Hello and welcome to my blog—PMGT 612- Leading Projects Across
Cultural, Corporate, and International Boundaries. For over 20 years I
have served in the military and been lead on many projects. However, not until
I retired and began my Master’s coursework at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University have
I been exposed to the “formal” project management (PM) field. As part of my
coursework, I am tasked to analysis different project management lessons and/or
scenarios. Each time, I learn valuable lessons while gaining a little insight
into myself.
This leads us into this week’s discussion topic: Project
Manager Interview—Multicultural Experiences.
As part of our coursework this term, I interviewed a project
manager concerning international project management. My friend, and mentor,
happily agreed to share his experiences and challenges of working as a consultant
and project manager in a global environment. A retired Naval Commander, Mr. James
C. Davis (Jim) is now principal of Directed PM Strategy LLC, a small business consulting
firm specializing in business strategy and program/project delivery (Davis,
2015).
In addition, Jim is active in the PMI community, currently serving as Director
of Finance for North Carolina PMI Chapter (NCPMI).
Jim has a vast history of working overseas and spoke about
several assignments during his time with companies such as IBM and BMT Syntek
Technologies. During our lively discussion, Jim expressed gratitude for the
opportunity to work with different cultures. His experiences have resulted in
Jim being an integral component of NCPMI and a great, personal mentor.
Here is a summary of our discussion.
The first topic we discussed was the challenges Jim
encountered when working overseas. Jim spoke of three main challenges when
dealing with international projects: time, communications (verbal and written), and
cultural/national biases.
“A major component of any constellation of values is how a
particular culture deals with time” (Ferraro & Briody, 2012 pg. 45). Jim’s experiences verified this
and furthering the conversation by saying time is a loose concept. “Even though
people from most cultures understand the meaning of clock time (hours, minutes,
and seconds), each culture has its own vocabulary of time and its own pace of
life” (Ferraro & Briody, 2012 pg. 47). Jim gave two examples of
this concept. He explained how, when working on a project in Italy, the concept
of time was not a strict, structural concept. That the pace was not time based,
so projects could suffer if the project manager was not careful. The next
example was of Germany, where time was a very strict, structural concept. The
Germans were extremely punctual and have little patience for those that wasted
time by being late.
The second challenge of international management was communications.
Jim explained how, even though the English language was considered the
international language of business, that miscommunications happen. Even in common
wealth countries where English was the primary language, different dialects and
term interpretation could result in confusion. Jim recalled one example where a
company hired him to work on a project sponsored in Brazil. The contract was
written in Portuguese and even after translation, there were issues of understanding
the different technical terms and cultural differences. The company eventually
refused the contract since the risks were great when you don’t understand he
full terms of the contract.
The last challenge Jim discussed was that of cultural bias. Ethnocentrism—literally
being ‘culture centered’—is the tendency for people to evaluate a foreigner’s
behavior by the standards of their own culture, which they believe is superior
to all others” (Ferraro & Briody, 2012 pg. 22). Jim explained that, while
working with international organizations, a foreign project manager can be seen
as an “intruder”. That loyalties sometimes lay in the national culture and not
necessarily with the project team. An example of this was when Jim was working
for a British company, which had an unwritten standard of not promoting
foreigners to high-level management positions. This created a glass ceiling for
individuals such as Jim working internationally. Since Jim was a not a native,
he could not raise to the ranks of senior management within certain organizations.
Another example, Jim explained, was when operating in certain countries, the
amount of foreign-owned companies allowed by government was limited. To expand
into these environments, the company had to appoint a local person to serve as
owner. Though the owner was under contract with the company, once again
questions of loyalty can play a role in creating additional risks and ethical
concerns.
After discussing challenges involved with international
project management, Jim discussed lessons learned and offered advice to those pursuing
international involvement. Jim felt his military background and experiences
helped prepare him for international project management. During military
deployments, military personnel are prepared through various briefings. To the
same extent, business professionals and project managers should prepare for
different cultural environments. Mirroring the coursework for PMGT 612, Jim
offered the following advice to individuals considering international project
management assignments:
- Be sensitive to timing- “different cultures have different rhythms and different concepts of time” (Ferraro & Briody, 2012 pg. 149). As Jim pointed out, time concept is changeable and can sometimes be based on moods. Be prepared to handle these challenges.
- Be flexible- Jim suggested that project managers be extremely flexible and be careful to not micromanage. Offering great advice, Jim stated that a project manager should not exercise authority as much as exercising influence. “To be flexible does not mean to be weak; rather, it means being capable of responding to changing situations” (Ferraro & Briody, 2012 pg. 150). Working with international project teams, Jim stated “They don’t adapt to you, you have to adapt to them”.
- Remain present- operating in a global environment has many challenges, being geographically separated is one them. To help move a project along, as a project manager you must be present. As Jim stated, you cannot manage an international project from a chair. You should get out and make the effort to meet with your team and establish a relationship. Only then can you motivate and keep project momentum. Only through developing relationships can you exert influence and overcome challenges.
Jim and I wrapped up our conversation by discussing the multicultural
environment of the North Carolina PMI Chapter. With both of us serving on the
Board of Directors (Jim as Director of Finance and I as Director At Large), we are
exposed to a melting pot of individuals serving in leadership positions. As Jim
stated, and I couldn’t agree more, it is awesome working with so many different
individuals and cultures.
This blog can be viewed at www.pmgt612.blogspot.com.
Damien
References
Davis, J. C. (2015). Directed PM strategy. Retrieved from
https://www.dpmstrategy.com/
Ferraro, G. P., & Briody, E. K. (2012). The
cultural dimension of global business (Seventh ed.). New York, NY:
Routledge.
