Global Green Books Publishing is an established printing and publishing company tasked with the production of customized e-Books. Its primary customer is a local college that expects books to be delivered at a lower cost. However, the company has not always done that. The department tasked with the estimation of cost of each book has experienced some problems. From this case, we realize that there are two suitable styles of leadership which can be applied in this context: participative and transactional.
Participative leadership involves the input of the team members and their colleagues although the final decision comes from a participative leader. This kind of leadership improves the morale of the employees due to their involvement in the decision-making process. Global Green Books Publishing can use this in its daily operations. The Project Human Resource Management team tasked with formulating, handling and directing a project team. Thats why this team should come up with members whose line of work aligns with the project. The project team should be in the decision-making and planning from process the start of this project as this will help to encourage teamwork and facilitate efficient completion of the task at hand. Transactional leadership style engages managers to have certain tasks to performed and reward the employees based on their performance. The human resources management team, in this case, should evaluate the performance of every team member and award them. A higher performance in their tasks should be encouraged eventually leading to a good working relation. The team members can interact and help each other in the execution of the tasks thus improving the productivity of the company.
In this case, Global Green Books developed a cost estimate which involved direct and indirect costs. The direct costs identified in this case were material costs, subcontractor labor, equipment costs and labor costs for the team members working on the project. These values were referred to as direct costs because they were easily traceable and correlated with the production process.
However, Global Green Books is bound to encounter some problems that might profoundly impact the budget. Keeping track of the expenses is a major challenge that they might face. Also, dealing with fluctuating costs could become a serious issue for the publishing company. Some of the bills might change from month to month, therefore, making it hard to estimate. It is important for the company to structure its budget. They can resolve the amounts to set aside for each section.
It is a good option for this company to plan for contingencies. This process involves putting away some cash in case of a positive or negative circumstance that may occur. Therefore, these gain or loss contingencies need to be included in the budget. The main cost drivers of this project are material costs, equipment costs, computer support and subcontract labor. As indicated above, the total costs for direct labor with the inclusion of an overhead rate of 1.50 are $ 408.75. In my opinion, structuring the budget could greatly help in the allocation of funds to various categories. Also, the company can keep track of the expenses incurred, and the profits gained. Also, the company should think of including the insurance cover to the budget.
