Cross-cultural management in multinational project groups

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Abstract

This paper aims at better understanding the dynamics of international project groups by grasping the strategies project leaders set up to cope with cultural diversity. Three kinds of cross-cultural practices emerged from the comparative study of European project groups: (1) to draw upon individual tolerance and self-control, (2) to enter into a trial-and-error process coupled with relationship development and (3) to capitalize on transnational corporate or professional cultures. An alternative method to enhance the functioning of cross-cultural projects is also suggested. It consists in the construction of cross-cultural patterns based upon a structured examination of the cultural sense-making processes of project members. The paper concludes on the necessarily culture bound approaches of cross-cultural management in transnational project groups.

Section snippets

How national cultures impact cross-cultural project teams

For over twenty years, researchers have precisely shown that management practices are embedded in national cultures and that the search for a universal effective way of management is meaningless (Hofstede, 1980, Trompenaars, 1997). People embedded in a given cultural context tend to share certain worldviews (Alderfer & Smith, 1982) including specific representations of appropriate ways of cooperating, managing conflicts, accepting authority, or simply communicating (d’Iribarne, Henry, Segal,

The research method

To figure out actual practices of management of cultural diversity, we conducted a comparative study of three international project groups. The three projects have in common to gather engineers from several European countries. However, there are very different in terms of contexts, goals and structures. Each case is presented in Exhibit 1.

Case 1: A consortium for R&D

The first project group is a European consortium set up to make R&D in the telecommunication industry. It involves sixteen

Findings

The study evidences three kinds of cross-cultural practices implemented by transnational project managers. It is important to mention that these strategies are not exclusive. One given leader often resorts to several practices simultaneously, and within one project, leaders of cross-cultural at various levels often set up different strategies.

Discussion

The strategies to cope with cross-cultural differences are themselves culture bound approaches. For example, to draw upon professional cultures to federate international teams fit the French context of interpretation within which the occupation is part and parcel of personal identity and plays a large role in the regulation of working relations. Indeed, in French corporations, relationships between employees depend on their professional status (d’Iribarne, 1989). Thus, diversity management

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