Case: LAXMI

Group 3
Akanksha Lawhale [PGP10188]
Sakshi Tawar [PGP10232]
Shweta Kumari [pgp10232]
Vaishnavi Kumbhare [PGP10243]

Case Analysis:
Laxmi, the Program Manager, was the head of the Project Leo. It was her first project after
she became the Program Manager. It was started two years ago, and she selected the entire
team. The team for Project Leo consists: Shekhar, the Technical Lead for the project, Pravin
the Senior Software Engineer, six development and two test engineers.

Sekhar was with the organization for the past 5 years and have been transferred from a
different project to project Leo. He had a great review from his previous Project Manager. He
was considered very meticulous, hard-working, and well-planned engineer. He has a
Computer Engineering degree from a regional engineering college.

Pravin joined the company specifically for Project Leo. He was interviewed by Laxmi herself
and she found him to be very confident and proud of his technical abilities. He was became
the first Point of Contact for the customers acting as a Liaison between the company and the
clients.

Pravin started interacting with customers, visiting them for project discussions. This gave him
the control of the narrative with the customers. Laxmi who was the program manager was
also not kept in the loop for the conversations as seen from the Formal System Requirement
Specifications (FSRS). Pravin got the FSRS reviewed by the customers before asking his team
about their opinion.

This along with promising clients without consulting the team and conveying that the team is
incompetent to the customers were some of the examples were Pravin went overboard.

Laxmi on her part chose to ignore the problems and let her team members solve the problem.
This led the problem to grow to the point of creating a misunderstanding between Sekhar and
Laxmi who has been in the same organization for past few years.
Problem Statement:
There is a lack of team dynamics among Project Leo. The main reason is Pravin who is having
a hard time working with a team. He is competent in his field without any doubt. But when it
comes to have soft skills, he lacks team dynamics and unity.
He did not only insult his team member Nitin, but also took credit for the entire project in
front of the client. This means that the team who worked so hard to finish the project in time,
which was initially committed by Pravin without consulting with his team, did not get credits.
This could decrease the morale of the team resulting in poor performance and increased
tension.

Alternatives:
• Putting Pravin on probation [Laxmi could put Pravin on probation until his
performance increases]
• Putting Sekhar in charge [Sekhar has a better sense of collectivism than Pravin and
putting him in charge and making him Liaison for the customers]
• Having a face to face conversation with Pravin [Laxmi could have a firm face to face to
conversation with Pravin and being the boss could use Directive Leadership Style from
Hersey & Blanchard Situational Leadership Model]
• Include Key Performance Indicators for all team member along with Performance
Management Review [Pravin has been given the role of Liaison from the very
beginning which is an important role. He diverted from his initial role as a Senior
Software Engineer]

Recommendations:
Laxmi should have a face to face conversation with Pravin and make him understand that he
must perform his initial responsibilities even though he has been given additional
responsibilities.
Bringing Key Performance Indicator and Performance Management Process in the
organization will help employees to assess their own performance against the KPIs they have
been required to complete.
A 360-degree feedback program will help Pravin assess and understand his peer’s feedback
for him. He also thinks that he has expert power since he graduated from IIT while Sekhar is
from a reginal engineering college.