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Cultural considerations as Project Management becomes global
The principles and practices of project management are getting accepted and are rapidly spreading throughout the globe. However any kind of change meets resistance. The underlying culture of the geographic location does surely play a role in how easily or not are those principles are accepted in practice. It often may be a cause of resistance to PM introduction.
I am more specifically looking for pitfalls and lessons-learned in preparation of introducing PM in India and China organizations.
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Steven Miles [LION] S
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1. Select key individuals from the deployment locales to travel to you and learn the principles and practices.
2. Have them utilise the principles and practices in your locale until they are advocates of the processes.
3.Empower them to advocate the message in their locale.
4. Choose 1 locale to deploy first and make the individual from that locale the PM for the activity, have all the other advocates support him/her in the rollout.
5. Have them collectively derive lessons learned from the rollout in locale1 and move on to locale 2 implementing the lessons learned.
Mary B
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Hi Marios,
For culture dymensions, not only but also in project management, see the research from Geert Hofstede.
It makes a lot of sense.
Mary
Links:
I think that it is best to treat the introduction of PM as a seperate project itself.
The significant cultural difference in terms of projecvt management perspective in India ( and I think China as well) is the position that a "Boss" occupies vis a vis the subordinates.
Although much depends on the individual organisation and its culture ,Some general tips :
1)There will be very few people who'll ask questions if the boss is wrong or indeed if they are wrong.
2) Colleagues/subordiantes will most probably never say "No" and make displasure known to you directly.You need to make it out.
3) People will generally follow whatever is asked for quite religiously especially at low and middle management level
4) Need to reassure and encourage the team to open up.
5)Team can be encouraged by making the benefits clear upfront.
6) A team that is going through too much of initiatives /changes is unlikely to be serious.
7) Be sensitive and tolerant to religious issues especially festivals and associated holidays.
Hi Marios,
All the answers listed so far are valid, and the Geert Hofstede site is a great one. I'll try to add some tips from my experience.
In working with India and China, I try to funnel all my communication through the team lead rather than going directly to the team. The team members tend not to voice objections or concerns, and while some individuals can be coaxed, not all will step forward.
Tushar is correct that Indians and Chinese will base success on progress and team effort/success rather than deliverables. With both cultures, I've found that an effective way to increase the likelihood of meeting deadlines is to explain the impact clearly, phrasing it so that the offshore project manager understands that for the US (or most other English-speaking nations), not meeting a deadline is shameful and causes the entire team to look bad in the eyes of the customer. However, if you are made aware of possible delays well ahead of time, you can manage the customer and avoid their displeasure and shame for the team.
I also use the "date for a date" method a lot: "When will you be able to tell me when the estimates will be complete?" This reiterates the importance of hitting commitments in this culture.
I also at the end of every call ask each person, by name, if they have any other issues or concerns to raise. While not all will respond, this technique has been successful to some extent.
Best of luck in your rollout,
Kathryn
The drivers and the value system is different in India and china compared to Western worls.
1) People are not good in saying No to the seniors and sometimes take a lot of unrealistic goals.
2) In India people are rewarded even if they achieve 70% of their goals since there is a culture of setting very high goals. While in USA, a person will be fired.
3) Employees take their job very seriously - so they are willing to work more hrs and even on the weekends to achieve the goals.
4) Sometimes the skills may be an issue since alot of younger people are doing the job
5) Maintain communication with the cooridnator - tough to talk to individual developers and no point doing micro management of what each individual is working on - people prefer to work in groups and like challenging team goals rather than individulaitic goals.
Thanks
Rajeev
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Ray M
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Introducing PM in India or China should be no different than anywhere else in my estimation. It really is about demonstrating a process that evloves from the current system seemlessly into a more structured PM system.
Acknowledge the accomplishments of the existing systems, do not make them wrong. Do not be arrogant or cockey. Be respectful and do not lie.
Basically be a good project manager. I think the skills are easily transferable from culture to culture.
Rik D
Project Director Organisation Development at Thyssen Krupp
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I can't comment on China, but in India introducing Project Management tools in an engineering environment is different.
Setting individual deliverables is not popular (and as such not done) and short interval follow-up very unpopular.
Example:
On Monday the western team leader and Indian team leader agree the deliverables for the team for the week, as there are no standards and no individual tasks, but only team tasks are discussed, this is mostly done on gut-feel (experience!).
By Tuesday end of play, the western team leader asks his Indian colleague "how is the work coming?" and the Indian colleague answers "everything is fine"
By Wednesday end of play the same situation
By Thursday, the western team leader asks to see what is done and nothing is shown, but the Indian colleague says "it will be all right"
By Friday the agreed work is still not done and the western team leader has a bad weekend
On Monday morning however, miraculously, 85% or 95% of the work is done, the Indian team leader is totally pleased because so much was achieved and his Western colleague is still p...ed off as the job is still not completed.
Better get used to it!
Design the system to work in the circumstances
Have fun
Rik
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