2.2 Closure tasks The closing stages of a project need as much, if not more, attention as the early stages. Many of the final tasks in a project may seem rather tedious ‘housekeeping’ once the project's main purpose has been achieved. Nevertheless, there are a number of actions that must be taken to close the project and ensure that any necessary maintenance arrangements have been made. Make sure that all project staff actually stop work on the project.
5.2 Using political skills In particular, a project manager needs to employ good political skills in order to maintain the support of senior management, without allowing them to undermine or take over the project. However, this can raise questions about the ethics of their behaviour. Read the following account that was given by a member of an external consulting team working on a project for a local authority in Scotland. The project's objective was to revamp the structure of the council which had operated in much the
4.2 Assessing the strengths and weaknesses of a project team Those involved in a project may have skills that fulfil more than one aspect of the project agenda. This is likely to be particularly important in small-scale projects, where management of the content, process and control agendas are just as important to the project's success, but where fewer people are involved. Introduction The aim of Managing Projects through People is to demonstrate the importance of managing people for the success of a project, to identify groups and individuals whose appropriate involvement in a project is important for its success, and to consider ways in which their contribution might be maximised. This material is from our archive and is an adapted extract from Fundamentals of Senior Management (B713) which is no longer taught by The Open University. If you want to study form 4 Project inputs and outputs A project involves the transformation of inputs into an output or product. For example, people's mental and physical efforts, bricks and mortar, equipment or materials might be transformed into a new road, a municipal park or an advertising campaign. Or perhaps transformed into a stream of outputs or products, for example, attendances at a conference or exhibition, state school places or data from a new in-house costing system. The output or outputs might be used within the organisation 3.2.1 To draw a mind-map (manually) Put your paper (ideally a large sheet) in landscape format and write a brief title for the overall topic in the middle of the page. For each major sub-topic or cluster of material, start a new major branch from the central topic, and label it. Each sub-sub-topic or sub-cluster forms a subsidiary branch to the appropriate main branch. Continue in this way for ever finer sub-branches. You may References Introduction This unit will examine some of the key ideas connected with innovation in organisations. You will be introduced to some important concepts which are used to analyse innovation, in particular the distinction between innovation and invention. In exploring the theme of innovation, general links will be made to the implications for the business functions. This material is from our archive and is an adapted extract from Understanding Business Functions (B202) which is n 1.8.2 Summary A variety of factors will decide the future of Europe, including the success or otherwise of EMU, the results of expansion, and the evolving global situation. 1.3.2 Summary The shifting character of European geographical boundaries is illustrated by Turkey and the other twelve countries from Central and Eastern Europe which are currently negotiating access to the EU. The boundaries of Europe change depending on whether Europe is defined in terms of institutional structures, historical geography or observed patterns of social, economic and political interaction. Learning outcomes After studying this unit you will: recognise that ‘European identity’ is a socially constructed attribute; appreciate the basis for the unities as well as the divisions amongst Europeans; understand the ways European identities are assessed and measured; appreciate the key role of ‘culture’ in the organisation of a common European identity; see that European identity could be a bottom-up process as well as a top 1.12.1 Contestation and power The metaphors of ‘discursive space’ and ‘argumentative texture’ bring a number of points to our attention. First, we can note the emphasis on contestation. There is usually in social life a struggle over how things are to be understood and for that reason it makes sense to talk of a politics of representation. Second, power is at issue here. Social scientists who study discourse have been interested in how people, groups and institutions mobilize meanings. How have some 1.7.1 Footing The practices which make up a speech event or the interaction order can be quite fine grained. In documentary programmes such as Panorama, for instance, interviewers have to be particularly sensitive to the accusation that they are biased, that they are not sufficiently detached or impartial. As Clayman (1992) demonstrates, one way interviewers achieve this while still asking pertinent and provocative questions is through adjusting their footing. The term ‘footing’ again com 1.2.2 Summary The EU-15/25 is a large and prosperous player on the world economic stage. It represents a continental-sized economy, able to compete with the USA and Japan (and China and India, somewhere down the line). The new EU members who joined in 2004, and those lining up to join later, are at a different level of development to the EU-15. This will pose considerable challenges for those managing and governing the n 1 The aspects and meanings of citizenship The issues discussed in this unit are considered in relation to different aspects and meanings of citizenship: people's legal and political status, their rights, opportunities to work, access to welfare, sense of identity and belonging, and practices of the everyday.
Throughout human history people have migrated from their place of birth for different reasons – for example, to seek new ways of surviving, to colonise new lands, to establish new markets for trade, or because they feare 4.1 Introduction Since the ending of the long post-war boom in the early 1970s, the EU has developed in response to intensified competition in global markets, the member states have been progressively ‘pooling’ their sovereignty in economic matters, and globalisation's political consequences have gone furthest in the EU, not least in its regions. There are thus additional, specifically EU, factors in the growth of regionalism. It has been encouraged directly by the EU's regional policies and the regional 3.2 Growth of Europe's regions In the 1960s and 1970s some states, including the UK, contributed to politicising regional economic development by first defining ‘problem regions’ (for example, Central Scotland) and then failing to solve their problems. Here central states were still setting the agenda, but increasingly the lead was taken within the regions themselves, especially in regions with past experience of autonomy or their own nationalist tradition. Nationalism had a ‘bad press’ from the 1930s and 194 9.5 Social work and the law in Scotland In this unit you will be asked to reflect on the meanings of both social work and law. You will find that these concepts are open to a range of possible definitions, and that the functions of social work and law can change depending on the practice context. Their meaning is also affected by the perspective from which they are viewed, for example, the service user's experience of social work and law will not always match the expectations of the professional, or the perceptions of the general p 8.4 A Europe of the regions? What role will the ‘regions’ play in the emerging governance structures of the European Union? This unit examines the rise of the regions and regionalism in Western Europe. You will look at the possible development pathways for Europe: will it become a Federal super-state or a decentralised ‘Europe of the Regions’? The unit discusses the future of Europe, and it looks particularly closely at what may happen to the smaller political units presently existing below the level of the 5.2 The origins of the wars of the three kingdoms From Catholic rebellion to Civil War, what happened during the latter years of the reign of Charles I that caused people to take up arms against their fellow citizens? This unit looks at the background of the wars between England, Scotland and Ireland and how the King's actions led to the rift between royalists and parliamentarians. To access this material click on the unit link below. It leads to a separate OpenLearn unit and will open in a new window.
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