the private sector or national or party politics in the
public sector, understanding them enhances decisive thinking.
 The researcher is of the opinion that knowing party and organizational politics help
to identify the economic ideology that will be facilitated by the adoption of good
project for implementation. Organizational politics seem to indicate and help to
clarity strategic interests. The strategic interests or goals determination promote
change management and organizational development in a competitive environment.
If participatory or collaborative democracy has space in a nation or organization then
politics determine the stakeholders or citizens’ wishes or desires that must be
changed into goals and objectives.

The private sector is driven by competition in its development and therefore

understanding organizational politics helps in deciphering superior ideas and
reconstructing organograms and duties fitting certain positions and also to
determine the tangible opinions that may control the vision of that company.

People are an important factor in any organization since their change positively or
negatively can trigger reciprocal changes in competitive political and economic
environments. Organization react or pre-plan for these changes in human
behaviours and their tastes. The human being is also a critical factor in any
organizational politics since he provides the necessary catalytic element to the
financial and material resources available in a business set up. Thus the human
beings create the environment in which they live and create and label the
developments they want. They give meaning to the activities, for example, fashion,
technology, poverty and so on. These are objects they create and are therefore
internal to a particular society. The objects that are external to individuals and
societies need to be learnt, understood, adopted or rejected. It is therefore true that
failures in project management could be a result of lack of participation of the
stakeholders in projects identification, preparation and evaluations.

 Politics are usually changed for the sake of manageability into policy. A policy by
definition is what an organization intends to do or not to do according to. This means
that when an organization does implement something or refuse to implement or to
make a decision over a certain issue it is still policy. Policy is just a major and broad
decision formulated by any organization to guide it in its developmental or change
processes. Thus a policy is just a statement of intend but too broad to be
implemented in its raw state.

Policies need to be broken down into smaller units that depict specific areas of
concern and that need attention in the long run. Thus policies are only realized
through implementation of projects derived from them. They are therefore broken
into a third element referred to as plan.
  A plan is also a broad guideline of implementing a policy. Julius Nyerere once
reiterated that a good plan is not a sophisticated amalgam of figure and description
of issues using difficult language. A good plan or the best plan is one that you know
or understand better.

A plan thus describes a specific issue. It has goals and objectives. It explains the
performance activities. Usually a plan operates within a time period. If an
organization fails to implement projects from that plan within the specified time
then it mandatory that the plan has to be revised because it will be classified as
outdated. When money is to a plan that plan becomes a budget.

Budgets are either quantitative or qualitative. Good budgets have always clear and
comprehensive qualitative descriptions or explanations.

Still a plan as a guide to development or change is too broad therefore it is

transformed into a programme.

 Programmes are finer elements of a plan. A government can have a programme to

implement blair toilets, boreholes, bridges in rural areas and so on. In a programme
there are many projects that could be implemented in a state, region or urban areas.
Programmes thus are usually broken down into projects. They could be implemented
over longer periods of time. Programmes could also be composed of different but
similar projects.

 Thus as already been alluded to a projects is the smallest element in the hierarchy of
development planning and administration. The specific blair toilet, borehole or
specific road becomes a project.

The researcher believes that politics, policies, plans and programmes cut across
organizational departments during planning and implementation. A project however can be
located in a specific department. Where there is collaboration of departments in
implementing a project it should be clear that one of them has control or responsibility of
the project’s success or failure.

In Africa, it seems the problem of implementing projects is not that of ‘craft literacy’. This is
the ability or capacity to identify issues and plan to solve them. Many organizations create
beautiful project plans. The problem it seems is that of ‘craft competence’. Craft
competence here refers to the ability to implement projects derived from plans crafted
earlier on.

The researcher’s perception is that many try to implement plans without carefully isolating
programmes and projects. The plan must be linked to projects on the ground. The projects
therefore must have specific beginning and end. Many projects do not have specific
termination time where implementation budgets change and their application stopped and
administration budgets are in turn stimulated or operationalized. This means that in
preparing projects planners need to observe to need to link implementation to
administration budgets. The implementation budget could cover the period between
project appraisal or identification, designing, evaluations and last day of implementation.
The administration budget should be money that can be activated as soon as a project
implementation is completed.

It is also important to attached specific and adequate funds to a project if implementation is

going to be successful. This means that budgeting must be correct. It is sad that in Africa
many governments are proud to come up with deficit budgets at planning stages. They do
not see anything wrong with begging or borrowing the international community. Poor
budget controls and corruption is in built from the first day of budget planning because the
governments have this notion that overseas countries/governments will fund the deficits
and will write off certain debts that have not been paid over the years. African leaders go to
the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and other world financial and political
institutions as baggers always.

The same is true for private company that also cannot survive the competitive environment
if their policies and projects are not viable. Companies are established to generate money
and create profits to the owners. In private companies it is not enough if it manages to
break even but fails to generate profits. Companies that rely of borrowing do not have space
to change policies, products, strategies and to research and therefore they can easily be
forced to close or stop business by the environmental factors.

Projects that are debt funded are not projects at all. They do not exist. They are problematic
in implementation because they are easy to be manipulated. Craft competence has failed
African people and their governments. They seem to develop a lazier- faire attitude during
implementation because they know they will go to Europe to beg or borrow.
It is also unfortunate that many private companies in African countries have characteristics
of hierarchically structures that have visible peaks comparable to governments’
bureaucracies. It seems they have failed over the years to flatten their structures to
increase efficiency and effectiveness.

The inefficiency and ineffectiveness in implementing projects in certain organizations the

researcher studied in South Africa and Zimbabwe have strong links to the character of
managers though other elements have reasonable influence. The article intends to outline
the major problems associated with management during project implementation.

The point of departure is that the success and failure of project is linked to how managers
construction the world or the environment within their workplace. It is their perception of
the project and what is labelled as success within the society that they have helped in
developing cultural objects. The meaning of success is different and relative to people
depending on the level of development of the individual’s cultural principles and meanings
prescribed to certain objects and activity. The issue of assertiveness, performance,
effectiveness and efficiency, motivation and other elements associated work performance
are perceived from how different people perceive issues. In this research the projects that
we implement are perceived as internal to the individual and success or failure is an
outcome of that individual’s ability or capacity to handle issues.

Methodological Framework

Though brief literature review was conducted, the data used to write this article was
collected from field work. It was collected from participant- as- observer method over a
period of nine months. The researcher joined an organization and worked in different
capacities that included leadership and coordination. Thus some of the information is
experiential.

The organization studied is small scale and can be classified as family based or small
business enterprise. It is a construction company that majors in electrical services and
renovations of buildings. The research is therefore a case study and the results may not be
generalised to other organizations.
Reflections on practical problems of implementation

A project is implemented by a team. The selection of an effective team is important to the

realisation of stated goals and objectives. The selection of team members must be premised
on merit. The aspects of expertise, ability to communicate with team members, capacity to
make decisions and issues of goal and role clarification are also critical in a project
implementation processes.

The lack of goal and role clarification will impose doubt, demotivation and unnecessary
resistance in an employee. Usually it is the function of the organogram to specify an
organization’s positions. The positions articulated by the organizational chart will portray
the roles, responsibilities or influences of different personalities in the organization.

Role clarification reduces conflicts and duplication of functions that may unnecessarily
deplete the operations and implementation budgets. Some projects’ implementation have
failed because of conflicts and internal sabotages because certain positions feel
disadvantaged by the system used at implementation stage.

Education and training as a method of capacity building is a fundamental element therefore

in project implementation. Training develops awareness in team members and empowers
them too. The company in question did not training new recruits and there had no
orientations also. It seems there was no realisation that time and money spent in training
personnel was also an investment that was supposed to benefit the company when the
recruits perform their duties to expected levels. Training is thus a critical aspect in change
management and inducting and developing new personnel. It capacitates works, provides a
platform for releasing fear or doubt. It functions as a methodology of imparting company
policies, culture, rules and regulations. In the early stages a manager could use training to
bridge the knowledge and skills individuals have and those expected but missing in the
company. It is one of the methodologies of re-engineering a system or organization.

Team spirit totally lacked because there were no coordinating meetings or discussions.
Heads of specialized teams like plumbing, electrical services, building (brick layers),
carpenters, ceiling specialists and so on did not have the chance to meet and discuss issues.
Organizational challenges needed all departments or teams to participate in decision-
making. Departmental issue were supposed to be handled by local team. The failure of
inter-departmental and organizational co-ordinating meetings further meant that teams or
team members did not know each other or did not collaborate to achieve the same
organization vision, mission, goals and objectives. The organization geography and space
became a major enemy. Major team and inter-team challenges were therefore piled on the
manager who in turn dictated solutions to the affected.

The position is that the manager or director was viewed as dictatorial in decision-making.
Lack of participation and collaborative decision-making removed the element of
empowerment from the employees who ultimately felt helpless and used by the direct and
organization. In team working spirit it is an acceptable philosophy that the team leader
cannot do everything alone and he/she needs assistants from team members. The leader
cannot do maintenance and leadership activities alone.

The above thinking also links the discussion to the aspects of allocation of duties and
delegation. In a situation where a project is being implemented b teams duties are allocated
to the team and not individuals. This scenario gives the team responsibility to achieve
organizational or departmental goals. Failure is also apportioned to the team and not
individuals.

Leaders are supposed to correctly used delegation as a method of offloading certain

activities from them and load other team members. It allows team leaders to think about
decisions and management issues. However, leaders need not delegate because they do not
know how to go about any issues but because he is experts who need less pressure during
performance of their duties. When you delegate a task then show the other person how
that task is supposed to be done. The writer’s point is that doing delegated functions should
not be a punishment but a way in which the performer develop his skills, knowledge or
prepares himself to succeed the boss in future. The boss does not maroon from his
responsibilities. When the perform delegated tasks perform poorly or effectively the boss is
still responsible. Delegation had no room in the organization under discussion. The director
was comfort with using power than authority. His management tool was instruction.

The researcher also observed that autocratic organizations are capable of succeeding and of
making profits depending on the circumstances. In this type of organization motivation is
very low but the leaders manipulate force and intimidation processes. In situations of high
unemployment rates like Zimbabwe and South Africa the employees are powerless or
helpless because there are too many potential employees in the market. This means the
environment is a threat and putting pressure on the demotivated employees. The
dysfunctioning of the organization is balanced the economic and social position in the outer
environment. The employee in these circumstances will be stuck and therefore accept to be
dehumanized in the organization like the one being discussed. In a situation where the
political, economic and social environment has positively changed, these types of
organization rapidly deteriorate and dissolve or they are forced to initiate radical changes.
The restructure and introduce new management systems like Management By Objectives,
Performance Management or Results Based Management to be able to compete in the
open economic environment. The process of creative destruction is important in change
management.

In terms of human resources therefore, many of the employees vented anger, sentiments of
poor working environment, unsatisfied and looking for greener pastures. They were ready
to jump off the ship as soon as an opportunity arises somewhere. The organization
appeared to be like a ship in troubled waters. It was to stable. Participatory decision-making
is important is important because the team members will consent to those decision and
own them and therefore support every step throughout the project implementation.

The researcher’s observation was that conflicts were very high during implementation of
projects. Part of the reason was poor communication between individuals, teams and
groups and the management. It is a challenge because there was no platform for democratic
debates. Authority to recruit personnel, to pay salaries or purchases, to contract, get
quotations and use vehicles were all centralized in the hands of the director. The director
was the organization and all other individuals were his appendages. The observation was
that the organization needed serious conflict management systems to encourage future
effectiveness and efficiency in performing tasks.

Purchasing was also identified as a major challenge in the operations of the organization.
The researcher observed that was done by anyone in the different sections. The Sections
Head would just notify the Director of materials they wanted and without further scruitine
money was released to them. The Director it appears was also ignorant of certain items
needed by sections because he was not a specialist in the fields.

The company also had an account with one big electrical goods company located in Durban.
The section leaders were able to order spares or require items on credit from that company
without necessary going through the Director. The company thus would know about
purchases when the Hardware company filed documentation for payment of its goods. The
documentation would go to the Head Office straight without going through the Director for
proof reading and authentication.
Thus purchasing was haphazardly done to the disadvantage of the company. It meant that
individuals would use the many loopholes available to buy more than necessary of certain
items or they would include their personal items within the company orders. The leftovers
or personal items were used for private jobs.

Over buying was company in the company because of poor planning. There was no
purchasing officer and the Section Heads did not have adequate time to look for quotations
and compare them before buying. Comparative schedule are important in determining
cheap but durable items. Buying to Best Advantage or informal tendering prejudiced the
company a lot.

Leftovers had no place to store them. It was a painful experience to notice that a private
company that was focusing on making profits just leftover stocks to client organizations
because there was no plan to dispose them. The company needed a stores Section were all
leftover items would kept and issued out when needed in future construction activities. The
items that could not be used anymore were supposed to be auctioned at least so that the
company would recover part of the expenses. It should be noted that over buying itself was
a symbol of poor performance. Efficiency and effectiveness could be introduced through
central buying, introduction of comparative schedules, recruitment of a purchasing officer,
availing a storing place for leftovers, decentralization of duties and so on.

Though the company was breaking even in its accounts, it could have been making supper
profits cautiousness and effective and efficient management was entertained. The Director
of projects is overloaded and generalist who needed special advice in certain issues to avoid
dysfunctional or maladministration of projects activities.

The research reviewed three projects implemented between October 2015 and June 2016
and concluded that there was no clear cut off point between construction and
administration budgets. It has been mentioned already that a project should have a specific
beginning and finishing time. This means that the company needed to use the construction
budget for that purpose and the termination point was supposed to be distinctly clear to
clients. The end of a construction budget could have been the point at which this company
would hand over the completed projects to the clients. The clients it is certain will accept
only completed projects too. At that point the client is supposed to use the administration
budget to maintain the infrastructure.

The information gathered by the research is contrary to the above idea. One of the projects
was handed over in December 2015 but despite the fact that the client is using the offices
the company by June 2016 was still correcting what it called snags. The lists of snags were
endless every month. The other project was hand over in stages however since November
2015 but the company was still carrying maintenance work from its budget by June 2016.
Another project in Muhlanga was handed over in April 2016 but by June same year the
company was still dealing with snags. Therefore, what are snags?

Snags are activities or tasks that were poor done and needed to be rectified. The endless
lists of snags could be an indication of poor performance of work on the part of the Director
and his team. They are costing the company in terms of salaries, transport, time and money
through the snag lists. Good management of projects would call for handing over of a
perfect project done first time. In any case if there challenges to a completed project the
amendments must be limited to avoid wastages through months of corrective work.

The research discovered that the director’s work is not closely supervised. This is a problem
with many small scale industries because they do not have tools to control managers. They
are also easily contended with small profits. In addition, beyond the director usually there is
the business owner and his wife or her husband. The director is the expert and not them.
The issue of management ethics development is essential to new entrepreneurs. The small
business owners must also be reminded that businesses growth from a sole owner or owner
manager point to public enterprises.

The sole trader type of business has a very simplified structure but as it develops structuring
and restructuring is necessary to accommodate specializations and new goals. These simple
organizations could become complex depending on the business objectives and
environmental demands. The company being discussed is unique in its failures. The
researcher believes it could restructured by establishing specialised departments like
electrical engineering, purchasing, demolition, roofing, painting and so on. These
departments would be under managers operating at the same level and reporting to the
director operations. Other directors are necessary like that of human resources.

The creation of such a structure allows decentralization of authority and functions thus
leaving the director with enough duties to think about policies or decision-making. It is
difficult for a manager to do effectively and efficiently both leadership and maintenance
functions alone. Team members are supposed to come to his rescue and accept delegated
authority to perform other duties on his behalf.

The proposed organizational structure is the best for such organic organizations. It is a flat
structure that avoids bureaucracy and red tape. This structure is flat like that of a football
team where everyone is a player and important. Collaboration, good communication,
participatory decision-making and respect of rights are important elements that compliment
values and beliefs that build the organizational culture.

The organization studied has many challenges to learn from but many organizations are
unique in there on way. This organization is still healthy. May be a consultant doctor needs
to come immediately with intervention medicines before the disease becomes too powerful
as too collapse the nervous system that connect the organization.

Critical Remarks

Organizations that are correctly structured are effective in achieving their goals. The
company under discussion needs restructuring to include specific departments that will
decongest the current structures and at the same time bring competitive advantages in the
operational environment.

The company is losing money through leakages facilitated by the nature of organogram.
The sealing of current leakages will increase revenues for the company even before the
introduction of new business.

There is also necessity to decentralize duties of the director so that his activities or
performance could be scrutinized by the organization. Power and authority are too much
centralized in the hands of the current director to the extent that it corrupts him. Also if he
resigns any time it seems the company will eventually collapse because he is the only one
communicating with the external environment.

Currently none availability of a storage facility is causing leakage of funds also. As already
been mentioned goods that are left over could be used in future or can be auctioned. It
means they are money in potential. They can be converted to money anytime like latent
heat can be converted to kinetic energy.

A purchasing officer is needed yesterday to improve on buying. This will do away with
tendencies of corruption and bring efficiency in the system.

Management is a science or an art. A good manager therefore is one that when he thinks of
policy or decision he at the same time thinks about its implementation. The failure to refine
decisions to management principles is costing many organizations in many ways.
Unnecessary losses in an organization are unacceptable. Thus small business enterprises
must work hard to improve on capacity building and change management to increase their
efficiency and effectiveness.

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