Cultural influences are ofcourse nothing new. Any of us who have traveled to another country, the least to say to another state in our land of diversity, would have encountered some form of cultural differences in life.
In a mobile project world, it is quite a possibility that the project managers would end up working in a variety of cultures or work with people who reflect an array of multi-cultural perspectives. Projects around the world are found to showcase similar kinds of threats and opportunities that are non-technical and quite often identified as cultural.To name a few, some cultures invite very direct speech, while others abstain from it. Some cultures follow a very formal chain-of-command in terms of project communications, while other cultures promote a more horizontal flow of information.
A Project Manager working within a particular cultural environment will necessarily reflect that culture, both explicitly and implicitly. Now, is this a good reason to learn to value and celebrate the cultural diversity in one's project world?
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I agree with what you said regarding the influence of culture w.r.t. geographical locations.
You have mentioned that "A Project Manager working within a particular cultural environment will necessarily reflect that culture, both explicitly and implicitly".
But, in the context of the construction industry, pertaining to global projects, its not only the project manager that have to reflect the culture, but also the other players such as the clients, contractors, suppliers, consultants, freelance expatriates so on and so forth have to reflect the culture of that particular environment for smooth running of the project, which is not always a viable anticipation and hence ensueing conflicts.
Even the project managers view of good management is different in different cultures. For example, some may attribute good management maiinly, along with other qualities, to logical planning and controlling, some may attribute it to building relationships with internal and external players of the project and communicating with them and some may attribute it to commercial(Procurement) management so on and so forth. I don't really think that the different players from different cultures reflecting the culture of a particular environment is that easy to be achieved.
As an answer to you question, I would say it is a reason,albeit I can't say it as the only good reason.
It is true that cultural differences between the various players in a global project is a serious issue and Adaptability to the new working environment is the challenge, because the problems faced in a Global project is much different from those of a local project.I think Project Managers could be better trained by the companies and made aware of the fact that intitutional differences are bound to happen ( which i think is lacking in the present scenario). Going back to the readings we discussed in class, the cognitive institutional pillar considers cultural differences and hence would take longer time to resolve such conflicts. Hence, much action can be taken at the mangement level itself to tackle such issues related to global projects. An exposure to the lessons learnt from similar projects already executed could be one approach.
In an increasing global scenario of project execution, we cannot but accept and live with participants from different cultures take part in any construction project in general and infrastructure projects in particular. The major advantages being it might bring about new technology and experience to the project delivery as such. In any such projects, I should believe that the client preferences and the objectives which the project has to meet are to be considered. This will help to bring about synergy among various participants. The philosophy of being open to new learnings and quick adaptation to the new culture and conditions are the orders of the day. So I would say we should cultural diversity in project's world, since it would bring about the richness of the fusion of different cultures. But it should be celebration with caution to avoid conflict and encourage synergy.
The comments were interesting to note and thanks for your insights.
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