Managing Cross Cultural Differences in Projects Estimations

Abstract

The likelihood of project success and enhanced organization’s competitive position can be as a results of effective use of cross-cultural project teams that provide a source of experience and innovative thinking. However, cultural differences and related conflicts can interfere with the successful completion of projects in today's multicultural global business community. To achieve project goals and avoid cultural misunderstandings, project managers should be culturally sensitive and promote creativity and motivation through flexible leadership. This paper describes the most well-known and accepted theories of cultural differences and illustrates them with examples from project estimations. These theories consider relations between people, motivational orientation, definition of self and others, attitudes toward time, risk, control, context, and the environment. We evaluate motivation and training of multicultural project teams and relevant implications for project management estimations. We provide specific examples of success and failure in multicultural projects and relate project performance to cultural differences. The paper concludes that multicultural project management can succeed through culturally-aware leadership, effective cross-cultural communication, mutual respect, and reconciliation. Without them, it is destined to fail.