Discussion on Administrative Leaders of Design Institutes Serving as Part-time Project Managers
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In today’s design institutes, perhaps due to the large number of projects and a shortage of human resources, many administrative leaders (such as department heads) hold administrative positions while also serving as project managers, project directors, or team leaders for one or more projects. This inevitably leads to a lack of emphasis on personnel management. What are your thoughts on such a phenomenon? Everyone is welcome to actively participate in the discussion.
In fact, many leaders act as project managers only in name, to show sufficient attention to the project in order to secure it; given the fierce competition these days, it’s practically impossible to succeed by having an unknown person take on the role. Generally, when it is actually put into practice, there is a real project manager who handles the operations, and the actual professionals in charge are the ones who do the actual work.
There’s profit in general contracting projects; which leader wouldn’t want to take on that role, haha!
Our director (head of the department) takes on the roles of project manager and professional reviewer for virtually all projects. The main tasks of the project manager include preliminary contract negotiations and other external communications. The task of professional review is actually more about a formalistic signing process. Because there are still several stages to go, including the team selection process, review, and final approval. Moreover, the head of the department hardly participates in the actual professional design work (although he is also a professional). The actual design tasks are carried out by the project chief designer (the real project manager) who coordinates the designers from various specialties. Specialized in handling technical issues, arranging personnel and schedules. In other words, our specialty and operations are separated. And it seems like the design institute doesn’t have any real administrative tasks either. The unit also has relevant departments in the office. In my opinion, it’s likely that different industries or organizations have different divisions of labor. But there is definitely a clear division of tasks, so that the accumulation of more tasks on one person’s shoulders does not lead to delays in project progress or instability in the operation of the organization.
Projects are the most important; if there are no projects for design institutes to work on, what is there for administrative leaders to manage? Moreover, there’s always some opportunity for profit involved in such projects; after all, these leaders have experience in the industry and are well-known, so it’s only natural for them to be bold enough to seek projects. This kind of part-time work is inevitable in the current market environment. Otherwise, this leader might also be replaced by someone with stronger professional skills