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Cultural Differences In Project Management

Article · December 2010

DOI: 10.29302/oeconomica.2010.12.2.18 · Source: RePEc

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 Annales Universitatis Apulensis Series Oeconomica, 12(2), 2010

CULTURAL DIFFERENCES IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Ranf Diana Elena1

ABSTRACT: In tough economic times and under global competition, management by projects is
now regarded as a competitive way for managing organizations. This paper wants to outline the
importance of cultural differences aspects in project management. The main objectives followed by
the paper are to see the impact of cultural differences of project management, to find the
advantages of a multicultural team and how can we use them to face the challenges of operating in
a dynamic business environment characterized by high levels of uncertainty.

Keywords: cultural, management, project, tool.

JEL codes: M16

Introduction
Projects today have dramatically increased in complexity, requiring a culturally and functionally
diverse mix of individuals who must be integrated into an effective unit – a project team. Effective
teamwork is the key to project success during all phases of the project life cycle. Tough global
competition has created an acute need for faster, more flexible, and highly competitive operations.
These needs can be met only by developing high-performing teams. Effective team building is one
of the prime responsibilities of the project manager (Knutson, Joan, 2001).
With the advent of the global economy comes an increased interaction between people of
different countries and an increase in the need to deal with cultural differences.
Every organization has a culture unique to itself, and this is true of divisions within large
corporations. The important thing to understand about culture is that in most cases there in nothing
absolutely right or wrong about cultures – they just are. It is only in a relative sense that you can say
something is wrong in another culture (Lewis, P. James, 2008).
Differences in national culture influence not only the surface behavior but there are also essential
conditions for understanding the values adopted by business people. Each person comes to the
negotiation table with skills and habits that are often not aware and that there are only
subconsciously. For example there are two extreme types of behavior between Latin and Anglo
Saxon, the first are followers of speech, and others are likely to listen, Latinos tend to generalize,
while Anglo Saxons are very analytical, Latinos have a great spontaneity while Anglo Saxons show
a remarkable self-control. But this does not mean we can not find an analytical Latin or Anglo
Saxon with spontaneity. But cultures, values, beliefs and social usages cause a special style of
communication for an individual or group of individuals (Zait, N., 2002).

The advantages of a multicultural team

Global project managers can use originality to deviate from general norms and obtain competitive
advantage, improving the likelihood of project success. An interesting concept from recent research
is crossvergence, which is “all about fusing together management practices of two or more
cultures, so that a practice relevant to a heterogeneous culture can be assembled”. Global teams can
provide all elements for an effective fusion of different project management practices: people from
various country and company cultures, enriched by different experiences and management theories,

1
Romanian-German University, Sibiu, Calea Dumbrăvii no. 28-32, tel. 0269 233 568, e-mail: rectorat@roger-univ.ro
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 Annales Universitatis Apulensis Series Oeconomica, 12(2), 2010

implemented by a team in different countries, with a wealthy mix of skills and beliefs (Binder, Jean
Carlo, 2007, p. 40-42).
Hybridization is another concept on multicultural management, which can be defined as the
use of a common body of knowledge, enhanced with selective parts of successful practices from the
countries where the project is being implemented, or from the team members′ original culture.
You will also find different behaviors when working with a team of people from the same
country, as the values and norms from the cultural dimensions are not only dependent on the
nationality of team members. In our life, we can be part of different cultural groups, cumulating
experiences that help make us unique. Some examples of characteristics that define our cultural
groups can be:
- the region (inside the country); - the age or generation;
- the ethnic origin; - the education level;
- the religion; - the industry you work in;
- the language; - the company;
- the gender - the job function.
When starting a global project in a new country, or when new project team members have a
cultural origin that you never experienced before, the cultural dimensions can be a first source of
reference to understand their general mindset, and the cultural patterns likely to be found in their
culture. A second step is to read different sources of information on the country, not only to show
the team members that you care for their culture, but to really understand how they live, think, and
what the main sources of cultural and economic richness are. The third step and the most important
is to pay attention to the behavior of the team members, to understand their values during informal
conversations and to show respect for these values, while letting them know your own opinion, the
project communication standards and the important norms that must be followed for them to be
accepted by the other team members.
The development of these skills is not a simple task, and can only be achieved after some
years of experience in multicultural teams. To reduce the time to master these skills, and improve
the likelihood of success in a first global project, you can attend “soft-skills” training sessions and
request coaching from more experienced global project managers. Fisher and Fisher suggest that a
good training plan will also include language lessons (for people in frequent contact with a foreign
language), technical training (when there are different levels of understanding on technical
disciplines that can create conflicts or risks to the collaboration) and cross-cultural training (when
team members and key stakeholders come from different cultural backgrounds and there are many
differences in the cultural dimensions).
There are four steps framework for effective cross-cultural project management:
• Learn the definition and different types of culture – the cultural differences exist across
countries but are also influenced by a diversity of age, gender, regions, religions and many
other types of social groups.
• Understanding the cultural differences – use the cultural dimensions to know what
differences to expect between people from different cultures. Employ a team building
exercise to identify how your team and colleagues view these differences.
• Respect the cultural differences – keep the differences in mind when confronted with
opposite views of the world. You must accept them and show respect for the different
standpoints.
• Enjoy the richness of a multi-cultural team. Remember that you can build on the differences
to identify and mitigate risks, to find alternative approaches and achieve the project
objectives in better ways, and to increase the level of innovation and quality of your project
deliverables.

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 Annales Universitatis Apulensis Series Oeconomica, 12(2), 2010

The impact of cultural differences in project management

It is helpful if the project team members can meet each other face to face even one time.
While this can be very expensive, it may be much less expensive than not performing well on the
project. Sometimes, the core project team is assembled to write and approve the project charter. The
core team members would then know each other and would be inclined to give each other the
benefit of doubt if there is a misunderstanding. Another method that is frequently used is to confirm
meetings and calls with quick meeting minutes or e-mail follow-ups. By documenting decisions, it
is easier to remember what happened and to uncover lessons learned when the project is complete
(Kloppenborg, J. Timothy, 2009,
p. 118).
While abundant differences occur between people from various countries, the method and
timing of project communications are of interest here. For example, Mueller and Turner studied
how cultural differences impact preferred modes of project management communication. They
examined how collectivism versus individualism, along with the extent individuals in various
cultures accept unequal power and ambiguity, impact project communication preferences. The
result show that country preferences can be shown in four categories with common preferences on
frequency and type of communications for each group as shown in next figure.

Country Group Preferences

1. Japan, Taiwan and Brazil 1. Face-to-face, analytical at milestones

2. Hungary and India 2. Written status reports, fixed intervals
3. The Netherlands and Germany 3. Detailed progress reports, fixed intervals
4. Australia, United States, Canada, New 4. Continuous phone updates with written
Zealand, United Kingdom and Sweden backup
Fig.no. 1 - Countries and Project Communication Preferences
Source: Ralf Mueller and Rodney Turner, “Cultural Differences in Project Owner-Project Manager
Communications”, Innovations Project Management Research 2004

Dean Martin identified the following seven major elements of culture, which significantly
influence the project management strategy and team development process:
1. Material culture (refers to physical objects or the results of technology).
2. Language (helps develop better understanding among team members).
3. Aesthetics (encourages informal and open communication).
4. Education (indicates how different team members view the problems).
5. Religion, beliefs and attitudes (affect general attitudes toward work ethics).
6. Social organization (helps in networking and setting informal meetings).
7. Political life (relates to approvals of permits, labor laws, import/export and financial
transactions).
Historically, project management was a face to face environment where tea meetings
involved all players convening together in one room. The team itself may even be co-located.
Today, because of the size and complexity of projects, it is impossible to find all team members
located under one roof. So, we are talking about virtual project team.
The importance of culture cannot be understated. There are four important points to
remember concerning the impact of culture on virtual teams identified by Duarte and Snyder.
The four points are (Kerzner, Harold, 2009, p. 354):
1. There are national cultures, organizational cultures, functional cultures, and team
cultures. They can be sources of competitive advantages for virtual teams that know how
to use cultural differences to create synergy. Team leaders and members who understand
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 Annales Universitatis Apulensis Series Oeconomica, 12(2), 2010

and are sensitive to cultural differences can create more robust outcomes than can
members of homogeneous teams with members who think and act alike. Cultural
differences can create distinctive advantages for teams if they are understood and used
in positive ways.
2. The most important aspect of understanding and working with cultural differences is to
create a team culture in which problems can be surfaced and differences can be
discussed in a productive, respectful manner.
3. It is essential to distinguish between problems that result from cultural differences and
problems that are performance based.
4. Business practices and business ethics vary in different parts of the world. Virtual teams
need to clearly articulate approaches to these that every member understands and abides
by.

The cultural gap tool

The culture framework helps us to understand culturally diverse project stakeholders better.
Yet, they are not tailored to the context of project management. Kathrin Köster have selected the
most relevant culture dimensions with regard to project management and summarized them in the
so-called cultural gap tool. Those are dimensions derived from business practice. Being bi-polar, the
culture gap tool also simplifies cultures and is not suited to describe and analyses the behavior of a
single stakeholder. Used properly, it instead highlights the biggest cultural differences between
major stakeholders such as the project manager, the customer and the project team. It also relates
cultural differences to the main areas of project management, sensitizing the project manager to
potential differences in the behavior of stakeholders in a project management context. Knowing
about those potential differences, the project manager can plan for them.
The purpose of the cultural gap tool is to raise awareness of the project manager regarding
the manifestation of cultural differences in his or her project. It also can be used by the project
management team and project members to help them in identifying differences and dealing with
them.
The next figure indicates where in international project management the cultural differences
manifest themselves. The list of bi-polar cultural dimensions with their relevance to project
management areas is the so-called culture gap analysis or culture gap tool.

Managing risk and uncertainty

Defining & planning the project
Equality Organizing the project Hierar-
Leading and managing the team chy
Communicating, Co-operating

Defining the project

Embra- Managing risk and uncertainty Avoiding
cing risk Planning the project risk
Organizing the project
Implementing & Controlling

Managing risk
Indi- Organizing projects Group
vidual Implementing & Controlling
Motivating and leading the team
Learning
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 Annales Universitatis Apulensis Series Oeconomica, 12(2), 2010

Matching strategy with projects

Universal Defining the project Circumsta
Planning the project ntial
Implementing & Controlling
Learning

Managing stakeholders
Task Planning the project Relation-
Implementing & controlling ship
Leading and managing the team
Learning

Planning the project

Achieve- Organizing the project Standing
ment Implementing & controlling Status
Motivating and leading the team

Defining the project

Sequential Planning the project Synchro-
Implementing & controlling nic

Defining the scope

Conflict Consensus
Leading and managing the team
Communicating, Co-operating

Planning the project

Theoreti- Executing & controlling the Pragmatic
cal project
Learning

Fig.no. 2 - Culture gap tool

Source: Koster, Kathrin, 2010, p. 89-90

Of course, measuring culture exactly is not possible. The gap analysis always contains
subjective elements rather than quantifiable, neutrally measurable evaluations.
Therefore, the tool serves as a proxy to become sensitized towards cultural differences. How
big is the culture gap between myself as the project manager, for instance, and my customer? This
is also called “cultural distance”.
The gap analysis provides the management team of the international project with valuable
input for the stakeholder management process. It highlights any areas of potential issues between
participating stakeholders, based on the assumption that big differences or large “cultural distance”,
if not managed well, will lead to misunderstandings, conflict, and ultimately to project failure.

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 Annales Universitatis Apulensis Series Oeconomica, 12(2), 2010

Conclusions
With globalization comes an increased interaction between people of different countries and
an increase in the need to deal with cultural differences. A project manager needs to understand his
or her own culture and the cultures of the project stakeholders.
The key to success in international business is the sincere desire to integrate into a new and
different culture.
Being part of a multicultural team has a lot of advantages like accumulating a lot of skills,
beliefs and experiences that help make us unique.
The culture gap tool highlights the biggest cultural differences between major stakeholders
such as the project manager, the customer and the project team. The purpose of the cultural gap tool
is to raise awareness of the project manager regarding the manifestation of cultural differences in
his or her project.

References
1. Binder, Jean Carlo, 2007. Global project management: communication, collaboration and
management across borders, Gower Publishing, Hampshire, England, p. 40-42;
2. Kerzner, Harold, 2009. Project Management: a System Approach to Planning, Scheduling
and Controlling, John Wiley & Sons Publisher, New Jersey, p. 354;
3. Koster, Kathrin, 2010. International Project Management, SAGE Publication Ltd, London,
p. 89-90;
4. Kloppenborg, J. Timothy, 2009. Contemporary Project Management, South Western
Cengage Learning, USA, p. 118;
5. Knutson, Joan, 2001. Project management for business professionals: a comprehensive
guide, John Wiley & Sons Publisher, New York;
6. Lewis, P. James, 2008. Mastering Project Management: Applying Advanced Concepts to
System Thinking, McGraw-Hill Publishing, New York.
7. Zait, N. 2002. Intercultural Management: valuing cultural differences, Economic Publisher,
Bucuresti.

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