Revision as of 14:55, 24 February 2018

Abstract

The art of managing multicultural teams esteems for project human resource management. According to the Project Management Institute managing a project team can be described as:

"Manage Project Team is the process of tracking team member performance, providing feedback, resolving issues, and managing team changes to optimize project performance." [1]

When a manager is working with a diverse team there will be some differences in cultural beliefs, values and assumptions in which he or she has to consider. The manager needs to be aware of what artifacts and basic assumptions that influences the team members, and which cultural issues may have an negative impact of a given project if it is not dealt with timely and with correct approach. ^[1]

Working with a multicultural team can empower creativity and innovation and has advantages in problem identification and generating alternatives for given problems; the team will only be effective, if they solve any given problems of internal integration.^[2] One of the biggest issues a manager can encounter when working with a multicultural team is neglecting the cultural differences of the team members. Two team members, who have different national backgrounds may not have the same social relationship nor time perception; one may have a high emphasis on punctuality and specific deadlines whereas another may have a less strict perception of what is timely. It is therefore not only important that the manager is aware of the multicultural differences but the team members should also understand the cultural differences and learn how to bridge between the different cultures to minimize blindspots.

A diverse set of tools can be applied to understand and bridge between different cultures in a project team and one of them is MBI.^[2] This tool was invented by Maznevski and DiStefano, which was used to identify cultural differences and how to communicate and bridge between these differences. The key idea for this tool is to use the cultural differences to bridge and create understanding between the different cultures, which should empower the quality of both decision making and idea generation for the team. ^[2]. This article will focus on the impact of cross-cultural teams have on projects, how and why they should be managed and what tools that can be applied to optimize team dynamics and performance.

Definitions

It is important to define what culture is and in what discipline of project manage it should be applied before any necessary tools and speculations can applied. The definition of culture is not completely agreed upon hence different scholars have different definitions. The scholars do have some characteristics of a culture they can agree upon .^[2]

• An interrelated system of dimensions
• Sets of ways of perceiving, thinking, feeling, behaving and evaluating
• Provides a reference frame for actions and decisions
• More or less shared at the group level
• Learnt through socialisation

These characteristics shows that the cultural tow is shared between groups and they are unique ways of behaving, thinking feeling etc. The characteristics are important to understand between the different cultures when they are being put together, and have to cooperate on a common goal. The definition of multicultural, or cross-cultural, teams may not be as transparent as one would assume at first glance. It can easily be interpreted as only being the national differences between team members and their beliefs, values and artifacts. ^[2] When talking about different cultures in the project team, it could also imply the different spheres of organizational cultures e.g. financial department, HR, R&D, marketing, engineering etc.

The specific project management view used in managing different cultures is called project human resource management ,but is usually referred to as human resource management. Human resource management deals people as a resource and their resource can be defined as their skill set, knowledge, characteristics etc. Human resources can be difficult to manage as they are not tangible and a manager will therefore always have some uncertainty in the behaviour or actions of his team members. ^[3]

Importance of multicultural management in projects

Managing multicultural teams is in the area of Project Human Resource Management (PHRM) and is typically referred to in project teams. Projects are considered independent from each other, well defined and it is effective when it sticks to objective REF fra dine noter. When talking about project management with human resources, it is important that one is emphasising a specific aspect of a project being the project team. The emphasis here will be why cross-cultural management is important in regards of project team management.

Different cultures would have a different set of assumptions and beliefs and when integrating these into a multicultural project team complications can arise if the manager does not acknowledge the differences, and use comprehensive tools to optimize group dynamics. Management can therefore not be perceived as a general set of best practices and globally common principles and techniques since different practices, like performance management, can have contrasting effects according to which national context it has been applied in. ^[4] When talking about human resources in project teams the ressource aspect can be expanded from the previous definition to people, which have different skills, roles, responsibilities, relationships etc. ^[1] The important aspect of managing multicultural teams in project management is to prevent and resolve issues bread from cultural differences and optimize group dynamic when changes occur. It is important that the manager of the project utilizes the strengths in diversion of the team, and does not let the diversion create conflicts. One key aspect to optimize the performance of multicultural teams is communication. Communication between employees and managers can help the project manager map a cultural pattern, which can be used to identify potential problems or opportunities in the future. This will also help the manager predict the behaviour of the team, which is important if he/she wants to minimize cross-cultural uncertainty; high uncertainty of the cross-cultural differences can have a negative impact on the performance of the team, hence a manager will have issues locating potential blind spots in the team. ^[5].

If a manager fails to manage the cultural differences efficiently he would end up with dissatisfied workers and unsatisfied stakeholders. If the most important stakeholders are from a different national origin with different values, the manager might also integrate some of the stakeholder's beliefs and values to his/her team. This could be done to work on the project the way the stakeholder would prefer it to be done.

Cross-cultural frameworks

Different cultures have different beliefs and values, and there have been numerous studies in the managerial aspect of cross-cultural management. These studies define and discuss the different values and beliefs for a group of people, which can be bottled down to what is important and what is true for these groups. ^[6]. Digging into the beliefs and values when discovering a culture is usually done through questionnaires and interviews since these are not transparent. The values and beliefs are metaphysical knowledge and cannot be observed, therefore a manager could start by investigating the artefacts and behaviour of a culture since this is on the observable level. The artefacts and behaviour consists of rites, rituals, symbols and myths, and the project manager could from observation unveil some characteristics from a culture.^[7]. Important characteristics could be:

• Greeting rituals
• Forms of adress
• Making contact
• Dress code
• Contracts

References

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Project management institute (2013). A guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide), fifth edition. chapter 9.4 pp. 1
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4} Schneider et. al.(2014). Managing across cultures p. 210-213
3. ↑ Laurent, A. (1986). ´The cross-cultural puzzle of international human resources management´, Human Resource Management, 25(1), p. 97.
4. ↑ Schneider et. al.(2014). Managing across cultures p. 8-20
5. ↑ Ochieng (2009). Framework for managing multicultural project teams p. 537-538
6. ↑ England, G.W. (1978). ´Managers and their value system; A five-country comparative study´, Colombia journal of world business, 13(2), pp. 35-44
7. ↑ Schein, E.H (1985). Organizational Culture and Leadership