Comparison Between Project Management And General Management

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Abstract

This assignment/study attempt to identify and discuss about correspondence and dissimilarity between PM and GM from various point of views in order to possess better and deeper interpretation on each sectors definition, key roles, duties, qualities and needed ability and aptitude.

Keywords

Project Management, Project manager, PM, General Management, General Manager, GM

1. Introduction

GM is a vast field various function such as operation, production, finance, accounting and marketing. (Lussier, 2009) Project Management (PM) and General Management (GM) are corelated to each other, though the level of connection and convergence connecting them depends up on the view how things are perceived and characterized. “General management provides the foundation for building project management skills and is often essential for the project manager. On any given project, skill in any number of general management areas may be required. General management literature documents these skills, and their application is fundamentally the same on a project”. (PMI, 2004) In an extensive sense, however simple, PM is focused on what to be delivered whereas GM, usually the operation managements, is focused mainly on the supervising functionality of firms and process of accomplishing deliverables in large number. (Osman & AlHinai, 2018)

2. Definition

“The project management is the discipline of planning, organizing, direction and controlling of company resources for a unique objective called project”. For enhanced understanding, it is very essential to know what exactly a project is? To achieve a specific goal, project is a transient attempt with defined commencement and end. The project is driven by these goals and all the arrangements and execution efforts are undertaken to achieve these goals. Major portion of effort taken in project is to make sure the project is completed at the defined timeframe. Schedules are created for this, showing the start and the end time.

“Aim to create a non-existing product or service make a project unique. It may be done in a very similar way before, but never exactly in this way. For example, a mobile phone manufacturing company with designs and assembles their models. Each model can be considered as a project. The mobile phone differs from each other in their features and are marketed to people with various needs. The design, innovation and marketing of these models is unique projects”.

On other hand, GM or operation management has no deadlines or time limits. It is a continuous, ongoing activity to generate a service or product to transform it into a desired output. In the above-mentioned example, general management include production, sales, financing, services, parts, accounting and administration. It is an ongoing and repeated process. They involve the work that has no ending date or time, the process repeated to produce the same results. (Osman & AlHinai, 2018) (Etiwel Mutero, 2013) (Barron & Barron, 2009)

3. Characteristics

The difference between PM and GM are not very distinct. However, each of them has their own unique functional identities with certain distinguishable characteristics and responsibilities. The difference between them does not exist in leadership, but in the range of duties that lie within the role.

As defined above, PM is usually engaged in the temporary and time constrained projects with a well-versed objective which include scope, schedule and budget and are monitored in process groups such as initiating phase, planning phase, execution phase, monitoring & controlling phase and closing phase. There will be static and well-defined allotment of budget throughout the duration of the project accomplishment with pre-defined items. The project managers assemble a team of competent individuals, mostly drawn from various inter departments (temporary team) that could be demobilized in hardly any weeks at the end of the project.

Alternatively, GM is usually engaged or sigh-up for continuing procedures or functions of certain company, business etc. Here the budget will be cyclical and long-term with only partially estimated costs. There are staff members from different departments to work with GM, never needs to form or assemble a team.

The General Manager has power to discipline and manage staff under him whereas the project manager has limitations to such powers, and they manage a temporary team.

The GM do not have any direct administration or access over human resources costs since they have individuals assigned with defined working hours, as they only need to give them some sorts of assignments or works to do. On the other hand, one of the major responsibilities of the PM is to make the maximum utilization of human resource and material as everything counts in the project budget and expenses. The GM need not to bother much about procurement, but the project manager will have to handle procurement since it affects the expenditure and period of the project.

The GM will have large amount of responsibility but very little authority. They can be regarded as an outsider by the structure of organization. Task that can be managed by project management and general management is depicted in Figure 1 (Lester, 2007). (Jay, 2014) (Etiwel Mutero, 2013) (Osman & AlHinai, 2018)

4. Scope/Responsibility

The GM is in charge for the way in which a business operates daily which include focusing on team capacity. On the other hand, the PM focus on the project needs. The scope of a PM is to enhance, rectify and realize gains that a GM does not want to undertake. For that PM requires to have technical skills as well as management skills. It is their responsibility to establish and set the objectives and goals of the project, also for manage and supervise the project’s overall progress and phase.

For the successful completion of complex projects, project management tools and techniques must be applied and implemented properly. For example, in the building construction field, in order to meet the time, budget and specification of construction project, PM must study and implement planning, managing and controlling. However, in the field of manufacturing, in order to achieve higher productivity, PM must study and implement planning production, scheduling and quantitative methods and must be applied in manufacturing system. To convert any proposal or idea into achievements, PM must create detailed flow chart of the system which shows how every individual step will lead to the finished product.PM also develops a sort of contract between the project team and stakeholders called as project proposal which includes the schedule, resources and deliverables.

To achieve the company’s business goals, GM forge certain rules and policies. These guidelines can work to manifest the overall culture of the organization, of which the GM himself should be the model. Additionally, GM hires employees to the atmosphere and productivity with their proper description of job, list of duties and mentioning clear position of each employee which finally helps management to analyze how various departments coordinate with each other to work as a team. (Study.com, 2017) (PMTIPS, 2019) (Etiwel Mutero, 2013) (Osman & AlHinai, 2018)

There are four main common field in which both GM and PM are subjected to, but their responsibilities differ, they are:

Budget planning
Schedule planning
Staff management
Skill development

Above four areas of illustrative analysis of responsibilities of GM and PM are given below

4.1 Budget Planning

The general manager is mainly accountable for the departmental budget and overheads related to running a specific division of the organization. Being in control for this sort of budget means taking care of various matters such as investigating the expenditures and operating expense identified with that division.GM is also accountable for maintaining employee salaries, bonus and rewards, expenses for operating their office and services/ resources that they need to acquire to ensure the department is compelling. This may also incorporate flow of cash arriving into the department. (PMTIPS, 2019)

When it comes to the budgeting, the project manager, on the other hand, is liable or accountable only for the estimation of expense involving to the project that they are assigned during that time. The budget of the project mainly includes the purchase orders for workforce costs, material costs and running costs. Other than expenditures it can include income, any other unforeseen expenses that is made for running the project. After determining budget, they can start spending. (Heldman, 2009) (PMTIPS, 2019)

4.2 Schedule Planning

When it comes to scheduling, the GM has daily managing tasks and most responsibilities takes place on a corporation as normal schedule. For competitive effectiveness, this scheduling deals with effectiveness and quantity of output, desired level usage of operation capacity. To support one another from top to bottom, scheduling must match activities at various level. This includes planning, managing and executing staff schedules and to reassess them to make sure cutoff date are not missed. During numerous quantities of projects and activities occurring, GM is accountable for complete departmental portfolio, all staff assignments and anything that be associated with their schedule.

Scheduling in a project provides thorough plan of how and when the products and services will be delivered. It also serves as tool for expectation management for stakeholders and communication. A scheduling method is selected by PM, and for creating a schedule model of the project, project-specific data is entered in the online scheduling tool. A schedule also includes commence and end date, resources assigned to each activity. PM must make sure project is following pre-defined time frame and finish on specified period. (Turner, 2017) (PMTIPS, 2019)

4.3 Staff Management

Staff management is significant process for both GM and PM for ensuring that the ideal people with appropriate abilities and tools are allocated to the correct assignment at the right time. Establishing a personnel plan facilitates them to perform the process of efficient workforce management which is one of the most significant factors to a productive outcome.

The general manager or operation manager has a lot bigger task to carry out in workforce management than the PM. Personnel in any organization are the vital strategic resources and therefore its GM duty to create effective ideal strategy on their workforce and their performance. GM must have foreknowledge of change in organizations capability and expand in capacity in appropriate pace to lead the expansion of organization effectively. Recruiting and assigning workforce to department or any particular project will be based on their abilities, development needs and harmonizing activity. They must deal with human resources responsibilities such as granting and rejecting vacation. To keep the department running they also need to keep eye on the performance on regular activity. (Colley, et al., 2007)

Unlike GM, human resources related issues like hiring isn’t the responsibility of PM. PM is just accountable for supervising and masterminding the execution of his coworkers on the project that is managed by him. Here the key activity of the workforce management is selecting and assembling a team, sometimes even drawn from different departments, and creating a staffing plan. In order to accomplishing project goal within specified time schedule and cost budget, PM must deal with curtailment and sensitive problems inherent in people. (Hamilton, 2004)

The project managers must evaluate the assigned roles and team responsibilities and assure they are being implemented suitably. The schedules to be given that correspond to plan timeline and focus of the task. Goals and deliverables associated with each of the tasks are to be reviewed. However, in case of poor performance from his team member, he can’t take any action other than reporting the actual scenario to the GM or operational manager. Action will be taken by GM. (PMTIPS, 2019) (Mary Lewinson, 2012)

4.4 Skill Development

Same like staff management, operation manager has a major role in skill development also. They also support with competence and career development for the employees within the organization. Operation manager normally organizes abilities improvement exercises for their personnel’s such as instructing, guiding and granting them downtime to study for specialized skills or different methods identified with the activity position.

Normally during the beginning of the year, yearly objectives are set for staff as department vise and during the year they work towards plan development.

“PM on the other hand, usually don’t have line management responsibility for their project team members, so they are only responsible for giving training if somebody needs some additional assistance so as to be able to achieve their project assignments effectively”. (PMTIPS, 2019)

5. Conclusion

A PM and an GM may crisscross at different regions of duties, but their roles stay distinctive. An GM works in more extensive perspective and therefore, takes the accountabilities of the management and related fields away from the PM with the goal that he can exclusively concentrate on the existing venture.

However, their responsibilities could be complementary to each other. A PM can’t accomplish the triumph in the project without the support of the GM as the $latter is answerable for distribution and allotment of resources. The operation depends on the PM for the quality of the $individual projects.

The projects are generally initiated by the general management and hand over to the project management. The project managers work for the operation managers, not vice versa. Whenever the project succeeds credit goes to the operation manager who are continuously pressured to make better use of their resources. The project manager is simply the agent through whom this is accomplished. So, an operation manager entails managements of several projects of the organization while the project management manages a single project of the organization.

The project management has very limited resources such as money, manpower etc. which has borrowed from the general management. The project manager lacks the authority over his employee while the operation manager has unlimited power. However, the project management needs managers with unconventional skills, to take care of the issues, to cure and heal while the general management needs managers with general administration abilities to oversee various activities. (PMTIPS, 2019) (Etiwel Mutero, 2013)

References

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Hamilton, A., 2004. Handbook of Project Management Procedures. s.l.:s.n.
Heldman, K., 2009. PMP Project Management Professional Exam Study Guide. Fifth Edition ed. s.l.:s.n.
Hinai, A. O. a. N. A., 2018. Project Management versus Operations Management: A Comparative Study.
Jacqueline L. Doyle, J. C. R. D. H., 2007. Principles of General Management: The Art and Science of Getting Results. s.l.:s.n. Jay, 2014. differencebetween.com. [Online] Available at: https://www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-project-management-and-vs-general-management/ [Accessed 16 November 2019].
Lester, A., 2007. Project Management, Planning and Control. 5th Edition ed. s.l.:s.n.
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Mary Lewinson, 2012. MyManagementGuide.com. [Online] Available at: https://mymanagementguide.com/project-staff-management-%E2%80%93steps-to-developing-a-project-staffing-plan/ [Accessed 15 November 2019].
PMI, 2004. A guide to the project management body of knowledge [PMBOK Guide]. 3rd Edition ed. s.l.:s.n.
PMTIPS, 2019. What’s the difference between an operations manager and a project manager?. [Online] Available at: https://pmtips.net/article/whats-the-difference-between-an-operations-manager-and-a-project-manager [Accessed 10 November 2019].
Study.com, 2017. Project Manager Vs. Operations Manager. [Online] Available at: https://study.com/articles/project_manager_vs_operations_manager.html [Accessed 19 November 2019].
Turner, O., 2017. A GUIDE TO THE PROJECT MANAGEMENT BODY OF KNOWLEDGE. 6th edition ed. s.l.:s.n.

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