Multiculturalism - a risk in projects?
Project management due to the globalization is always connected to people from different cultures and how they can work towards the same goal. Taking in count cultural dimension is always can create substantial obstacles to effective teamwork-but these may be subtle and difficult to recognize until significant damage has already been done or on the other hand in can create a competitive advantage.
According to Hofstede article about "Cultural dimensions" has show general categories that can create barriers to a team's ultimate success. These categories are direct versus indirect communication; trouble with accents and fluency; attitudes toward hierarchy and authority; and conflicting norms for decision making. Different levels in these points in multicultural teams often generate frustrating management dilemmas. This frustration and uncertainly can usually be solved by a good communicator how can bring everyone on the same page and explain the common goals and objectives.
Litauen-regional
English: Comparison of cultural values between Swe...
English: Location of the Netherlands on the globe....In the case of Keitel-Gearard, unfortunately, it created important damages and barriers for the project to be successful as the team misinterpret and misunderstood each tasks, goal and each other.
Never the less frequently it happens that understanding of gestures and values of each nation are misinterpreted (ex. Finnish manager and his tool was laugh out by German mangers) and are not understood, so knowledge of nations differences in highly important to ensure correct communications.
After all if the manager learns how to uses each team members culture in the action to create the needed things the project can become successful, but that requires a deep knowledge and psychological intelligence to achieve that.
However, there are many unsolved problems with multicultural teams that are likely to pose serious socioeconomic and business problems in the near future. Despite the fact that we have made considerable progress in...