PROJECT STAKEHOLDER ANALYSIS AND CULTURAL INFLUENCE OVER INTERNATIONAL PROJECT

MANAGEMENT

Nicholas Wani Paul Maneenak Lemar Elhard James Kumalija

GROUP MEMBERS

In this presentation we seek to answer the following questions;

• What is a project?• What is “Stakeholder Analysis”?• What is Culture?• Influences of Culture on International Projects• How to solve the issues of cultural influence on International Projects

AIMS OF THIS PRESENTATION

Overview Project Context Cultural influence Cross Cultural Project Management

PRESENTATION OUTLINE

OverviewPRESENTER: Nicholas Wani Paul

TIME LINE 01 Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit,

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A temporary endeavor undertaken to achieve a specific aim.

These are a few examples of possible projects:

Developing new products or services

Effecting a change in the structure, staffing, or style of an organization.

Developing or acquiring a new or modified information system.

Constructing a building or infrastructure, or

Implementing a new business process or procedure

Project

Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet project requirements.

Project management is accomplished through 5 Process Groups.

These 5 Process Groups are:

1. Initiating

2. Planning

3. Executing

4. Monitoring

5. Closing.

Project Management

MANAGING A PROJECT

Identifying requirements.

Addressing the various needs, concerns and expectations of the stakeholders  as the project is planned and carried out

Balancing the competing project constraints including, but not limited to: 1. Scope

2. Quality

3. Schedule

4. Budget

5. Resources and Risk

Managing a Project

Managing a Project…..

MANAGING A PROJECT

Planning is the most important stage in project Management. Do you agree? Yes or no?

NO, all stages are equally important

Principles of Effective Project Control

MANAGING A PROJECT

1. Always have an updated plan

2. Hold regular project control meetings

3. Have team members regularly report progress

4. Ensure team members are accountable to each other

5. Correct small deviations as they occur

6. Focus on team problem-solving

Types of Projects Difficult to Control

MANAGING A PROJECT

1.  Large projects with complex communications

2. Geographically dispersed projects

3. Projects requiring high technical standards

4. Long duration projects with personnel turnover

5. Projects with multiple subcontractors

Project Life Cycle

Blackman R(2003).”Project Cycle Management”, Tearfund, Teddington

Project Context

Source: www.openpm.co.uk

Performance of any project is sensitive to

influence in the context in which it is based. Understanding and

responding to the project context is in most cases

critical to success.

Project ManagerWhich project skill is the most important for a Manager of an International project?

Project Management Key Knowledge Areas

International project management is the management of projects internationally or across borders and cultures, therefore international project management requires a specific set of skills to ensure success when managing international projects.

International Project Management

Source: sustainnet.com

STAKEHOLDER ANALYSIS

Next Presenter: Mr. Maneenak Lemar

A project is successful when it achieves its objectives and meets or exceeds the expectations of the stake holders. But what are and who are the stakeholders?

Stakeholders

Source: stakeholdermaps.com

• Stakeholders are individuals who either care about or have a vested interest in your project.

• They are the people who are actively involved with the work of the project or have something to either gain or lose as a result of the project.

What are Stakeholders?

• The project sponsor• The customer• subcontractors,• suppliers, • and some times even

the government

• The project manager,

• project team members,

• and the managers from other departments in the organization

Who are Stakeholders

Internal stakeholders External stakeholders

You remember this paint we have two types of stakeholders.

Types of Stakeholders….

Types of Stakeholders….

Source:www.bbc.co.uk

• Clear project objectives.

• Communicate regularly

• Identify key stakeholders.

How to avoid conflict among stakeholders

Stakeholder analysis:

Stakeholder Analysis is the technique used to identify the key people who have to be won over.

You then use Stakeholder Planning to build the support that helps you succeed.

Stakeholder analysis:

I. Identify who your stakeholders are. II. Work out their power.III. Influence and interest.IV. Understanding of the most important.

Stakeholder analysis…

No Name Position Project role Contact information

1 Ahmad Admin Manager

Internal Ahmad_af@gmail.com

2 Bob Politician External bob@gmail.com

Prepared by: Date: / /Stakeholders Identification Strategy

Stakeholders Analysis: Power/Influence-Interest Matrix

Share Holders

Source: www.corumgroup.com

CULTUREOnce again Welcome Nicholas Wani Paul to Take us through this part of the Presentation

http://www.crossculturaltraining.net.au

What is Culture

PRACTICES

Manifestation of Culture at Different Levels of Depth

Organisational Culture

Organisational Culture

Why Organisational Culture Matters

Power distance index:  The index measures the degree of inequality that exists in a society.

Uncertainty avoidance index: The index measures the extent to which a society feels threatened by uncertain or ambiguous situations.

Individualism index: The index measure the extent to which a society is individualistic.

Masculinity index (Achievement vs. Relationship): The index measures the extent to which the dominant values are assertiveness, money and things (achievement), not caring for others or for quality of life. The other end of the spectrum would be femininity (relationship).

Measuring Cultural Differences

People even within the same culture carry several layers of mental programming within themselves. Different layers of culture exist at the following levels:

The national level: Associated with the nation as a whole.

The regional level: Associated with ethnic, linguistic, or religious differences that exist within a nation.

The gender level: Associated with gender differences (female vs. male)

The generation level: Associated with the differences between grandparents and parents, parents and children.

The social class level: Associated with educational opportunities and differences in occupation.

The corporate level: Associated with the particular culture of an organization. Applicable to those who are employed.

Layers of Culture

Layers of Culture ………….

Culture Vs Business Expansion

Cultural Awareness VS Extent of Global Involvement.

Cultural Influence over International Project Management

Finally, Hon. Elhard James Kumalija will finalise this presentation.

• Is a leader who needs to influence others to help accomplish group or organizational objectives.

• Is there leadership Attributes, behaviors, practices that are – universally accepted and effective across

cultures?– accepted and effective in only some

cultures?– Influenced by societal and organizational

cultures? • What is the effect of violating cultural norms?

Project Manager

• Face situations that are highly complex, constantly changing, and difficult to interpret.

• The cultural diversity presents a substantial challenge with respect to the design of multinational organizations and their leadership.

• Many management processes lose effectiveness when cultural borders are crossed.

• only 40% of International Joint Ventures meet their prescribed objectives (Beamish and Delios 1997)

– To create opportunities for collaboration , global leaders must learn not only the customs, courtesies and business protocols of their counterparts from other countries, but they must also understand the national character, management philosophies and mind set of the people

Multi-cultural International Projects

• Y2K Update computer systems for a millennium date change , 180 countries

• Success factor– international cooperative efforts did not

compromise anyone’s sovereignty or commercial interests

• Iridium project, communicate to anywhere from anywhere, 26 countries, 6000 workers.

• Failure factor– Several partners refused to talk to the CEO

after a meeting

Multicultural Influence on Project Success and Failure

(Ruta & Meiliene, 2014)

Problems faced by international project developers

External factors that may influence international project

Influence of Cultural differences on a Project

Conceptual paradigm using Geert Hofstede’s set of Cultural Dimensions• Power distance (PDI)• Uncertainty avoidance(UAI)• Individualism, versus its opposite, collectivism,(IVD)• Masculinity versus its opposite, femininity,(MAS)• Long-term versus short-term orientation(LTO)

• Analysis of cultural challenges a case study: water project in Ghana with British Engineer and project manager

.

Cultural Difference

• Emem water project undertaken in the Eastern Region of Ghana, with a British engineer and project manager

• Emem is a small rural community situated in the Eastern Region of Ghana beside Lake Volta. The community is of predominantly Ewe lineage, run by a chief with the help of seven elder men.

• around thirty five adults were regularly involved in the construction project, either by participating in construction work or by contributing opinions to the design of the systems.

• Those who contributed ideas but did not participate in construction tended to be the more elderly members of the village who were no longer able to work

• Misunderstandings between engineer and community occurred, which caused great frustration and confusion

Case of British Engineer in Ghana

• "Whatever you think"

– engineer's preconceptions: Community should bring their opinions about a wide range of topics including the water and sanitation system design, the project process and any other aspects about which the community had a view.

– The chief and elders on the other hand had no such inhibitions and were very happy to voice their opinions

– The engineer could not understand why the ordinary members of the community did not want to be more involved in the project

• Power Distance Index

– It is not a sign of disinterest in the project but rather the community do not feel it is their role to provide opinions

Case of British Engineer in Ghana…

Case of British Engineer in Ghana…

• "My mother has already spoken“

– when individuals did give opinions they did not want to disagree with the opinions that others had given

– in an informal conversation with two women, the elder woman was predominantly speaking and presenting what the Engineer presumed to be her own opinion

– The engineer then asked the younger women for her opinions, She looked confused and said, "My mother has already spoken".

– It appeared strange from the engineer's perspective that She would not give her opinion, even though it may be beneficial to the project.

• Individualism versus Collectivism

– Collectivist cultures tend to present the opinions of their group rather than their own personal opinion

Case of British Engineer in Ghana…

• “For the greater good”

– In a group meeting with several women to discuss how the water collection point should be designed, engineer was looking for a personal opinion from a woman who had trouble walking

– another woman suggested making the design as flat as possible to help her collect water a little bit more easily

– When the rest of the community cared about her wellbeing, it seemed odd that she would not contribute her opinion regarding how to design the systems to allow her ease of access

• Individualism versus Collectivism

– majority of the group did not have her problem she perhaps did not feel that it was for the benefit of the group to design the systems with her individual problems in mind.

– The group however, were happy tolook out for the all their members and so brought up

the issue

Case of British Engineer in Ghana…

• “Chief lost interest in the project”

– Towards the end of the project Chief’s mother died and his attention was turned towards planning her funeral, work had to stop to allow the village to mourn the loss of a well respected elder

– On work resume, There were clearly defined jobs that needed to be done and the engineer set about negotiating with individuals about who would do what to get the project completed

– at this late stage in the project the community appeared complacent to organise themselves to work.

– The engineer could not understand the lethargy apparent in the community; it seemed as though everyone had given up on the project

• Power Distance Index and Uncertainty Avoidance Index

– At Emem the 'grandfather' of the family is the chief, he is the central authority he listens to the rest of the family but the responsibility falls to him to decide on the best course of action to take

– As the community operate like an 'extended family', a family in which the engineer does not belong, the engineer has no authority to ask people in the village to do any work

– Work can not be negotiated like in the 'village market'

CROSS-CULTURAL PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Cross-cultural Project Management

• What to do in a multicultural project ?

• When dealing with cultural differences there is nothing more important than being friendly.– Listen to understand– Understand to communicate

• FRAMEWORK FOR EFFECTIVE CROSS-CULTURAL PROJECT MANAGEMENT

LearnWhat cultural

differences exists

Understanduse the cultural

dimensions to know what differences to

expect between people from different cultures

Respect the differences

Accept and show respect for different

standpoints

Take Advantage build on the differences to identify

and mitigate risks, increase the level of innovation and quality of

deliverables, find alternative approaches and achieve objectives

Cross-cultural Project Management …

Cross-cultural Project Management…• Global project management can succeed through effective leadership,

cross-cultural communication, and mutual respect. Without them, it is destined to fail(Anbari, et al 2003).

• The important thing is that in most cases there in nothing absolutely right or wrong about cultures – they just are. It is only in a relative sense that you can say something is wrong in another culture (Lewis, P. James, 2008)

• An interesting concept from recent research is crossvergence, which is “all about fusing together management practices of two or more cultures, so that a practice relevant to a heterogeneous culture can be assembled”.

• Hybridization is another concept on multicultural management, which can be defined as the use of a common body of knowledge, enhanced with selective parts of successful practices from the countries where the project is being implemented, or from the team members′ original culture.

LIST OF REFERENCES

1. Hofstede, G. Culture’s consequences: comparing values, behaviors, institutions, and organizations across nations.  2nd ed. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 2000.

2. Trompenaars, F., Hampden-Turner, C. Riding the waves of culture: understanding diversity in global business.  2nd ed. New York: McGraw Hill, 1998.

3. Aycan, Z., Kanungo, R.N. et. al. Impact of culture on human resource management practices: a ten-country comparison, Applied Psychology: An International review 49(1), 2000, pp. 192-221.

4.  Hofstede, G. Culture’s consequences: comparing values, behaviors, institutions, and organizations across nations.  2nd ed. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 2000, p. 225.

5. Bollinger, D. The four cornerstones and three pillars in the “House of Russia” management system, Journal of management Development 13 (2), 1994, pp. 49-54.

6. Bohm, C. (2013). Cultural Flexibility in ICT Projects: A New Perspective on Managing Diversity in Project Teams. Global Journal of Flexible Systems Management 14(2), 115-122.

7. Hansen, K. P. (2003). Kultur und Kulturwissenschaft: Eine Einfu¨hrung (3rd ed.). Tu¨bingen: A. Francke Verlag Tu¨bingen & Basel.

8. Project Management Institute (PMI). (2013). A guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK guide). Newtown Square, PA:

9. Steers, R. M., Nardon, L., & Sanchez-Runde, C. (2013). Management across cultures. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

10. Steers, R. M., Nardon, L., & Sanchez-Runde, C. (2013). The Cultural Roots of Ethical Conflicts in Global Business.  Springer Science & Business Media Dordecht 116, 689-701

11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project

Any questions ? please ask.