Question 1 (40 points). According to an article titled "Ford Rethinks the Office, Betting That Work Will Be Partly Remote Longer-Term" from the Wall Street Journal (The link to this article: https://www.wsj.com/articles/ford-gears-up-for-the-post-pandemic-office- 11598445075?mod=management_lead_pos3 ), Ford Motor Company is looking to redesign the office space at its headquarters to allow office workers to have more flexibility. Ford expects all employees to work from home part of the time and no longer be required to come into the office every day. Assume that the Ford Motor Company (FMC) has hired you as a consultant to identify and manage the projects needed to redesign their workspace to allow more flexibility for employees. Your assistant helps you prepare the project charter, but the names of the key elements are missing and replaced by capital letter including A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and H. Find the correct name for each key element: Letters Name of missing key element Letters Name of missing key element A

B C D

E

F

G Below is a sample of a project charter for the Ford office redesign. Title - Ford's office redesign A? - What and why of the project. o Ford has recently decided to redo the office arrangement at its corporate headquarters. As part of this process, all the existing items in the office have been cleaned out. The offices are being redesigned to give workers more options to do their jobs. B? - Project purpose & justification. o This project is being done because one of Ford's strategic objectives is to have more flexible office setups. Ford's mission is to make people's lives better by making mobility accessible and affordable. To achieve this mission, the organization must have a work environment that allows employees to work to their best potential to make this happen. The newly created office environment will help to support employees to achieve the company's mission. C? o Ford currently has the same office configuration since the 1950s. Part of this project's effort is to modernize the offices on its Dearborn, Mich. campus. Also, while workers are currently working from home for Ford, research finds that there are many distractions at home (Smith, 2020). Having an office environment will

2 allow employees to have another option to do work in the offices if they feel distracted at home. D? - High-level plan that indicates a few accomplishments over the life of the project (Kloppenborg, Anantatmula, & Wells, 2019, p. 66). o This section is included below in Table 2. C? - Risks should include all things that pose a threat. Constraints limit choices. Assumptions are things that team members perceive as correct. o Risks: Project will not be ready in time. The office does not meet the worker's needs. The project is not completed. Project completed but not needed. o Assumptions: Resources are adequate for project needs. The current office setup is not working. People are okay with not having their own area. Not everyone will come to the office every day. o Constraints: Offices should be ready once the need to work from home goes away. No additional office space will be added. Specified budget money available for the project. D? o People develop a floorplan for office based on needs. Office furniture, desks, and equipment for offices. Labor to clean out old office furniture and set up new offices. Money to pay for the project. E? o All Ford employees. The company supplying the new furniture. Labor to set up office and cleanout. Group to create floorplans. F? 1. Team members will be fully prepared for meetings and arrive on time at meetings. 2. Meetings will be a maximum of 60 minutes. 3. A different person will take notes at each meeting. 4. Team members will communicate regularly to let others know of their progress on the project. Deadlines may be adjusted accordingly. 5. The team leader will draft the agenda for each meeting. G? o This section will be expanded as the project progresses. It will be revisited and added by those who signed this document (the project charter) after each review and milestone completion. H? o After team members have reviewed this document, the following roles will sign this document: Company CEO (or member of the company leadership team), project sponsor, project manager, facilitator, functional manager, any core team members.

Text:

Thousands of office employees atFord MotorCo.F0.32%have come back to work in recent weeks to retrieve their things. All of their things.

With its white-collar employees working remotely at least until January because ofthe coronavirus pandemic, Ford is taking advantage of its empty buildings to reconfigure the workplace for a new era in which employees will have more options to do their jobs remotely, a company real-estate director said in an interview this week.

Most of the roughly 30,000 employees who work at or near Ford's Dearborn, Mich., headquarters have returned to the office this summer to clean out their desks and workspaces, all while donning face masks.

Ford has emphasized to workers the collect-and-clear exercise that began in July has nothing to do with layoffs.

Rather, the No. 2 U.S. auto maker is trying to prep for a future in which many, if not most, employees won't come into the office every day, said Jackie Shuk, a global directoratFord's real-estate arm.

The Office Redesign Has Only Just Begun

The Office Redesign Has Only Just BegunPlay video: The Office Redesign Has Only Just Begun

Plexiglass dividers and floor decals might not be permanent, but the pandemic will bring lasting change to offices. Experts from the architecture and real-estate industries share how they are getting back to work and what offices will look like in the future. Photo: Cesare Salerno for The Wall Street Journal

Many office workers are visiting the office for the first time since March, when Ford closed its corporate campuses because of pandemic-related lockdowns.

Some employees say they have worked in the same space for many years, requiring them to dig through stuffed filing cabinets and troves of personal items with little sense of when or where they will be back in the office.

"For a lot of people this has been surreal," said a marketing employee at Ford's headquarters. "I think most people like the idea of more flexibility. But we haven't been told where we're returning to."

Ford's Ms. Shuk said an on-site care team has been helping workers move boxes and load chairs and computer equipment into their cars. "It was definitely emotional for some," she said. "The biggest thing we've heard is, 'I miss my co-workers.'"

The reshuffling at Ford is among the more-assertive moves being taken by companies rethinking office life longer-term, as the pandemic has shown remote work to be more productive and feasible than initially thought.

With Covid-19 cases still rising in the U.S. this summer, many companies havepushed back their timelines for returning workers to offices.

That is allowing more time for businesses to not only hang plexiglass and space out desks, but devise long-range strategies for their office layouts and personnel schedules, said Laurie Ruettimann, a human-resources consultant who works with large companies.

"It affords them an opportunity to think about how work gets done and who does it and when," Ms. Ruettimann said. "The organizations I work with haven't made any decisions. They're not ready to say what 2021 or 2022 is going to look like."

Still, Ford and some other companies are moving ahead with longer-range plans.

Video:

https://www.wsj.com/video/series/in-depth-features/the-office-redesign-has-only-just-begun/93CDF89A-AA8B-4784-802C-F55F92EB618A