Managing a diverse team is one of the biggest challenges project managers face. Teams are increasingly global and virtual, with members located in different countries and time zones. This introduces cultural and communication difficulties. Key issues include cultural differences in areas like communication styles, decision making, and views of time; lack of a unified project goal; absence of trust and rapport between geographically dispersed members; and insufficient training on how to work effectively as a diverse team. To overcome these challenges, project managers must help diverse teams establish trust, foster cross-cultural understanding, ensure clear goals and roles, and provide discipline and tools for collaboration across distances and cultures. With the right leadership approaches, diverse teams can leverage their varied strengths to achieve project success.
Holacracy The Next Generation Leadership in a VUCA Worldijtsrd
The Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous world is posing innumerable challenges upon all the organizational stalwarts. The purpose of the undertaking this study is more than one. 'Leaders are born not made' had always been an oft cited dubious question to the uncanny minds of many. Thus, an attempt had been made to strike an answer to the recurring question that occurs at multi tier level that is, does market leadership drives leadership in organizations or leadership capabilities of employees exercise influence on employees Methodology An empirical research had been carried out, which was both explorative and descriptive in nature, to identify the leadership style followed in organization and bring out the gap between the existing and desired leadership styles for implementation of holacracy in the organization. Variables such as task and result orientation, work delegation are taken to find out characteristics of an effective leader. Variables such as democratic, autocratic, bureaucratic, participative are examined to find out preferred style of leadership. The effectiveness of the leadership style was survived through variables of penalty, rewards, motivation and respect. Out of 340 questionnaire circulated, 317 responses were received out of which 305 were found to be usable for study. Statistical test such as description statistics using SPSS is applied to study the outcomes and presented in the form of graphs. Findings The research yielded various interesting aspects of key leadership principles. Technology is a friend and a foe, a powerful threat if underexplored poor communication skills and lack of discipline can make leaders ineffective. When asked about whether emotional intelligence is appreciated in a leader, the majority of the respondents could not give decisive answer. Holacracy brings the new era of leadership style with organizations becoming lean and employees adaptable. Implications The sample was drawn from Generation Z who is soon going to be a part of youth leadership in both corporate and governance. The questionnaire had been inclusive of asking personal traits of them to the actions. Jyoti Kukreja "Holacracy: The Next Generation Leadership in a VUCA World" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-3 | Issue-6 , October 2019, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd28029.pdf Paper URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/management/hrm-and-retail-business/28029/holacracy-the-next-generation-leadership-in-a-vuca-world/jyoti-kukreja
Holacracy The Next Generation Leadership in a VUCA Worldijtsrd
The Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous world is posing innumerable challenges upon all the organizational stalwarts. The purpose of the undertaking this study is more than one. 'Leaders are born not made' had always been an oft cited dubious question to the uncanny minds of many. Thus, an attempt had been made to strike an answer to the recurring question that occurs at multi tier level that is, does market leadership drives leadership in organizations or leadership capabilities of employees exercise influence on employees Methodology An empirical research had been carried out, which was both explorative and descriptive in nature, to identify the leadership style followed in organization and bring out the gap between the existing and desired leadership styles for implementation of holacracy in the organization. Variables such as task and result orientation, work delegation are taken to find out characteristics of an effective leader. Variables such as democratic, autocratic, bureaucratic, participative are examined to find out preferred style of leadership. The effectiveness of the leadership style was survived through variables of penalty, rewards, motivation and respect. Out of 340 questionnaire circulated, 317 responses were received out of which 305 were found to be usable for study. Statistical test such as description statistics using SPSS is applied to study the outcomes and presented in the form of graphs. Findings The research yielded various interesting aspects of key leadership principles. Technology is a friend and a foe, a powerful threat if underexplored poor communication skills and lack of discipline can make leaders ineffective. When asked about whether emotional intelligence is appreciated in a leader, the majority of the respondents could not give decisive answer. Holacracy brings the new era of leadership style with organizations becoming lean and employees adaptable. Implications The sample was drawn from Generation Z who is soon going to be a part of youth leadership in both corporate and governance. The questionnaire had been inclusive of asking personal traits of them to the actions. Jyoti Kukreja "Holacracy: The Next Generation Leadership in a VUCA World" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-3 | Issue-6 , October 2019, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd28029.pdf Paper URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/management/hrm-and-retail-business/28029/holacracy-the-next-generation-leadership-in-a-vuca-world/jyoti-kukreja
How to Help Leaders Succeed: A Guide to Successful Executive Career TransitionsKip Michael Kelly
This white paper provides HR and talent management professionals six simple steps they can take with newly hired executives to ensure successful transitions into their roles and organizational cultures. These steps are cost affordable and can be scaled to any size organization. With today’s leaner organizations, it is more important than ever to reduce the break-even point—the point at which new leaders have contributed as much value to their organizations as they have consumed from it—from six to three months (Watkins, 2003). Throughout this white paper are examples of organizations that have recognized this need and have developed programs that provide guidance to their executives to ensure successful career transitions.
Unlocking The Potential Of Frontline Managers Exec BriefingJeff Lively
Times of change present many challenges for organizations, particularly for frontline managers whose people will be responsible for implementing the change. Pressure to perform is high, as are emotions, and everyone is expected to do more with less.
For the world to be a preferred global village, countries in different continents need to get closer to
each other not only through the demolition and removal of borderline barriers that separate them, but through
international trade and integrated economy. The country’s prosperity is a consequence of the ability by state
owned as well as private companies to perform efficiently and competitively. It is critical therefore that for these
companies to perform and operate competitively, their visions and missions require visionary leaders who have
appropriate foresight, so as to steer the business boat to the right direction. State owned organization in particular
can attain their visions if their leaders are knowledgeable of business proficiencies. It should be realized that
leaders are not only born to lead but that outstanding leaders are also made. Proper, relevant and adequate
leadership development programs are keys to focused business intent. A company that retracts from developing
its leaders is not only bound to be a laggard but is doomed to an ultimate downfall. Indeed, a country should
identify the problem area so as to decisively and proactively deal with the operational challenges. For the
challenges that hamper leadership development to be overcome, it is critical to lay down the background of the
problem area, so as to have focused solutions.
Coming Up: Ten challenges for workforce development. Presentation by Barb McP...Jo Kay
Businesses and workplaces are very different to how they were 10, even just 5 years ago. Critics of our national training system suggest competencies are out of date. Are they? Or, is it our approaches to learning and our understanding of what constitutes training that is now out of step with the needs we claim to address? At what point do the national VET system, workforce development needs and culture of organisational learning intersect? Siemens and Wegner, familiar to VET practitioners on the Australian conference circuit 2005-2006, promote connectivism-network learning theory, and communities of practice respectively as relevant alternatives to traditional classroom learning. In this presentation, Barb McPherson a veteran of six Australian Flexible Learning Framework initiatives since 2002 considers ten challenges to workforce development and how RMT is responding and preparing for change.
Kompetente Führung ist ein wesentlicher Faktor für wirtschaftlichen Erfolg in Unternehmungen. Neben der Gewinnung und Bindung von Führungskräften ist deren Entwicklung ein wichtiger Dreh- und Angelpunkt.
Zwei Schwerpunkte sind dabei hervorzuheben. Zum einen steuern wir auf einen Paradigmenwechsel in der Führungskultur zu, in zahlreichen Unternehmungen hat er bereits begonnen! Zum anderen werden Prozesskompetenz, Kooperationsfähigkeit, virtuelles Arbeiten in Netzwerkstrukturen, sowie Innovationsfähigkeit, Flexibilität und Wertschätzung zu ganz wichtigen Erfolgsfaktoren.
Research shows that high-performing cultures consistently deliver extraordinary results and outperform their peers. Culture determines how things are done, how people behave, and how value is created. As former IBM CEO Lou Gerstner states, “Culture isn't just one aspect of the game, it is the game.” Yet a high- performing culture is made up of employees that are healthy, self- governing, and high-performing themselves. Without leaders and employees that possess these qualities, there is little hope of positively transforming our organizations. This is why we believe that establishing a PLE culture is foundational to creating a long- term, sustainable, high-performing organizational culture.
How to Help Leaders Succeed: A Guide to Successful Executive Career TransitionsKip Michael Kelly
This white paper provides HR and talent management professionals six simple steps they can take with newly hired executives to ensure successful transitions into their roles and organizational cultures. These steps are cost affordable and can be scaled to any size organization. With today’s leaner organizations, it is more important than ever to reduce the break-even point—the point at which new leaders have contributed as much value to their organizations as they have consumed from it—from six to three months (Watkins, 2003). Throughout this white paper are examples of organizations that have recognized this need and have developed programs that provide guidance to their executives to ensure successful career transitions.
Unlocking The Potential Of Frontline Managers Exec BriefingJeff Lively
Times of change present many challenges for organizations, particularly for frontline managers whose people will be responsible for implementing the change. Pressure to perform is high, as are emotions, and everyone is expected to do more with less.
For the world to be a preferred global village, countries in different continents need to get closer to
each other not only through the demolition and removal of borderline barriers that separate them, but through
international trade and integrated economy. The country’s prosperity is a consequence of the ability by state
owned as well as private companies to perform efficiently and competitively. It is critical therefore that for these
companies to perform and operate competitively, their visions and missions require visionary leaders who have
appropriate foresight, so as to steer the business boat to the right direction. State owned organization in particular
can attain their visions if their leaders are knowledgeable of business proficiencies. It should be realized that
leaders are not only born to lead but that outstanding leaders are also made. Proper, relevant and adequate
leadership development programs are keys to focused business intent. A company that retracts from developing
its leaders is not only bound to be a laggard but is doomed to an ultimate downfall. Indeed, a country should
identify the problem area so as to decisively and proactively deal with the operational challenges. For the
challenges that hamper leadership development to be overcome, it is critical to lay down the background of the
problem area, so as to have focused solutions.
Coming Up: Ten challenges for workforce development. Presentation by Barb McP...Jo Kay
Businesses and workplaces are very different to how they were 10, even just 5 years ago. Critics of our national training system suggest competencies are out of date. Are they? Or, is it our approaches to learning and our understanding of what constitutes training that is now out of step with the needs we claim to address? At what point do the national VET system, workforce development needs and culture of organisational learning intersect? Siemens and Wegner, familiar to VET practitioners on the Australian conference circuit 2005-2006, promote connectivism-network learning theory, and communities of practice respectively as relevant alternatives to traditional classroom learning. In this presentation, Barb McPherson a veteran of six Australian Flexible Learning Framework initiatives since 2002 considers ten challenges to workforce development and how RMT is responding and preparing for change.
Kompetente Führung ist ein wesentlicher Faktor für wirtschaftlichen Erfolg in Unternehmungen. Neben der Gewinnung und Bindung von Führungskräften ist deren Entwicklung ein wichtiger Dreh- und Angelpunkt.
Zwei Schwerpunkte sind dabei hervorzuheben. Zum einen steuern wir auf einen Paradigmenwechsel in der Führungskultur zu, in zahlreichen Unternehmungen hat er bereits begonnen! Zum anderen werden Prozesskompetenz, Kooperationsfähigkeit, virtuelles Arbeiten in Netzwerkstrukturen, sowie Innovationsfähigkeit, Flexibilität und Wertschätzung zu ganz wichtigen Erfolgsfaktoren.
Research shows that high-performing cultures consistently deliver extraordinary results and outperform their peers. Culture determines how things are done, how people behave, and how value is created. As former IBM CEO Lou Gerstner states, “Culture isn't just one aspect of the game, it is the game.” Yet a high- performing culture is made up of employees that are healthy, self- governing, and high-performing themselves. Without leaders and employees that possess these qualities, there is little hope of positively transforming our organizations. This is why we believe that establishing a PLE culture is foundational to creating a long- term, sustainable, high-performing organizational culture.
Building a team can be a difficult task. As a leader, the choices .docxhartrobert670
Building a team can be a difficult task. As a leader, the choices made with the formation of a group of people that will work together will reflect on the final project. The team must be able to work together and do it well. Building global teams can possess an extra level of difficulty that can actually be an advantage: diversity. Teams of a diverse composite are most effective when they are challenged with non-routine tasks that require innovativeness.
One model defines three stages of team development and these are the factors to observe when developing a diverse team.
Entry Stage
During the first stage of development, the entry or formation stage, the focus should be placed in building trust and forming cohesion within the team. The team is defined and various needed adjustments are made during this phase. Some member's customs may be to dive right into work and not get to know the team; this is generally the case for people from American, German, and Swiss backgrounds, which is the opposite of the overall Latin American, Middle Eastern, and Southern European culture that would like to create a true sense of a team by getting to know one and other better.
Creation Stage
During the second phase of creation, known as the work or development stage, the focus is placed on the description of the task and the analysis of the problem at hand. Cohesion within team members begins and reinforcements are in place to motivate the team members. This particular stage is not difficult in a diverse team due to the variety of experiences and ideas that result from a multicultural setting.
Action Stage
In the final stage, the focal point is decision making and implementation. This stage can become difficult because it generally requires a consensus among the team in regards to decisions to be made. Successful managers create and guide the decision making process and implementation as a facilitator for the diverse suggestions and comments added by team members without disrupting the flow of the project.
Guidelines for Success
Some guidelines to follow in order to successfully and effectively manage a diverse team include the selection style of the members. The team members should be selected by their task related capabilities and abilities instead of ethnicity or cultural quota building. The basis and nature of the project should be taken under account. Diverse teams perform better in innovative type of projects, so routine types of projects should be accomplished by homogenous teams. It is a given that diverse teams will involve a variety of personalities, styles, and customs, so the team members should expect this and be prepared to handle and accept diversity within the team. By understanding and accepting this fact of a diverse team, the members should also respect each other regardless of personal indifferences.
The different points of views may create difficulty in determining the final objective of the team and the milestones involved in the project, ...
The work of HR part two the flow ofinformation and work.docxchristalgrieg
The work of HR part two: the flow of
information and work
Harnessing
the power
of corporate
culture
STRATEGIC COMMENTARY
Laurent Jaquenoud
e-HR
Employee self-service at RDF
HOW TO...
Integrate corporate culture and
employee engagement
PRACTITIONER PROFILE
Julie Bass, Groupama
METRICS
Rating intellectual capital
HR AT WORK
Tailored recognition at Lloyds TSB
Asset Finance
HR AT WORK
Transport for London’s
non-traditional training
REWARDS
Communicating employee
recognition at MDOT
RESEARCH AND RESULTS
Effective recruiting tied to stronger
financial results
September/October 2005
Volume 4, Issue 6
PAGE 20
DEPARTMENTS
Ethics and strategy innovation at Citigroup
How O2 built the business case for
engagement
Creating a business-focused IT function
Developing leaders for a sustainable
global society
Defining the strategic agenda for HR
FEATURES
by Dave Ulrich and Wayne Brockbank
32 Volume 4 Issue 6 September/October 2005
VER THE PAST DECADE, increasing
focus has been placed on the role that
businesses can – and should – play in
contributing to a sustainable global society.
Failure to face up to these challenges has significant costs.
Increasingly, a firm’s long-term competitiveness is
dependent on how creatively and adroitly its leaders
manage at the intersection of financial, social and
environmental objectives.
Responsibility for assuring that leaders at all levels in
the firm are ready to meet these rising expectations is
widely shared throughout the corporation, but HR
professionals, particularly those responsible for leadership
development, can be at the forefront of the effort.
To be in this vanguard, leadership development
experts must reflect on two critical questions: What
kind of leader is called for? And how do we develop
individuals with these capabilities? Since 1999 the
Aspen Institute’s Business and Society Program has
been convening experts in leadership development
from academic institutions, corporations and
professional service firms around the world, inviting
them to share insights on these questions. This article
details what we have learned so far from conversations
with these leading thinkers.
A new model for business leadership
If we are now expecting businesses to operate with a
longer-term view that takes social and environmental
impacts into account, we need a new model of
leadership to achieve that result. Typically, “new
model” leaders:
• are able to span boundaries, listen to diverse
constituencies and be willing to be altered by any of
these inputs;
• have the courage to make tough decisions in a way
that acknowledges the often conflicting
values/expectations of these constituencies;
• are enriched, not overwhelmed, by complexity and
diversity;
• build a team that is stronger than its individual parts;
• see the firm in a larger context, considering social and
environmental issues beyond the corporation’s gates;
• move beyond solving specific problems or addressing
particular needs ...
CXO 2.0 Conference Experts Share Insights On Managing Global Teams In A Conne...CXO 2.0 Conference
This presentation by the CXO 2.0 Conference will help you discover strategies for leveraging technology, promoting collaboration, and building a cohesive team culture across diverse geographies. Enhance your leadership skills with expert advice and innovative approaches to global team management.
How do you become a leader in the tech industry_.pdfAnil
Becoming a leader in the tech industry requires a combination of technical expertise, leadership skills, and a strategic mindset. Here are some steps you can take to position yourself as a leader in the tech industry
A new paper from Cegos created with our Partners in Australia TP3 to update our thinking around blended learning and offer some best practices from our joint experiences.
Kseniya Leshchenko: Shared development support service model as the way to ma...Lviv Startup Club
Kseniya Leshchenko: Shared development support service model as the way to make small projects with small budgets profitable for the company (UA)
Kyiv PMDay 2024 Summer
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Discover the innovative and creative projects that highlight my journey throu...dylandmeas
Discover the innovative and creative projects that highlight my journey through Full Sail University. Below, you’ll find a collection of my work showcasing my skills and expertise in digital marketing, event planning, and media production.
3.0 Project 2_ Developing My Brand Identity Kit.pptxtanyjahb
A personal brand exploration presentation summarizes an individual's unique qualities and goals, covering strengths, values, passions, and target audience. It helps individuals understand what makes them stand out, their desired image, and how they aim to achieve it.
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Vat Registration is a legal obligation for businesses meeting the threshold requirement, helping companies avoid fines and ramifications. Contact now!
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B2B payments are rapidly changing. Find out the 5 key questions you need to be asking yourself to be sure you are mastering B2B payments today. Learn more at www.BlueSnap.com.
Company Valuation webinar series - Tuesday, 4 June 2024FelixPerez547899
This session provided an update as to the latest valuation data in the UK and then delved into a discussion on the upcoming election and the impacts on valuation. We finished, as always with a Q&A
Understanding User Needs and Satisfying ThemAggregage
https://www.productmanagementtoday.com/frs/26903918/understanding-user-needs-and-satisfying-them
We know we want to create products which our customers find to be valuable. Whether we label it as customer-centric or product-led depends on how long we've been doing product management. There are three challenges we face when doing this. The obvious challenge is figuring out what our users need; the non-obvious challenges are in creating a shared understanding of those needs and in sensing if what we're doing is meeting those needs.
In this webinar, we won't focus on the research methods for discovering user-needs. We will focus on synthesis of the needs we discover, communication and alignment tools, and how we operationalize addressing those needs.
Industry expert Scott Sehlhorst will:
• Introduce a taxonomy for user goals with real world examples
• Present the Onion Diagram, a tool for contextualizing task-level goals
• Illustrate how customer journey maps capture activity-level and task-level goals
• Demonstrate the best approach to selection and prioritization of user-goals to address
• Highlight the crucial benchmarks, observable changes, in ensuring fulfillment of customer needs
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Putting the SPARK into Virtual Training.pptxCynthia Clay
This 60-minute webinar, sponsored by Adobe, was delivered for the Training Mag Network. It explored the five elements of SPARK: Storytelling, Purpose, Action, Relationships, and Kudos. Knowing how to tell a well-structured story is key to building long-term memory. Stating a clear purpose that doesn't take away from the discovery learning process is critical. Ensuring that people move from theory to practical application is imperative. Creating strong social learning is the key to commitment and engagement. Validating and affirming participants' comments is the way to create a positive learning environment.
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2. Managing a Diverse Team - Project Manager‟s
Challenge & Pain - A real One!!
Neelam Pandey – Assistant General Manager, Suzlon Energy
3. Contents
1. Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... 4
2. Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 4
3. Cultural Differences ..................................................................................................................... 7
4. Communication Gaps .................................................................................................................. 8
5. Absence of a Unified Goal ........................................................................................................ 10
6. Un-Nurtured Trust ...................................................................................................................... 10
7. Lack of Training Disciplines to Work as a Team ................................................................... 11
8. References : ............................................................................................................................... 14
9. Author‟s Profile: .......................................................................................................................... 15
3 Page
4. 1. Abstract
The world is becoming smaller every day, advancement of the technology in communications have
contributed to the shrinking of Global market. The Project teams are not limited to the company
premises but are geographically distributed.
As companies are becoming more and more diverse it‟s becoming more and more important for
companies to understand and manage the diversity. The people of different background, races,
religion creates diverse workforce. Today Project teams are too large, too dispersed, too diverse, and
just plain too complex to manage using typical project management techniques alone, Managing and
tracking the Project work and getting the work done through the diversified team is one of the most
important area, and Yes a Pain area too for today‟s Project Manager.
Applying the effective team management practices to diverse groups at the right time is in itself a
complex endeavour. Successful teams are the result of many elements coming together, including
adaptive team leadership, optimal team structure, right team composition, a disciplined culture, co-
location of core team leaders, effective collaboration, communication, and coordination, and patience
to steer the groups as each evolves from a collection of people, into a great team. The project
leadership role becomes as much about team leadership and group development, as about project
and requirements management.
To conclude today‟s Project team are Complex, diversified, having integration challenges and to
overcome this a PM has to do the Group development by becoming a true team leader and
leveraging team potential Using team collaboration, communication and coordination tools and
techniques.
2. Introduction
As the businesses are exploding across the global, the team in today‟s corporate are not confined to
the four walls of the offices. Now days with the boom in the communication and IT industry the
concept of the virtual team has become a reality.
Fig 1: Diversified, Multicultural Project Teams
4 Page
5. The team members are spread across the globe, with different national, religion, gender, geography,
and dialect and too diverse. Making such diverse team aligned to the Company strategic goal and
then to the Project objectives is a difficult task for Project Manager‟s.
Alignment to Project goals is important for any project success, and thus it is rather more important
that the whole team get aligned and be at same level of understanding. But Managing a diversified
team is indeed the biggest challenges a Project Manager‟s faces in managing any project team
Managing diversity in project team as thus becomes so important in the interest of the project.
What is Workplace Diversity?
Diversity encompasses all the ways in which people differs. Individuals differ in both ways, based on
personal and the organization characteristics. Fig shows the three majors ways of diversity
Personal Characteristics Organisation related
Characteristics
Primary
Secondary
Work Place Diversity
Fig 2: Components of workplace diversity
The complex interactions of these characteristics gives rise to workplace diversity and provides the
basis upon which to leverage the bottom line benefits .A diverse team will operate differently to a
homogeneous team –Difference in the communication style, the mix of mental models and value sets
and a tendency towards in group out group behavior and social categorization all affects the ways
diverse team develop and function.
Fig: 3: Work force diversity
5 Page
6. The Definition and Impact of globalization on the project Team
The definition of global project management emphasizes the need for company leaders to recognize
the cultural implications of mixing skilled workers from many nations, along with the tactical steps
required for teams to collaborate effectively.
Globalization rules the business world today. Organizations work on onsite-offshore model to make
use of the labor market effectively. This model brings in talents from various geographies in lower
rates. Expanding the business by opening offices in different locations is reason organizations prefer
working on globalized model. Project managers are put in a situation to handle projects from these
locations which requires handling people from different backgrounds. Managing widely spread teams
in harmony is not an easy task. Different time zones also need to be considered. This has been an
area of concern for most business enterprises in today's world.
Pain areas of Managing a Diversified Virtual distributed Project Team and its way forward:
Decisive issues need to be addressed in order to draw together diverse individual competencies into
a unified set of knowledge and skills, all working for the attainment of a common goal. Hence knowing
the most common and critical challenges that confront the global team leader is of great relevance in
today‟s project management trends. These are:
Cultural differences
Communication Gaps
Absence of a Unified Goal
Un-nurtured Trust
Lack of Training Disciplines to Work as a Team
Challenges of Globalised team
The graph depicts the challenges faced by the Global virtual disbursed teams
Sense of Isolation 66%
Difficulty seeing the whole picture 77%
Difficulty Establishing Rapport and trust 81%
Absence of Collegiality 85%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%
Fig4: Shows the challenges faced by Virtual team members
6 Page
7. 3. Cultural Differences
Fig:5: Cultural Teamwork Style difference between US & China
Cultural competency is not only a matter of knowing the influences of traditions and racial heritage. It
is also about the ability to distinguish individual differences acquired as personality traits from those
that were borne from a collective set of cultural experiences and upbringing. It's important to
understand that culture is basically the development of socialization processes that were embedded
in a person‟s mind and form part of his thinking and behavior.
Studies made by Eva Razvigorova and Gottfried Wolf-Lauden ("East-West Joint Ventures: The New
Business Environment", 1991 Blackwell Publications) revealed that 70 percent of failed cross-cultural
ventures are attributable to the seriousness of cultural differences. Accordingly, seven out of ten
failures were attributable to the behavior patterns of the leaders or managers.
One of the challenges that a Project Manager faces is the ability by which he can best use his training
and the technological tools at hand in navigating a global virtual diversified team in real-world
operations. Some examples of cultural difference include but are not limited to:
Giving weight to family values as a metric for gauging the level of trust that is given to a
relationship.
Body language to show respect or disrespect in addressing or communicating with others. Where
bowing and avoiding eye contact is a show of respect, it can be misconstrued by most westerners as
a sign of insincerity in a culture of “looking into one‟s eyes” as a manifestation of openness or
honesty.
7 Page
8. Fig:6 : Cultural Body languages difference in greeting
Sensitivity to time and tolerance to time pressure, in which the person at work is likely to multi-task
or a have a tendency to mix work with pleasure, often with a mindset that his skills are enhanced
by the adrenaline rush experienced when there is little time left. This, however, may not always be
an individual trait but borne from a collective cultural habit of being late at meeting appointments or
deadlines.
Way Forward: Learn How to Take an Advantage of the Cultural & Regional Barriers
Global project managers often get into trouble by not knowing how to manage the cultural and
regional differences. If you learn how to make better use of these differences, it will be highly
beneficial to the project improvement. It is an opportunity for each member to grow personally as well
professionally by adopting the cultural intricacies. Associating with global teams means working in
partnership with people who has the required skill levels and experience that is necessary to be a part
of the project, but use different languages and possess various cultural values. This difference
creates a major hurdle for the teams to bond in a personal level or develop a professional bonhomie.
Conducting sessions to understand different cultures and the business jargons used in each region
will be very effective. Not only it creates an opportunity to learn new cultures but also develops a team
spirit. Respecting the values each culture and region bring in and making an advantage of these
differences to the project is very important. A high level of understanding and a support system can
be created by using the cultural differences. For example, sending a message to those work from
India on a festival day like Diwali (festival of lights) or Holi (festival of colors) will help in creating a
personal touch among teams in this region. If you are conducting a meeting around that time,
encourage teams from India to talk few words about how they celebrate that particular festival. The
major advantage in adopting the cultural values is the spirit it creates among the teams.
4. Communication Gaps
Leadership competency in communicating with a global team is largely different in a team setting
where the members are co-located. Lack of skills for discerning the appropriate communication style
and technological tools can break down trust. Trust is an essential component for maintaining
productive networking activities and for spawning other development processes.
A Project Manager‟s skill in communicating includes the ability to project a role model who possesses
the universally accepted traits of a good leader:
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9. charismatic or compelling,
value-based; one who takes into consideration the core values of the organization as part of a
culture
Emotionally intelligent, which is described as the ability to overcome the stresses of cross-cultural
interactions and recognize the factors to be nurtured for adaptation and growth.
Team-oriented
humane or caring
participative in the sense that he or she involves the members in decision-making processes
Instinctively, team members measure the leader‟s competency and style against his method and
manner of communication. The clarity and timeliness of conveying instructions plus the suitability of
medium used in transmitting instructions make up for the limitations of not having non-virtual face-to-
face meetings.
Fig 7: Indicates what can lead to communication failure in a project
Conflicts arise from the uneven distribution of information, and may further be interpreted as
discrimination. Basically, project management problems in a global context are hurdled by one‟s
ability to communicate effectively and can be assessed by following areas of intercultural sensitivity:
If the leader experiences positive feelings toward interacting with members coming from different
cultures;
If positive responses or reciprocity of interactions toward the global leader are elicited from people
of different cultures;
If there is successful attainment of a goal and eventually, successful completion of a project;
If cross-cultural barriers are managed without suffering from culture-contact stress.
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10. Way Forward: Create a Communication Plan to Manage Geographical Limitations
The most common problem faced by the Project Managers with global, Diversified, Virtual teams is
the lack of personal touch. The physical presence in the work environment makes a great difference
in real time projects. The clarity lagging in the important tasks is common among globally distributed
project teams as the project managers often fail to address the communication issues. The
geographical differences and various time zones often limit the progression. It is important for the
project managers to create a communication plan appropriately. The correct communication helps a
great deal in managing the project teams that work from different locations.
5. Absence of a Unified Goal
Failure to overcome cultural and language barriers contribute largely to the inability of team members
to comprehend the exact goal or mission of the global team. This can lead to lack of agreement and
cohesion on ideas being explored or being creatively developed. It can likewise result in overlapping
of ideas and redundancies.
Lack of unity in achieving a common goal often leads to participations that are based on different
perceptions on why the project is being carried out. Others may view a project as a humanitarian
mission while another sees it as a political agenda.
Most often, building trust among team members is difficult to achieve since there is an incomplete
basis on which to measure the degree of dependence or reliance placed on each other‟s integrity and
ability.
To be effective, a navigator of a global team project should possess the competency to steer
members of diverse backgrounds to work toward a common goal. This can only be done by
encouraging everyone to assume a participative stance in order to be aware of the values of different
cultural perspectives and approaches.
Way Forward: Each member is given an opportunity to highlight significances or explain the
practicality of adopting a particular stance based on the relevance of his or her knowledge, e.g., the
local market and its buying public or international laws for standards of safety. The main guideline in
coming up with ideas to broach or courses of actions to take is the overall agreement that it is the
best set of solutions to adopt for the purpose of achieving a common goal.
6. Un-Nurtured Trust
Team members may start out as optimistic and all too willing to contribute their best to achieve
success. A Project Manager may be charismatic enough with his communication methods to
encourage team participation as well as put values to what is practicable and logical. However, the
leader's inability to show genuine concern is tantamount to insincerity or lack of integrity. Often, the
indicators surface once the pressures of culture-contact set in.
Way Forward: The Use of Technological Tools, Internet Portals and Messaging Devices: Lack
of trust as one of the Project management problems can be addressed by converging collective
competencies via online sharing of documents. The ability of a Project manager to employ
technological tools for planning, organizing and monitoring project developments and status brings
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11. openness and straightforward coordination. This comes with the understanding that the competency
of the global project leader includes reviewing the measures in place for data security and the
observance of international laws that pertain to sharing documents online as well as outside of
territorial jurisdictions.
Fig:8: Importance of Trust in a Project environment
There are no hard and fast rules to follow in nurturing trust among team members, but often they start
on a personal level. Online collaboration often compels team members to do their best behavior and
put their best foot forward. Learning the culture of team work via online collaboration can virtually
build a global team‟s trust among team members, leading to the attainment of effectively converging
varying global competencies.
7. Lack of Training Disciplines to Work as a Team
This aspect is often overlooked once team members have started to work together as a team that
relies on cross-cultural competencies. Team members acquire basic training as individuals and their
expertise includes managing the drawbacks in their fields of expertise. A global virtual team is
different since there is now a set of collective efforts dispersed in remote geographical locations
coupled with cross-cultural adaptations.
Training initiatives cover the operational environment by which the group will share information and
assumption of responsibilities in ensuring data security, privacy policies and compliance with territorial
laws for exported or imported data.
Way Forward: Get Help from Global Project Consulting Services
Some organizations choose to take the help of consultants who conduct specialized, short-term
training programs. Bringing together the key project team members from different locations to attend
these sessions will be highly boosting.
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12. These programs help to:
Develop trust across multicultural workforce
Develop better communication with the teams
Control errors associated with translation of critical documents
Segregate work responsibilities among virtual teams
Minimize animosity among team members when meetings are held
Realize the issues created due to dispersed working environment
Develop strategies to make vastly-distributed teams to be more productive
Deploy processes to meet work deadlines
Tools used in these short-term training programs include real-life exercises, discussions,
presentations, simulations, and project-based activities.
Rounding Up the Drawbacks and Their Solutions:
To summarize this problems within the global setting, global project leaders should possess team
management capabilities for discerning which cultural traits, traditions and knowledge create positive
impacts as well as knowing when and where to draw the line. The key elements to address are the
barriers that prevent the entire team from reaching out and understanding the language, traditions
and norms regarded as non-universal.
The use of technological tools should take into consideration the applications, resources, training
initiatives and security measures that allow intercultural participation in the most straightforward
manner. The objective is to converge all skills and talents into a single set of collective competencies
geared at working toward the successful completion of project goals.
Case Study: Project Success: Boeing 777
Project Success – Case Studies
When Boeing approved the 777 project, they knew that their design and manufacturing processes
would have to change. The ones used in the past produced good but not great project results, and
most would not score well when measured objectively against a CSF test. If Boeing was to design
and build a significantly different and competitive aircraft, and if they hoped to score higher on the
CSF scale, they would have to change their project management culture. And this is precisely what
they did. Perhaps the most significant change was the creation of a new and collaborative approach
to team work. The changes were successful and the 777 proved to be one of the most successful
aircraft in the history of commercial aviation.
Boeing 777
Today, commercial aircraft manufacturing is dominated by Airbus and Boeing. It is an industry
characterized by intense competition, high product development costs, high market risk, and deferred
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13. profits. Risks are high because there are few customers, and if the major airlines of the world shun a
new plane, there are simply not enough smaller airlines to rescue the project from failure.
Indeed, development costs are so high that hundreds of planes must be sold before the fixed costs of
design and development can be recovered. For example, Airbus needs to sell 420 of its new A380
planes to break even, a milestone that will take many years to achieve..
Boeing Approves the 777 Project
In 1990 Boeing made the decision to develop a new family of aircraft. Designed to bridge the gap
between the 767 and 747 family of planes, the 777 (also called the „triple seven‟) would be a long-
range wide-body aircraft capable of carrying between 283 and 368 passengers and with a range from
5,235 to 9,380 nautical miles (9,695 to 17,372 km).
The 777 would be designed using the latest three dimensional digital imaging technology. It would be
powered by lighter twin engines, the most powerful ever built, and designed to be 20 percent more
fuel efficient than its predecessors. The airframe, some of which was constructed with new composite
materials, would further add to its efficient use of fuel.
The budget would be over $6 billion US and more than 10,000 people would be involved in the
project. To appreciate the size of the project as well as the size of the aircraft, manufacturing facilities
would cover an area equivalent to over 70 football fields.
Risk Mitigation
Boeing would take several steps to spread the financial and marketing risk. While they would
manufacture the flight deck and forward section of the cabin, the wing, tail and the engine nacelles in
their own plants, they would subcontract 70 percent of the project to suppliers throughout the world.
Subcontractors would include Alenia in Italy, ASTA in Australia, BAE Systems in UK, Bombardier
Shorts in UK, Embraer in Brazil, Japanese aerospace companies, Kaman in USA, Korean Air,
Northrop Grumman in USA and Singapore Aerospace.
Second, Boeing would involve eight of the world‟s largest airlines as strategic partners: Nippon
Airways, American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Delta Air Lines, Japan Airlines, Qantas,
and United Airlines. It was an approach that would prove instrumental in designing an aircraft that
would not only appeal to passengers but provide the airlines with a more flexible plane to meet their
changing markets. For example, the interior of the aircraft was designed with curved panels, larger
overhead bins, and indirect lighting. And the dimensions of the windows were increased to become
the largest of any current commercial airliner. Then "Flexibility Zones," were added. Water, electrical,
pneumatic, and other hook-ups were placed throughout the cabin in such a way that the airline could
quickly move seats, galleys and lavatories when it was necessary to reconfigure the cabin.
Open Organization
By involving outsiders, Boeing changed the way in which teams were configured. Now, they were
open to wider participation and included engineers, procurement staff, manufacturing staff, customers
and suppliers. It was a strategy that made it difficult to ignore internal and external recommendations
over the project life-cycle.
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14. This change in team composition was a significant departure from the way in which previous projects
had been managed. It changed the culture of the organization, away from a closed organization, that
was dominated by union work rules and high power distance, to one that was open and encouraged
communication both up and down the hierarchy. In the past, relationships with suppliers were
characterized by competition, suspicion, and distrust. This new approach involved suppliers and
subcontractors as strategic partners and critical participants in a customer-driven design,
development, and manufacturing process.
This open organization also radically changed the way in which the workforce was expected to work
with management. Regardless of where problems occurred, team members were encouraged to bring
their concern to management. If they failed to receive the satisfaction they expected, they were
encouraged to bring the problem to the next highest level and continue moving the problem higher
until they were satisfied that their concerns were addressed.
What effect did these changes have on project success?
This is, of course, always difficult to isolate and conclude, however, as of 2009 more than 780 planes
had been built, making the 777 one of Boeing‟s best selling models. Further, a more balanced
perspective between the customer and engineering design efforts apparently did not compromise
quality standards since there have been no fatalities since the plane‟s introduction in 1995.
Lesson Learned
There is one very interesting lesson that seems to stand out from 777 project. Developing an open
team concept, one that involves representation from many functional areas of the organization and
one that involves customers and suppliers, may not only reduce project failure risk but may also prove
to be instrumental in changing the basic project management culture of an organization.
Involving the customer over the life cycle of any project does not come without its problems. Conflicts
from competing interests emerge, delays are inevitably introduced, costs often increase, and scope
management can become a very real challenge. Yet opening the project management process to
customers and suppliers can be advantageous because it focuses the project squarely on business
objectives
8. References :
[1] Andre Sammartino, Jannie ö”Flynn ,Stephan Nicholas, “Managing diverse work team , a business
model for diversity management”,2002
[2] Lynn Anderson,” Global Project Management--5 Tips to Manage a Global Team”www.nuwave-
tech.com,Feb 2011
[3] Kathleen B. (Kitty) Hass, “How to Manage the Complexities of Large, Diverse Project Teams ”,
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
[4]Michaela Driver , “Diversity and learning in groups: The learning Organization- Vol 3”, 2003
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15. [5]Edward Godfrey Ochieng, Andrew David Price, “Frame work for managing Multicultural Project
teams”, 2009
[6]April H Reed, Lindaa V Knight “Project risk differences between virtual and Co-located teams”,
March 2010
9. Author’s Profile:
Author‟s of the paper is PMP Certified , a BE Mechanical from Pune
University, India , has the Project Management Experience of 11+
years in the core Manufacturing Industries. Worked with India‟s two
leading auto majors viz Tata Motors and M&M for more than 10 years
and currently working with Suzlon Energy Limited as the AGM in SCM
Purchase.
Email – neelam.pathak@suzlon.com
neelampandey2011@gmail.com
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