| Course | PM 350 Organizational Project Management (PM/350) |
|---|---|
| Week | 3 |
| Paper type | Communication and leadership analysis |
| Length | about 1,034 words, 4 double-spaced pages plus title page and references |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | University of Phoenix |
| Program | BS in Business |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for PM 350 Week 3
Eighteen Hundred Retailers and One Saturday Night: Communication and Leadership Across a State Lottery's Projects
[Student Name]
University of Phoenix
PM/350: Organizational Project Management
Week 3 Assignment
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
The Prairie State Lottery, its people, projects and figures are composites written for a model paper.
The Prairie State Lottery, the invented Topeka agency studied in this course, has begun replacing the terminals at about 1,800 retailers, following the staged plan described in Week 2. The first regional wave covers 300 stores in the Wichita area. Every terminal must be swapped without stopping sales, and retailer clerks must learn new screens. The agency's first pilot, in 40 stores, revealed that its biggest problem was not technology but communication: store owners had not been told when technicians would arrive, and two stores lost a Saturday evening of sales during a large jackpot. This paper evaluates communication and leadership across the lottery's projects, using the rollout as the main example.
Audiences and Their Needs
Henderson (2004) studied project teams and found that project managers' competence in sending and receiving messages was linked to team members' satisfaction and productivity, emphasizing that communication depends on understanding the receiver. The lottery's projects reach six main audiences, each with different needs:
The lottery commission and legislative oversight staff: progress, cost and any risk to state revenue, monthly.
Retailer owners and chain headquarters: installation dates, how sales continue during the swap, commission payments, at least two weeks ahead.
Store clerks: how to sell, validate and pay out on the new terminal, on the day and the week after.
Players: nothing about installations unless service is interrupted.
Lottery staff in sales, technology and finance: what each division must do and when, weekly.
The terminal vendor's technicians: store access times, contacts and known issues, daily.
The Communication Plan for Wave One
Each retailer receives a letter and a call from its lottery sales representative three weeks before installation, giving a two-hour window that avoids the store's busiest hours. A text reminder goes to the owner two days before. On installation day, the technician leaves a laminated card at the counter showing the five most common transactions on the new screen and a direct phone line staffed until midnight for the first week. Chain headquarters receive a weekly schedule of their stores. The commission receives a one-page monthly update with stores converted, error rates and sales in converted stores compared with the same weeks last year. Every message is drafted by the rollout lead and checked by a sales representative, who knows how retailers will read it. Messages to chains with stores in several regions also go to their district managers, since owners of large chains rarely read mail addressed to individual stores, and the lottery learned in the pilot that one chain's district office had never passed the schedule on.
A clerk with a line of customers on jackpot night does not read a manual; she reads the card taped to the counter.
Why Messages Failed Between Divisions
The pilot problem had an internal cause. The technology division scheduled technicians; the sales division held the relationships with store owners; neither shared its information with the other. The schedule lived in a vendor system that sales staff could not see. Each division assumed the other had told the stores. The fix is a 20-minute huddle every Monday with the rollout lead, the sales manager, the vendor's dispatcher and the help desk lead, reviewing the next two weeks of installations store by store, and a shared calendar that sales representatives can see.
Leadership at Three Levels
The executive director is the rollout's sponsor. Zwikael (2008) studied top management support in projects and found that specific supportive practices, rather than general approval, were associated with better results, and that the useful practices varied by context. For the lottery, the director's most useful actions are concrete: she opens the Monday huddle once a month, she told division heads that rollout tasks take priority over other work in the wave weeks and she personally called the two retailers who lost sales during the pilot.
The new portfolio manager, Grant Oyelaran, leads without formal authority over division staff. His influence rests on information, since he is the only person who sees every project's status, and on relationships built by solving problems for divisions, such as resolving the dispute over the database administrators. He leads mostly by asking questions at monthly portfolio reviews and by making conflicts visible early.
Project leads use different styles suited to their projects. Müller and Turner (2007) surveyed some 400 project managers and reported that the mix of intellectual, managerial and emotional competencies tied to good results was not the same across project types, application area and complexity. The terminal rollout lead, managing a tightly scheduled field operation, is directive and detailed during installation weeks. The app's product owner works more participatively with designers and players. The helpline pilot lead, working with an outside counseling provider, leads through partnership and shared goals.
Two-Way Communication
Feedback is built into the plan. The direct retailer line logs every call by type, and the help desk lead summarizes the top issues at each Monday huddle. Sales representatives visit 20 converted stores a week and ask owners what they would change. Clerks can text a short code to rate their first week with the terminal. In the first wave, these channels showed that clerks were confused by the new payout screen, and the vendor changed a button label within ten days.
Measuring Communication
Four measures show whether communication is working: the share of retailers who confirm their installation window before the visit, with a target of 95 percent; calls to the retailer line per installed store in the first week; installations rescheduled because the store was unprepared; and owner satisfaction from a two-question survey after installation. In the first wave, confirmation reached 97 percent and no store lost evening sales.
Conclusion
Communication across the lottery's projects begins with knowing who needs what, when and through which channel, and it fails when divisions hold separate pieces of information. A plan built around retailers and clerks, a weekly cross-division huddle and two-way feedback turned the pilot's failure into a working first wave. Leadership at three levels, a sponsor who acts visibly, a portfolio manager who leads through information and relationships and project leads whose styles fit their projects, makes that communication possible.
References
Henderson, L. S. (2004). Encoding and decoding communication competencies in project management: An exploratory study. International Journal of Project Management, 22(6), 469-476. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2004.01.004
Müller, R., & Turner, J. R. (2007). Matching the project manager's leadership style to project type. International Journal of Project Management, 25(1), 21-32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2006.04.003
Zwikael, O. (2008). Top management involvement in project management: Exclusive support practices for different project scenarios. International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, 1(3), 387-403. https://doi.org/10.1108/17538370810883837
What the PM 350 Week 3 instructions ask
The third PM 350 assignment typically asks students to evaluate communication and leadership practices that support strategic projects. Expect to name the people who need information and what each needs, design or critique a communication plan, discuss barriers to communication, compare leadership styles or roles and explain how leaders influence project outcomes at the organizational level. Use the organization developed earlier or a scenario provided. Show specific audiences, messages, channels and timing, discuss leadership roles at more than one level and support your evaluation with research on project communication and leadership in APA style. Avoid generic advice; tie each practice to what the organization actually needs.
How this PM 350 Week 3 example is built
The example works through a terminal rollout that will fail if retailers are surprised on a busy Saturday. It begins by mapping six audiences, from the lottery commission to clerks at convenience store counters, with what each needs to know and when. A communication plan for the first wave sets messages, channels and timing, including printed cards at each counter and a direct line for store owners. A section on barriers explains why information from the technology division had not reached sales representatives and how a weekly cross-division huddle fixes that. Leadership is examined at three levels: the executive director's visible sponsorship, the portfolio manager's influence without authority and project leads' styles. The paper closes with four measures of communication effectiveness.
PM 350 Week 3 grading rubric: where the points go
Points on this paper go to analysis that is specific and grounded. Top papers identify audiences precisely, state what each needs and design messages, channels and timing to match, rather than listing meetings and emails. Graders look for real barriers and practical responses, a discussion of leadership at more than one level of the organization and an explanation of how leadership style relates to the type of project. Measures that show whether communication worked earn extra credit. Research on project leadership and communication should support the claims. A clear structure, concrete examples and consistent APA style complete the strongest submissions.
PM 350 Week 3 help: mistakes to avoid
Many students write a communication plan as a table of reports and meetings without saying what message each carries or why that audience needs it. Start from the audience. Another common gap is treating leadership as the project manager's personal style only, when the prompt asks about the organization: sponsors, portfolio managers and functional heads lead too. Some papers list barriers like noise and jargon without connecting them to the case. Describe a specific breakdown and how it was fixed. Students also forget feedback; communication is two-way, so include ways to hear from the audience. Finally, measure something. If your plan feels like a list, a tutor can help you rebuild it around audiences.
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PM 350 Week 3 questions, answered
What does PM 350 Week 3 usually cover?
It usually covers communication and leadership practices that support strategic projects across an organization: audiences and their needs, communication plans, barriers and the roles of sponsors, portfolio managers and project leaders.
Where can I find a free PM 350 Week 3 sample paper?
The Week 3 paper above, on communication and leadership during a lottery terminal rollout to 1,800 retailers, is a free sample with margin notes.
What should a project communication plan include?
The audiences, what each needs to know, the message, the channel, the timing and frequency, who sends it and how feedback will be gathered.
What is influence without authority in project management?
The ability of a project or portfolio manager to get cooperation from people they do not supervise, using expertise, relationships, shared goals and credibility rather than formal power.
Why does executive sponsorship matter for projects?
A visible, engaged sponsor secures resources, resolves conflicts between divisions, signals that the project matters and keeps it aligned with strategy.
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