Orion Shield Case Solution And Analysis, HBR Case Study Solution & Analysis of Harvard Case Studies

Orion Shield Case Solution

For Orion Shield, to whom does Gary report? What are the implications, both positive and negative of that reporting structure for the successful completion of the project? Would you recommend a different reporting structure? Why or why not (be sure to defend your recommendation based on the positive and negative implications you describe?

Gary reported to the Henery Larsen, the director of engineering to offer him the post of Project manager in the SEC organization after 14 years of stellar performance in the engineering department. There have been certain positive and negative implication of reporting directly to the director of engineering under which Gary has been working for 14 years.

Positive Implications

It allowed Gary to communicate and show the results directly to the Larsen, reducing the barriers and enhancing the communication.
Such relationship allowed Gary to take the Larsen in confidence of completing the project on time, without any external interference or check.
In addition, it also allowed Gary to select his staff, though it created the resistance n other manager agreed to give the team members for this projects however, the support of Larsen made it easier for Gary to make his own team.
Lastly, such relationship have the factor of trust between the two parties, allowing Larsen to disseminate the work load over to Gary without any doubts.

Negative Implication

Since Gary has been an effective and star performer in the engineering department, it created the save expectation from Larsen for Gary’s performance in Project management leading to high expectation and thus immediate falls.
In addition, since Larsen have been an engineer, he failed to analyze the capabilities of the Gary as a managers, leading to the development of strong pressure over Gary to perform.

Reporting Structure

Well, by analyzing the overall structure and the implication, it is suggested, that the reporting line should have remain same. It is due to the fact, that since Larsen have known the work of Gary over the yes, such may have allowed the Gary to perform fully and openly. However, it is also suggested, that since Larsen have been too optimistic and dominating over Gary and his performance, such attitude should have been managed by clearly identifying the roe of the project manager leading to better dissention of work and authorities.

In addition, since Larsen has been the director of the Engineering Department, he has been dominating over the Gary throughout the time, treating him as the former engineer working under his department. Such pressure is also a negative sin, since such lead Gary to perform unethically in certain situation, without letting him explaining the point leading to resistance and stress over Gary.

How would you assess Gary Allison's performance as the Orion Shield program manager? Give specific examples to support your assessment.

Well, the performance of Gary as the Program manager has been poor. It is due to the fact that he failed to manage the work and communicate it with the stakeholder effectively.

Such can be seen from the case, when the customer asked for the meeting minutes, so instead of asking the team member to make it, he himself made the minutes consuming his time and challenging his position.

In another situation, the worked hard and asked for the team members to support, yet failed to motivate the mender to work extra lading to additional workload over him.

Moreover, in another situation, Gary failed to comminute with stakeholders about the change in the metrics, leading to ungrateful attitude of the customers and deterioration of expectations from the SEC.

All these inabilities and incapables depicts the poor and weak performance of the Gary as the program manager, leading to ineffective meeting of the deadlines and delivery of the deliverables to the stakeholder. In addition, it also lead to the misunderstanding between the customer and the team leading to maligned goals and thus the overall performance.

Lastly, Gary had a weak personality or had no leadership skills, which is important for a program manager since he has to mane, motivate and lead the team to a specified goal, however, the inability of Gary to lead and motivate the team team made I a poor program managers.

Ethical Issues

There have been two situation in which the ethical dilemma occurred in the case of Orion Shield. In one situation, Mr Larsen asked Gary to mislead the customers by writing the wrong specification of the Product, Such is an ethical issue, since it involves lying to the customers knowing the fact, that the product is not as demanded by the customer. Also, in another situation, the Mr Larsen initiated to use the budget allocated to the Orion Shield project. Such is also an unethical act, since using the budget without informing the customer for other purpose is wrong, and leads to the misleading factors in the long-term, including technical issue.

Legal and Contractual Issue

There has been different Legal and contractual issues that arose during the case. In one situation, the Mr Larsen asked Mr Gary to change the specification of the product that could operates at 133 F and have been asked to write the operating level at 155f.Such is a breach of RFP contract leading to legal issues against the company and also the contractual breach.

In addition, the breach of the FFP contract by changing the resource allocation and the material requirements, that lead to the increase in the cash required and the cost associated with the operations. Such is a contractual breach, since under the FFFP model, the price is fixed beforehand and paid off at the end delivery of the task...............

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