The Impact of Cultural Diversity on Managing Projects
Unless you live in a very insular environment, you may be aware of a situation� whether personal,
social, or professional�in which cultural issues had an impact. In the project management realm, it is
increasingly important to be aware of the impact of culture on business and methods for addressing
cultural diversity.
Consider the meaning of culture in its broadest sense. Not only do cultural differences exist across the
globe between countries, states, and cities, they also exist within a single office. For example, the
accounting department culture may be different than the marketing department culture. Or, some
employees may be required to work strict hours seemingly tethered to their desks while others may be
free to come and go as they please. Cultural diversity is a very diverse issue, indeed.
In a 2 page word document, Explain how cultural diversity impacts projects and project management,
referencing the Learning Resources and your own research. Then, share an example from your own work
experience (or from an organization you have researched on in the U.S) in which cultural differences
negatively affected the success of a project. Recommend what you could do to bring about change in the
corporate culture to address the negative effects you identified.
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The Impact of Cultural Diversity on Managing Projects
The Impact of Cultural Diversity on Managing Projects
Cultural diversity refers to the dissimilar aspects of cultures that are displayed by
individuals. Cultural diversity is not only between nations but also in departments of
organizations. It has been found that cultural diversity has various impacts on projects and
project management.
Cultural diversity has a positive impact on projects and project management through the
ability to bring about diverse knowledge and approach to projects. According to Zein (2015), it is
worth noting that people with diverse cultural structures tend to bear diverse skills towards work.
Therefore, it is important for project managers to ensure that they include individuals of diverse
cultures in their project teams.
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Cultural differences also have various negative impacts in projects. Firstly, some cultures
nurture individualism. Proctor (2012) says that having a person in a project team who has
embraced culture that promotes individualism is quite detrimental. This is because such a person
will always work as an individual thus killing team work. With this kind of an impact on
projects, project management will always be a difficult task. Secondly, cultural difference in
projects brings about negative impacts through lack of proper communication. Some cultures
held by section of project teams do not offer much when it comes to creation of efficiency in
communication (Zein, 2015).
Additionally, differences in culture lead to project processes which are not synchronized.
This occurs where some departments in an organization handle their part projects differently
from others. This leads to gaps in the flow of projects thus leading to unsuccessful project
management.
Upon research about companies that were affected by cultural differences, the case of
Iridium LLC stands out. Iridium LLC was working on installation of 66 satellites. This project
was meant to be a success but that never happened as a result of negative impacts of cultural
differences. On the international platform, the company failed due to lack of proper
communication, team work and international marketing due to the challenge posed by cultural
differences. During the project, the project teams were unable to communicate efficiently due to
the differences in their culture. This led to communication breakdown thus impacting negatively
on the project at hand. On the other hand, it was impossible to market the project internationally
due to the diversity in culture. This led to low acceptance of the project thus affecting it
negatively. According to Anbari et al. (2003), this project by Iridium LLC would have succeeded
if the cultural diversity would have been managed properly.
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Due to the fact that cultural differences are here to stay, it is important for all project
managers to ensure that proper management is done. It is necessary to ensure that all available
cultures are harmonized to avoid the negative impacts on projects. On the other hand, proper
management of the cultural differences should be carried out to ensure that the positive impacts
are harnessed and maximized on for better project results. This can be done through ensuring that
all members of project teams are trained on good improvement. According to Kuhnke (2012),
proper communication is a vital pillar for success in project management. Additionally, there
should be proper strategies to ensure that the negative impacts of cultural differences in projects
are handled in a way that translates them into strengths. According to Hill and Jones (2011),
change management strategies improve the way various aspects of business impact on projects.
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References
Anbari, F.T. , Khilkhanova, E. V., Romanova, M. V. and Umpleby, S. A. (2003), Cross Cultural
Differences And Their Implications For Managing International Projects, Retrived from
https://www.gwu.edu/~umpleby/recent_papers/2003_cross_cultural_differences_managi
n_international_projects_anbari_khilkhanova_romanova_umpleby.htm l (Last accessed
06-04-2016)
Hill, C.L. and Jones, G.R. (2011), Strategic Management Theory: An Integrated Approach.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Kuhnke, E. (2012), Communication Skills For Dummies, New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Proctor, R. (2012), Managerial Decision Making and Performance Improvement (4th Ed)
Harlow. FT: Prentice Hall.
Zein, O. (2015), Culture and Project Management: Managing Diversity in Multicultural
Projects, Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing.
