Cultural Issue and its Influence in the Management of Global Project Teams

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24023/FutureJournal/2175-5825/2016.v8i1.223

Keywords:

Culture. Project team management. Global projects.

Abstract

The interactions between the project manager and team members may be affected by several variables, such as culture, leadership style of the project manager, and the complexity of the developed tasks. Focused in this context, the objective of this paper is to investigate and describe how the culture issue can affect the anagement of global project teams. It is a qualitative, descriptive study conducted in a large multinational company in the automotive sector. The results of this research show that cultural issues can influence both positively and negatively the management of project global teams and the managers of these projects have to deal with several management challenges that require the adoption of certain ways of dealing with culture impacts in managing their teams to minimize potential problems in this context.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Anantatmula, V., & Thomas, M. (2010). Managing global projects: a structured approach for better performance. Project Management Journal, 41(2), 60-72.

Barczak, G., & McDonough III, E. F. (2003). Leading global product development teams. Research Technology Management, 46(6), 14-18.

Battistuzzo, F. J., & Piscopo, M. (2015). Global projects: a bibliometric study of international business journals. Internext, 10(2), 31-45.

Cox, T. (1994). Cultural diversity in organizations: theory, research and practice. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.

Elmes, M., & Wilemon, D. (1988). Organizational culture and project leader effectiveness. Project Management Journal, 19(4), 54-63.

Fleury, M. T. L. (2000). Gerenciando a diversidade cultural: experiências de empresas brasileiras. Revista de Administração de Empresas - RAE, 40(3), 18-25.

Hanashiro, D. M. M., & Carvalho, S. G. (2005). Diversidade cultural: panorama atual e reflexões para a realidade brasileira. Revista Eletrônica de Administração - REAd, 11(5), 1-21.

Jetu, F. T., Riedl, R., & Roithmayr, F. (2010). Cultural patterns influencing project team behavior in Sub-Saharan Africa: a case estudy in Ethiopia. Project Management Journal, 42(5), 57-77

Kerzner, H. (2000). Applied project management. Best pratices on implementation. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Lee-Kelley, L., & Sankey, T. (2008). Global virtual teams for value creation and project success: a case study. International Journal of Project Management, 26(1), 51-62.

Lin, Y., Chen, A. S., & Song, Y. (2012). Does your intelligence help to survive in a foreign jungle? The effects of cultural intelligence and emotional intelligence on cross-cultural adjustment. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 36(4), 541-552.

Miliken, F. J., & Martins L. L. (1996). Searching for common threads: understanding the multiple effects of diversity in organizational groups. The Academy of Management Review, 21(2), 402-433.

Obikunle, O. (2002). Dealing with cultural diversity in project management: a dilemma in communication. Proceedings of the PMI Annual Seminar & Symposium, San Antonio, TX, USA.

Orr, R. J., Scott, W. R., Levitt, R. E., Artto, K., & Kujala, J. (2011). Global projects: distinguishing features, drivers, and challenges. In W. Scott, R. E. Levitt, & R. J. Orr (Eds.), Global projects institutional and political challenges. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Patah, L. A., & Carvalho, M. M. D. (2002). Estruturas de gerenciamento de projetos e competências em equipes de projetos. Anais do Encontro Nacional de Engenharia de Produção, Curitiba, PR, Brasil.

Pires, J. C. S., & Macedo, K. B. (2006). Cultura organizacional em organizações públicas no Brasil. Revista de Administração Pública - RAP, 40(1), 81-105.

Project Management Institute - PMI (2013). A guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge - PMBOK® Guide (5th ed.). Pennsylvania: PMI.

Punzo, R. A. (1996). Managing cross-cultural values in project teams. Proceedings of the PMI Annual Seminar/Symposium, 27, Boston, MA, USA.

Rodrigues, I. (2010). Cultura e desempenho em equipes de projetos globais: um estudo em empresas multinacionais brasileiras. Tese de Doutorado, Faculdade de Economia, Administração e Contabilidade da Universidade de São Paulo: SP.

Russo, R. F. S. M., Ruiz, J. M., & Cunha, R. P. D. (2005). Liderança e influência nas fases da gestão de projetos. Revista Produção, 15(3), 362-375.

Schein, E. H. (2004). Organizational culture and leadership (3rd ed.). San Francisco, California: Jossey-Bass.

Segil, L. (1999). Global work teams: a cultural perspective. PM Network Journal, 13(3), 25-29.

Shore B., & Cross, B. J. (2005). Exploring the role national culture in the management of large scale international science projects. International Journal of Project Management, 23(1), 55-64.

Stare, A. (2011). The impact of the organizational structure and project organizational culture on project performance in Slovenian enterprises. Management: Journal of Contemporary Management Issues, 16(2), 1-22.

Stewart, J. (2006). Cross culture project management. Proceedings of the PMI Global Congress – EMEA, Seattle, WA, USA.

Thamhain, H. J (2012). The changing role of team leadership in multinational project environments. Revista de Gestão e Projetos, 3(2), 4-38.

Thomas, D., & Ely R. (1996). Making differences matter: a new paradigm for managing diversity. Harvard Business Review, 74, 1-16.

Zein, O. (2012). Cultural complexities in multinational projects. Proceedings of the PMI Global Congress – EMEA, Marseille, France.

Published

2016-04-14

How to Cite

Lima, N., & Patah, L. A. (2016). Cultural Issue and its Influence in the Management of Global Project Teams. Future Studies Research Journal: Trends and Strategies, 8(1), 90–112. https://doi.org/10.24023/FutureJournal/2175-5825/2016.v8i1.223

Similar Articles

<< < 1 2 

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.