Project and Innovation Management

Assignment: Project Organization


CASE STUDY
Ducor Chemical
In the fall of 2000, Ducar Chemical
signed a contract with one of their most
important clients. The scope of this
contract was to create a new chemical
that will be used by the client in their
future products.
The project that Ducor Chemical’s won consists of a twelve-month,
sole-source contract for the research and development of a new
chemical. Furthermore, the contract mandate that a senior
chemical must be assigned to the project full time and he must
attend the meeting with the client.
If the project is successful, then it may generate a significant profit
over the future years, since the client may decide to let Ducor
Chemical produce the chemical.
The Project Manager had to negotiate with the Lab Manager which
of the four senior chemists would be assigned for this critical
project. The Lab Manager chose John Thornton, a skilled chemist
with some behavior issues since he was the only one he could spar
for the long-term project.
Lab Manager and the Project Manager during negotiation reached
an agreement where the first one, in order to keep John’s attitude in
check, would attend every meeting with the client.
However, Lab manager didn’t showed up in the meetings and
John made same remarks that made the client furious,
compromising the project.and the relationship between Ducor
and the client.
 Actors
Project Manager:
PM has past experience working with John and the client, so it tried to negotiate with Lab Manager in order
to have another senior chemist assigned.
PM was concerned about how John behavior would affect the team morale and how he would behave
during the meeting with the client.

Lab Manager:
LM has control over which senior management is going to be assigned in the projects and which resource
will be used.
He doesn’t seem to truly acknowledge the PM’s concerns about John’s behavior and loose tongue.
However, he tries to plaquette PM by using the “trust me” card and promising that he would presentation
each interface meeting with the client. In the end, he missed the first two meetings, leading to the disaster
of John making the client furious with his remarks.

John Thornton (senior chemist):

John is a skilled senior chemist that works under the Lab manager.
He is known for his terrible and arrogant attitude and for his loose tongue.
Due to some of his remarks during the interface meeting, he jeopardized the project future and relationship
with the client.
 Project Organization
Structure
The key factors that lead to identifying the type of structure used by Ducor Chemical are:
● Contingency factors
-Novelty = the product is completely new. Strong structure
-Criticality = there is a constraint in terms of time (twelve-month). However, nothing is said about
the cost and the scope. Medium-low structure
-Relevance = the success of this project will have an economic impact in the future. Strong
structure
● Roles of function = the Lab manager decided which the senior chemist would work on the project,
ignoring PM concerns. Weak structure
● Role of Project Manager = Project Manager has little to no power, as demonstrated during the
negotiation with the Lab Manager about John’s assignment to the team.

The project organization structure adopted by Ducor Chemical is a weak matrix structure, where the Project
Manager assume the role of negotiator.
 Matrix Structure

Board

LM FM FM

PM JT

PM Project Manager LM Lab Manager JT John Thornton

 Key problems
The key problems in this project are:
● The inability of both the Project Manager and the Lab Manager to keep John’s attitude undercontrol;
● The breach of trust by Lab Manager, who didn’t follow up with his promise to attend the meetings and
to talk with John about his attitude;
● The lack of communication between Project Manager and John;
● The lack of authority of the Project Manager, who couldn’t have the right person for the project;
● The strained relationship between Project Manager and Lab Manager. Even though they reached an
agreement it was mostly one sided, since it was decided by the Lab Manager and it wasn’t negotiable,
showing his lack of flexibility and threatening behavior;
● John’s attitude and lack of respect towards the client and the team members.
Thank you
Case source:
Title: Project Management: Case Studies
Author: Kerzner Harold
Edition: Fifth
Year: 2017
Editor: Wiley