Talk:Cross cultural teamwork

Anna: As a feedback to your topic idea, I would suggest that you focus on a specific tool to deal with the issues related to cross cultural teamwork. This will help you narrow the scope and create a more tool oriented and specific article. Remember that your article has fall into one of the two categories: method or case study.

Reviewer 1 (s150793)

I really like the topic that you have chosen because I find it very interesting. Here are my suggestions:

• Structure: For me, the structure of the article doesn’t really follow the “methods” structure. I would suggest to start with an Introduction (1) of the theme, as you have done, but in my point of view it should also include points 4 and 5, as they develop “Cross cultural teamwork” background. The next part could be the Application (2) of techniques to reduce “Cross cultural teamwork” problems. This could be analysed from the three perspectives that you have selected: Project Human Resource Management (2.1), Project Communication Management (2.2) and Project Stakeholder Management (2.3). The last part of the article (3) before the References (4), could talk about the limitations and drawbacks that “Cross cultural teamwork” have in Global Project Management.

• Length: The introduction that you have made is interesting but I would maybe reduce a bit the first points of your article and pay more attention in the application part. You already have around 2800 words and as you have indicated, you want to develop some points more. I would try to focus on the main ideas so that the article doesn’t end very long.

• Images and tables: I think that the use of other images and some tables will help the readers to understand the main points. For example, your 4th point (Challenges faced in cross-cultural teamwork) could be more visual if you use a table.

• Writing style: The text is easy to understand but maybe some sentences are a bit long.

• References: If you try to use more high quality references such as books and articles, your article will be more accurate. You should also reference all the passages of the text to reflect the sources where the information comes from. Remember also to reference all the figures. You should also write a brief summary of each source.

Reviewer 2 (s141943)

• Regarding to your questions:

1.: It is! Great topic, nice choice. However, it is a wide topic and I would suggest to specify more.

2.: It makes sense, but it is too long I guess, also some parts are well structured, but on a level of a book, or longer study.

3.: I will write about this at the table of contents.

4.: To narrow it more and find a specific focus regarding the cross-cultural challenges. The topic is exciting, but it is to wide. The reader can easily loose the point. In the meantime, be aware to repeat cross-cultural issues and solutions for them to many time at different part of the article. Of course problems and solutions, which are relating to communication appear everywhere, but try to keep the whole text simple.

5.: I would use Cross-cultural business management, or if you narrow it, Cross-cultural human resources management, etc.

• In general:

Really good and extremely relevant (in practice and in academic level as well) topic. The language and the grammar is good, however as you mentioned a read through will be good. Take references and use some tables or maybe figures where they can save some space or explanations. Also because this topic is huge, the references can help for those who would like to go further after your article. I guess it will be a really good article and I am curious about it.

• Contents:

It is really structured I see and the points make sense definitely. However, I would suggest a more compact structure.

For example you have a nice abstract. And after the introduction as the first. Within the introduction the 5th and after as a subsection the 4th. 3+5 as intro: in here I would not use subsections that much, just explain roughly, why this problem come up as you did (GPM, outsourcing, etc) and which kind of issues come with it (section 5 here is integrated) and the 4th one can be a subsection.

Section 6 is a bit alone.. and it seems to me like general suggestions. So I would integrate this one under the following sections.

Section 7. It seems as a huge section. And so far your article is quite large. I would rather make it simple and mention the 7 areas and after narrow it to 2 or 1. For me the human resources management and the communication is the most exciting. Especially the HR. But this is the matter of taste.

Conclusion

References.

• Abstract

Really good and nice appetiser for the article. If you make the article more compact and you narrow the topic, rewrite a bit.

• Introduction:

As I mentioned above, I would suggest to change the structure and make this part rough, without that much details, maybe more tables and references to avoid to write down everything. Also the very beginning of this part is realy good, but with more references it will be more professional.

As I said I would integrate section 5 into this introduction part. And here I would try to focus on how the various cultures meet with the organisational culture. Here there is a good point to mention some examples from 5.2. Later with one of the “solution”, which are try to get rid of these issues (sec. 7.1, 7.2 or 7.3) can refer back.

• Sec. 6.: I would make a table from the point or make it a bit rough, because it is more like a general guidance. Also it could be great to mention why GPM uses these virtual teams, and what they are. Just with some words.

• From section 7, If I were you I would rather chose the first, or the second, or this two together to detail.

• I would suggest a conclusion at the end, to highlight the main points.