Summary
Lucky me Animal Rescue is an organization that has a mission of protecting the welfare of homeless and abandoned animals that live on the street. The workers are mostly volunteers passionate about helping stray animals by sheltering and feeding them. There are people with different academic and professional backgrounds, including advocates, trainers, managers, and veterinarians, who set aside time and resources for the firm. The most fitting organizational structure of Lucky Me Animal Rescue center is matrix-balanced.
The structure takes into consideration different elements such as the span of control, effectiveness, and efficiency for an organization whose objective is to urge well-wishers to rescue animals. Other factors placed into consideration include specialization, simple design, alignment of responsibilities, communication, and cost. The purpose of this paper is to describe how the selected organizational structure of Lucky Me Animal Rescue affects the project based on significant characteristics. The focus is on six main features, including the arrangement of work groups, authority and role of project manager, availability of resources, person responsible for budget, and the administrative staff.
Matrix-Balanced Organizational Structure and Effect on the Project
Arrangement of Work Groups
The arrangement of work groups is crucial in project management as it helps in understanding the teams and helping the people identify where their skills, knowledge, and experience. With a matrix-balanced organizational design, the working groups are arranged based on the job function (Project Management Institute, 2017). The implication is that with the Lucky Me Animal Rescue, the project leader will first identify the critical job roles for the volunteers. Specifically, there will be a group of rescuers, veterinarians, trainers, resource mobilizers, and housekeepers. Each team will have a coordinator who communicates to team members about the task at hand and reports to the management. For example, under the resource mobilizers, the team leader can tell others the date, time, and place they can meet for a community campaign to draw support. The person then reports what they were able to gather from the campaign. All the work groups can meet quarterly to bond and give reports, but they mainly cooperate within their work groups.
Project Manager’s Authority
The project manager is responsible for delivering the objectives of the plan within a stipulated time. To do so, they need authority over the people they are working with and in management and allocation of authority (Project Management Institute, 2017). However, their power can be limited by the project’s nature, contribution, and dependence on others. Adopting the matrix-balanced structure means that the project manager will have low to moderate authority. Notably, Lucky Me Animal Rescue mostly depends on volunteers, which makes it hard for the project manager to exercise control over them. Moreover, in the initial stages, the success of the organization will mostly depend on the well-wishers of give their resources and may demand accountability, hence, making the authority of the project leader low.
Project Manager Role
In matrix-balanced, the role of the project manager is part-time and based on their skills. The project manager may be a volunteer with a passion for rescuing animals. They may try and coordinate the teams through the leaders (Project Management Institute, 2017). It is important for the subjects to be committed and obedient to make the work of the project manager easy. Their other role is to communicate with the public and arrange for visits, or adoption of the animals. Given that the role is part-time and for volunteers, their tasks can be done by different people.
Resource Availability
Many resources are needed to establish an animal rescue center, including humans, buildings, meals, money, medicine, and vehicles. Typically, in a matrix–balanced organizational structure, the resources are low to moderate. As earlier hinted, there is a high dependence on the well-wishers and the volunteers to help run the organization. The implication is that they have to work hard seeking grants and support while remaining committed for them to gain more resources.
Manager of the Project Budget
Budgeting is an essential part of project management, a balanced structure managed by different people. The money is contributed by individuals who may demand accountability or decide to purchase what they want to donate. For example, a veterinarian may realize that some medicine is missing from the store and is not included in the budget and decide to buy it with his money. The project manager has no power to demand an explanation over the type of resource that a volunteer member chooses to give and relieve the budgetary needs. The method can confuse or make things out of control when there is poor coordination, and different people end up purchasing the same thing while there are other needs.
Administrative Staff
The administrative staffs are also volunteer and mixed from different job function groups.
References
Project Management Institute. (2017). A guide to the project management body of knowledge: PMBOK guide.