Running Head: Module 2: PCA Structure 1

PCA: Structure

Patrick Spooner

Arizona State University

OGL 481: Pro-Seminar I

Dr. Kate McCain

May 31, 2021

The situation that I will be covering in detail for my PCA is a Change Order

Management meeting that was held between the General Contractor, the Sub-Contractor (my

company) and the Material Manufacturer that was utilized on the project. This was a conflict

and contractual change management resolution meeting between the three parties. All parties

have varying view points on the various topics that are discussed. I was the Project Manager

for the Sub-Contractor on this specific project and represented my company, Spooner’s

Woodworks Inc., along with the Owner of the company, our division manager and our project

supervisor who managed the installation crews in the field.

The Structure of my specific Organization, Spooner’s Woodworks, influenced the

situation in many different ways. The company structure is not what I would consider typical

for a small business and has taken on more of a corporate structure as it has grown sand

developed the need for additional layers and departments. From top down, there is an

ownership or executive level management group of seven individuals, all carrying President

or Vice President Titles. This group is responsible for the vast majority of high-level company

management decisions and even participates in various department level, management duties.

They are heavily involved in day-to-day oversight and approvals of various expenditures and

manufacturing tasks. From this group, they have then appointed various department heads that

must answer to them. The various departments of the company include administrative/HR,

Project Management, Estimating/Sales, Engineering, Production, Custom, Doors, Finish,

Delivery, and Installation. Ten different department with 10 department heads/managers.

Each department has varying numbers of sub-ordinates, the carry out the specific operations

that allow the company to run. In total there are about 125 employees including department

level managers.
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My role was at a Project Management, Assistant Department Head level during my

tenure with the company. I was the Door Department’s assistant manager as well as a Project

Manager, where I helped the department head to carry out overall management and operations

of the department and managed my own projects from inception to closeout. The structure of

this organization and my role within this structure influenced my PCA project situation

negatively in that the company had me performing management level tasks, as well as project

level tasks, both roles requiring far more than part time hours per week. This did not allow me

the time and attention, necessary to perform either role full time, and adversely affected my

performance in both roles. I made it very clear to Ownership about my situation and it took

them many months to respond and make a change that I felt was acceptable.

I would use structure to build a stronger supporting cast in the Door Department to

better manage, not only the Department Management level tasks but also the Project

Management level tasks and the associated responsibilities that come along with those. I felt

the Door Department was under-staffed for the project work that we had on the books. Instead

of having individuals perform multiple hybrid type roles, I would have developed specific

roles and structure where an individual is assigned one role such as Project Manager or

Estimator or Assistant Department Manager, instead of having individuals try to juggle too

much and not perform either job well. This was the Ownership Group’s preference

unfortunately, to have staff take on hybrid-type roles in hopes that they could maximize

profits due to minimizing company payrolls. However, I feel this organizational structure can

very easily backfire if workloads become too much, where employees do not have the

necessary time and resources to handle both roles and therefore both positions are effectively

compromised. Had management hired two individuals to perform each role, then this would

have allowed employees the proper amount of time and attention to manage each role and
Running Head: Module 2: PCA Structure 4

perform each role well, having a double net positive effect rather than a double negative

effect.

By allowing additional personnel to be added to our Department to assist with

multiple roles that I was juggling, this would have allowed me to devote my time to either my

project management tasks solely or my Department Management tasks solely. I would have

likely added a seasoned Project Manager to the team at the time we received this large project

award, so that individual could focus in on this large project as well as maybe one or two of

the other projects I was responsible for. This would have given me the time necessary to carry

out my department level management duties and make a greater impact on the employees

within our division by dedicating more of my time to assisting with their specific roles. I

would have been able to assist this Project Manager should they need it, almost at a Project

Leader or Project Executive type level. In the event we did hit bumps in the road, I would be

able to step in and assist with direction and conflict resolution; however, I would not be fully

in the weeds and would still have had the time necessary to effectively complete my

management tasks.

I think looking through the structural frame for my PCA, it’s very clear to me now that

I needed additional support in the form of additional team members to effectively manage the

project and to avoid many of the issues that we encountered. It is really quite upsetting to me

now looking back at the situation that my requests for additional support were ignored for so

long. This ended up leading to various issues and me doubting my own abilities. Not only did

I doubt my own abilities but also Ownership continued to question me for months after

project completion, as to why we ended up in the situation that we did. So I felt that they were

not only purposefully blind to the fact that they had been overextending me for years, they

also questioned and jumped to point out the issues that had arisen within our department due
Running Head: Module 2: PCA Structure 5

to their own decision to under-man our department and not provide us the proper resources

and personnel to find success.

This was a major reason I left the company not long after this time, along with other

reasons that I will likely have a chance to cover during future frames. I think looking back; I

wish I‘d been more direct and adamant with my requests for additional help and assistance to

fill out the gaps within our department. However, as an employee I never wanted to be a

complainer and would always work harder and longer to compensate for the lack of support

and overextension. I do not think there was much I could have done differently from what I

was doing at the time to manage the multiple roles that I was given. I think this was a

structural issue that started at the Ownership level.