Assessing The Importance Of Communication In Maintaining Quality And Timely Delivery Of Project Activities: Research Proposal

Research Purpose

The project proposal topic will be “Assessing the importance of communication in maintaining quality and timely delivery of project activities”.

Communication plays an essential role in determining the success of a project. The reason for the failure of most of the projects is lack of communication. Project management communication is a skill which can never be perfected but, can be improved every time to maintain the timely delivery of the project with high quality. The team which is responsible for completing the projects consists of a diverse group of people and thus, there is need for effective communication so that the information related to projects is transferred to them properly ( Business Insight Ltd, 2018). It is essentially important for the timely delivery of the projects, as the project’s success or failure determines the success or failure of any business. There is need for efficient communication about the responsibility, goals, feedback and expectations of the project, and, a project manager is responsible for making the communication effective among all team members. If all these things are communicated in an effective manner, the project overcomes all the barriers and challenges easily and hence, the project is completed on time and lives up to the quality expectations as well (Rajkumar, 2010).

Figure 1: The impact of ineffective communication on the projects

Source: (Project Management Institute, Inc., 2013)

The research will conduct an assessment of the importance of communication in maintaining quality and timely delivery of project activities. It also tries to explore the role of communication in a cultural setting and how the communicates helps in overcoming the cultural barriers between the project teams to ensure the timely delivery of projects. For this purpose, both qualitative and quantitative approach will be adopted, along with the study of the previously established literature in the space.

The aim of this research is to evaluate the role of communication in project management. It analyses how effective communication can help in maintaining the timely and quality delivery of the projects and how is it related to the success of the organization. The study will review the previous literature and conduct primary studies to determine the impact of communication on project success.   

1. What is the impact of communication on the timely delivery of the project?
2. How does effective communication help in maintaining high quality of the project?
3. What is the best method of communication an organization must follow to ensure project success?

• To determine the impact of communication on the timely delivery of the project
• To evaluate how effective communication helps in maintaining high quality of the project
• To determine the best method of communication an organization must follow to ensure project success

The study deals with the identification of the role played by effective communication, in completing the project on time and with the expected levels of quality. The findings of this research will help the organizations to improve their methods of communication and developing them in a way that they overcome all the barriers.

The study of the previously established literature will allow us to accumulate and understand the findings of the researches, conducted by the researchers in the same space in the past few years. The literature review is considered to be one of the most reliable sources of data collection. The literature review will be done with the help of the research literature collected in the form of articles retrieved from respected journals, conference proceedings, books, and statistics provided by the government. The results, which will be collected through the primary research, will later be compared with the results of literature review to establish their validity (Hart, 2009).

Research Questions

Weldearegay (2012) conducted a research to investigate the role of communication in project management. The study was conducted in Umea 2014 project office. The company follows both the internal and external method of communication. The main aim of the author was to investigate the role of project communication in a particular cultural setting. The author also investigated the role of communication in the delivery of the project on time. They conducted the study using qualitative approach where they interviewed the project managers to understand the role of communication in ensuring project success. The main topics which they studied in the research include external and internal communication, knowledge sharing, communications system, formal and informal communication and such others. The results suggested that meetings, non-verbal communication, mail correspondence and informal communication and share point were a few methods of communication in the organization (Weldearegay, 2012).

Rajkumar (2010) also conducted the similar study determining the role of communication in project management. According to him, the better the communication better is the project management. According to him, a project manager spends about 90% of his time in managing the communication between his employees and the management and the employees. If the communication is not effective, there is a risk of missing the deliverables and giving the expected outcomes as expected by the sponsors. He also mentioned the types of communication, how does the communication help in overcoming the obstacles and facilitate the timely delivery of the project. The results of his research suggested that if the communication is effective, a lot of time can be saved and thus, the project can be completed before or on time (Rajkumar, 2010).

Tushman and Katz (2010) conducted a study to determine the role of external communication in the success as well as the performance of the project. They highlighted the role of the gatekeepers in improving the external communication and performance of the project. They indicated that some boundary spanning gatekeepers serve as the linking mechanism between the external environments and the organizations. They investigated the role of these gatekeepers in transferring the information in one R&D setting, by making comparisons between the performance of the project with and without the gatekeepers. The study they conducted used the secondary approach. The results of the research indicated that the gatekeepers perform the linking role in the projects which involve tasks which are locally-oriented, whereas, the tasks which are universally-oriented were not found to use gatekeepers to play the linking role. These tasks were linked to the external areas by direct project member communication. The authors also found out that the role played by gatekeepers is beyond serving just as the mediators in the external communication. They also facilitate the external communication among the local project colleagues. The communication mediated by gatekeepers as well as the direct communication, are two effective measures to link the project with the external areas (Tushman & Katz, 2010). 

There have been a number of researches which have focussed on improving the performance of the project through effective communication. The projects are aimed at accomplishing the strategic objectives within an organization. They are conceived and executed on a routine basis. Therefore, the spending on the project is increasing exponentially by the companies and the project management is on an exponential growth. But many a times, the projects fail to accomplish their objectives. There are many factors which are responsible for project failure and thus, there is a need to improve the performance factors which determine the failure of project such as leadership, communication and such others (Civil Engineering Research Foundation, 2005). Anantatmula (2015) also conducted a similar research for determining the factors which are responsible for the success and failure of a project. He developed a performance enhancement model using the Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM) methodology. The main aim of this project was to determine the relationship between the factors which influence the performance of the project. Communication was found out to be one of the major factors influencing the performance of the project. It, further, provided the ways in which project management can be used to make strategic decisions for improving the performance of the project (Anantatmula, 2015).

Research Objectives

Hirst and Mann (2009) studied the relationship between the R&D leadership and team communication on the quality of the project. According to the authors, Industrial R&D is all about processing the new knowledge and transforming it into an outcome which is commercially valuable. Communication is the most effective mechanism which translates, integrates and shares the new information into the commercial processes and products (Zwikael & Globerson, 2009). The authors developed a five-factor model for making team communication effective which included team boundary spanning, leadership role performance, team reflexivity, communication style, and task communication. They tested the model using a longitudinal study for one year. The conducted the study of 350 employees to check the effectiveness of the model through surveys. The findings of their study suggested that different factors of the model predicted different ratings of the stakeholders in terms of project performance. The strongest predictor of the customer ratings of the performance was found to be the communication safety. Boundary spanning was also found to be an effective tool for determining the project performance when the project is performed by the project leader only, not his entire team (Hirst & Mann, 2009).

The National Academies in the USA, conducted a study in 2005 to understand the role of communication in ensuring the success of the project. They conducted the research to analyze the role of communication in improving the quality of the healthcare system using the technological aspects of information sharing and transfer. The Committee showed that the healthcare society needs more information and communication technologies to improve the healthcare standards, quality and productivity in the healthcare system. The communication among the team members allows any organization to work well and function as per the requirements (Sumner, 2010). The healthcare sector has to include many projects to maintain their functioning and these projects can be accomplished with success only when the goals of the project and the ways to achieve them are properly communicated among the team members. If the members of the team are able to communicate well and do not face any barriers, the goals of the project are easily communicated and the quality of the project is maintained as per the required standards. Thus, the incorporation of different methods of communication and employing the technology in communication allows the employees to share their ideas and thoughts and hence, the project becomes a success (National Academies, 2009).

Pinto and Pinto (2011) studied the importance of communication among the members of the project team for the successful delivery of the projects on time and with high quality, particularly in the R&D laboratory setting. The researchers also tried to establish the relation between the cross-functional cooperation and patterns of communication in the management and development of the new programs. Turner and Muller also assessed the role of informal and formal communication among the members of a project team and analyze which one provides better results. They also indentified the major reasons for communication among the project team members along with the level of functional cooperation achieved by them in case they are asked to develop a new program (Turner & Müller, 2008). For this, Pinto and Pinto & Pinto (2011) surveyed about 260 employees from 72 hospitals and the results of the research suggested that there was a huge difference in the project performance of the teams with low cooperation and high cooperation. The low cooperation teams used formal communication methods more than the high cooperation teams and hence, the members of the project team were not able to express their ideas effectively. Thus, communication was found to be the factor influencing the cross-functional cooperation which, in turn, predicted the project outcomes (Pinto & Pinto, 2011).

Research Significance

Some of the researchers studied the role of effective communication among the members of the project team and the main topic of study for them was to interpret the role of social media in maintaining an effective communication in the organization. With the increasing prevalence of the social media and its impact in the social relations, the business organizations are also trying to make the most of it. Social media has proved to be an effective means of communication among the people of the world and thus, it also plays an effective role in managing the relationships between the people of the company. It induces the trend of informal communication among the people of the organization and improves the relationships between them. This leads to better performance of the project and ensures the timely delivery of the project as per the pre-determined standards of quality. The positive effect of social media can be moderated by leadership styles and motivation provided by the organization (Delerue & Sicotte, 2017).

This chapter will emphasize on the research approach which will be adopted for conducting the research. it will include the tools, methods and techniques used to achieve the objectives of the research. the research methodology will consist of the following parts (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2009).

The research approach which will be adopted for this research can be termed as mixed approach as both the qualitative and quantitative methods will be used for conducting this research. The quantitative research is designed to get the response from a large number of respondents. This research approach is beneficial as the data collected through this research is generalized as it is depicts the opinion of a population. The data collected through quantitative research can be easily expressed in the form of numbers, which makes the application of the statistical tools easy (Sekaran & Bougie, 2016). The qualitative study, on the other hand, is used when the sample size is less and data can be collected through it in descriptive form. The reason for choosing this method is that it will provide a detailed account of the topic and will help in getting industry-specific insights (Sandelowski, 2012).

The data will be collected using both primary and secondary methods of data collection. The primary research will be conducted through surveys and interviews. The secondary research, on the other hand, will be conducted through literature review. The primary research will help us in collecting the first hand data from respondents who are directly connected with the research topic, such as project team members or the project manager. The secondary research is equally beneficial in reaching towards the conclusion as the data collected through secondary study is highly reliable and the findings of primary research will be compared to the findings of secondary research to establish the validity of the data. The final results of the research will be equally based on the findings of both the methods of data collection (Scandura & Williams, 2017).

The primary data will be collected through survey and interview. The survey will be conducted with the help of a questionnaire which will contain a series of 15 close-ended questions about project management and the way in which project management is affected by communication. The respondents will have to answer the questions of the survey on a five point Likert scale. The questionnaires will be chosen for survey as they are practical and cost efficient. The interview will be conducted by a series of a few open ended questions which will aim at knowing the role played by communication in timely delivery of project from the perspective of the managers. The interviews will ensure in-depth analysis of the research topic (Lavrakas, 2008).

Literature Review

Choosing the correct sample for conducting the research is equally important as the entire results of the research rely on the data collected through the selected samples (Sharma, 2017). The research will be conducted on the employees working in a project team as well as the project managers. In this research, the random sampling method will be used. The reason behind choosing random sampling method is the fact that, this method of sampling allows all the members in a population to get selected equally with no biasness. A random sample of 20 members of a project team will be selected from an organization and survey will be conducted. Apart from this, three project managers will be selected for interview. The random sampling method will give an equal chance of representation to all the employees (Thompson, 2012).

The data, which will be collected through quantitative research, i.e., the survey, will be analyzed using MS Excel. The reason behind using this statistical tool is the fact that it allows the users to create the reports, pie charts and do the calculations with ease. It can easily compare the differences between the responses of the respondents pertaining to one or more questions or variables. The qualitative data will be analyzed through interview analysis. All the results obtained will be compared to the findings of literature review and the final conclusions will be made (Bryman & Bell, 2015).

Before conducting the research, an approved consent of the participants will be obtained and they will be ensured that their identities will be kept anonymous. For eliminating the probability of error, the data will be collected through the reliable sources and will be analyzed using appropriate tools. An application form approval will be submitted to the selected organization for obtaining their consent for conducting the research. The participants will be asked o sign the consent forms before participating in the research. The collected data will be stored in the password protected laptops for maintaining its confidentiality. All the communications related to the research will be pursued with honesty and transparency (Zikmund, Babin, Carr, & Griffin, 2013).

The total estimated budget for this research will be approximately AUD 7,000. The budget will include the costs of the computer software packages such as SPSS, regression and such others; hardware components of the computer, membership cost for Office 365 and employing a research helper for the data analysis part. The following table will provide a brief outlook of the research costs.

Activities	Approximate Costs in AUD
SPSS statistical tool	AUD 2,500
Computer hardware such as monitor, hard drives and such others	AUD 1,500
Office 365	AUD 160
Research Helper	AUD 3,000

Chapters	Time duration
Introduction	14 days
Literature Review	21 days
Research questions and objectives	7 days
Research Methodology	21 days
Analysis to be undertaken	14 days
Conclusion and Recommendations	7 days
Compilation of the report	10 days

References

Business Insight Ltd. (2018). Communication The Key to Successful Project Management. Retrieved from 2020projectmanagement.com: https://2020projectmanagement.com/resources/communication-management/communication-the-key-to-successful-project-management

Anantatmula, V. S. (2015). Strategies for Enhancing Project Performance. Journal of Management in Engineering, 31(6).

Bryman, A., & Bell, E. (2015). Business Research Methods. Oxford University Press.

Civil Engineering Research Foundation. (2005). Independent Research Assessment of Project Management Factors Affecting Department of Energy Success. ASCE Publications.

Delerue, H., & Sicotte, H. (2017). Effective communication within project teams: the role of social media. International Journal of Conceptions on Management and Social Sciences, 5(1), 1-6.

Hart, C. (2009). Doing a Literature Review: Releasing the Social Science Research Imagination. SAGE Publications.

Hirst, G., & Mann, L. (2009). A model of R&D leadership and team communication: the relationship with project performance. R&D Management, 34(2), 147-160.

Lavrakas, P. J. (2008). Encyclopedia of Survey Research Methods. SAGE Publications.

National Academies. (2009). Building a Better Delivery System: A New Engineering/Health Care Partnership. National Academies.

Pinto, M. B., & Pinto, J. K. (2011). Project Team Communication and Cross?Functional Cooperation in New Program Development. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 7(3), 200-212.

Project Management Institute, Inc. (2013). The High Cost of Low Performance: The Essential Role of Communications. PMI.org.

Rajkumar, S. (2010). Art of communication in project management. Project Management Institute.

Sandelowski, M. (2012). Combining Qualitative and Quantitative Sampling, Data Collection, and Analysis Techniques in Mixed?Method Studies. Research in Nursing & Health, 23(3), 246-255.

Saunders, M., Lewis, P., & Thornhill, A. (2009). Understanding research philosophies and approaches. Pearson Education.

Scandura, T. A., & Williams, E. A. (2017). Research Methodology In Management: Current Practices, Trends, And Implications For Future Research. Academy of Management Journal, 43(6).

Sekaran, U., & Bougie, R. (2016). Research Methods For Business: A Skill Building Approach. John Wiley & Sons.

Sharma, G. (2017). Pros and cons of different sampling techniques. International Journal of Applied Research, 3(7), 749-752.

Sumner, M. (2010). Critical success factors in enterprise wide information management systems projects. SIGCPR ’10 Proceedings (pp. 297-303). SIGCPR conference on Computer personnel research.

Thompson, S. K. (2012). Sampling. John Wiley & Sons.

Turner, J. R., & Müller, R. (2008). Communication and Co-operation on Projects Between the Project Owner As Principal and the Project Manager as Agent. European Management Journal, 22(3), 327-336.

Tushman, M. L., & Katz, R. (2010). External Communication and Project Performance: An Investigation into the Role of Gatekeepers. Management Science, 26(11), 1071-1188.

Weldearegay, H. (2012). The role of communication in managing projects. Umeå School of Business and Economics.

Zikmund, W. G., Babin, B. J., Carr, J. C., & Griffin, M. (2013). Business Research Methods. Cengage Learning.

Zwikael, O., & Globerson, S. (2009). Evaluating the quality of project planning: a model and field results. International Journal of Production Research, 42(8), 1545-1556.