Challenges of International Projects - Term Paper Example

Challenges of International Projects

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Table of Contents

1.Introduction3

2. Case 13

2.1 Communication Challenges faced by International Projects3

2.2 Improving Planning and Monitoring in the Silent Aircraft project through effective Communication5

3. Case 26

3.1 Challenges of Planning International Projects7

3.2 Impact of Cultural aspects on the Planning of International Projects9

3.3 Dealing with the cultural aspects10

3.4 Applying cultural aspects in Siemens One Program11

4. Case 312

4.1 Increasing the effectiveness of co- operation in International projects12

4.2 Improving cooperation in Turkey Power Plant Project15

5. Recommendation17

6. Conclusion17

Reference List19

• Introduction

There has been a tremendous increase in the number of companies going for international projects in the past few decades. With many companies getting involved in global projects these days, it becomes very crucial for them to have a proper plan and implementation strategy in order to be successful. The success of an international project is not only dependent on the planning of the project, but on the implementation techniques (Kealey et al., 2006; Koster, 2009).This report will analyse various communication, planning and cooperation challenges that companies face and how they can deal with these challenges for the success of the projects.

• 2. Case 1
  • 2.1 Communication Challenges faced by International Projects

Successfully implementing an international project is a challenging task. There are many ways in which things can go wrong. There are obligations involving the governments of both the countries involved in the projects. International projects require great deal of cooperation from the involved teams. It not only requires adjusting to the cultures of other countries, but also learning foreign languages, adjusting to their time zones, following their etiquettes and business attitude and carefully implementing the rules and regulations of different cultures is a challenging task.

Language is one of the major barriers when it comes to international projects. With more than 200 languages and millions of speakers around the world, there is often a high possibility of the underlying message getting lost in translation (Small Business, 2012). Conveying the objective of the project and understanding the opinion of other teams becomes difficult when both the teams speak different languages. In such cases, communication among the teams becomes a challenging task in international project (Rampton, 2015; Babic, 2009).

The differences in time zones not only make it difficult for the teams to have a real time conversation about the project, but also delay the whole problem solving approach between the teams. A problem that may normally get solved in a few minutes, can take hours to arrive at a solution due to time zone differences. For example, a person working in USA may find it difficult to communicate to a team in China, due to very less hours of overlapping working hours. Time zone differences may lead to financial losses as well, by delaying the completion of the project (Henricks, 2006).

Cultural differences play an important role in international projects (Hooker, 2008; Baars, 2006). Different greeting techniques, different gestures, table manners etc. play an significant role in deciding the direction and progression that the project makes. The work culture of the teams is also an important factor that is dependent on the values of people of a particular region. Understanding various cultural aspects, business etiquettes, cultural preferences and work ethics of people is very important prior to starting an international project. For example, when it comes to Germans, they give high importance to personal space. On the contrary, Mexicans find it very friendly and welcoming to greet each other with warmth (Li, 2012).

Positive business attitude is very important as it helps to build confidence between both the teams. Keeping an open mind towards the ideas suggested by team members encourages them to actively participate in the project. Having openness towards the cultural diversity, which both the companies encounter, will help to promote cooperation between the teams. Building connectivity among the teams is important here in order to maintain proper flow of information.

Difference in the physical locations is another major barrier, when it comes to international projects. It becomes difficult to communicate or put combined efforts from both the companies into the project when the two companies are based in different location. New technologies such as video conferencing or email prove to be very useful, but they too have limitations.

There are a number of different norms related to foreign investments and projects in various countries. There are different legal obligations that the companies have to abide by when it comes to international projects. Paying attention to each and every regulation and taking care of not violating any rules is a challenging task. It is very important to access the various legal, economic and financial obligations before getting involved in any international projects, in order to avoid any political and legal issues (Ten Six, 2011; Kefalaki, 2012):

• • 2.2 Improving Planning and Monitoring in the Silent Aircraft project through effective Communication

Lack of proper monitoring may result in major mistakes in the projects. This is also one of the most critical parts of the project in order to successfully implement it as per the actual plan. In case of the Silent Aircraft project, the complexity of the whole process is making it a challenging task to monitor all the activities. Around 40 researchers are watching over different parts of the project. The main challenge here is to establish an effective communication system between these researchers. Any miscommunication or lack of information can lead to huge defects, which may later demolish the whole project. A network should be formed amongst the researchers and other team members in order to maintain connectivity and proper flow of information between everyone. There should be an official record of information being exchanged between teams for future references. Usage of intranet can be an effective solution here.

Social networking is another way in which information can be shared between the team members in an effective way. Closed group pages can be formed in social networking sites, which will be accessible only to the members of that particular company.

A feedback system is also needed in order to understand the problems that the departments are facing. This will ensure that the management is taking effective measure to deal with the issues.

Group meetings should be held at regular intervals for direct communication between the team members. This will not only help in addressing various issues but will also help the management in handling any communication gaps.

General information related to projects or any new instructions can be directly communicated to the team members by the management through official display boards. This will ensure that the right message has been communicated to them.

• 3. Case 2

Developing an international project requires a lot of effort and resources from both the teams. Not having a proper plan may lead to negative consequences which may finally affect the productivity of the project. An international project should be chosen after assessing the risks involved with the project and after collective decision of the experts of the teams involved about the benefit of the project. The risk assessment process is a stepwise process (Badiru, 2008; Rea and Lientz, 2012).At risk identification stage, the company has to access the risks it encountered from similar projects in the past. A list has to be prepared of all the projects, which will be reviewed for guidance. A collective decision will provide solution on how to deal with the risk and in what ways they can affect the project. All the members of the teams should also be informed about the risks.

At categorisation stage risks are systematically assessed and evaluated for their impact and a structure is formed for awareness, understanding and action that have to be taken in order to deal with them. Each project has a different format. Categorising the risks helps in identifying the real risks and separates them from the duplicate ones.

In the next stage, the probability of the risk actually happening is assessed. A solution is also determined to identify and handle the risk in case it really occurs. Then, the risks that scored high are identified and a possible response to handle the risks is determined. Companies should deal with these risks by planning and scheduling for them, adding additional funds to the project in order to deal with the risk, addition of resources and developing a proper plan of action to avoid the risks. In the next stage, a documentation of the risks and how they were handled are kept for future references.

• • 3.1 Challenges of Planning International Projects

There are many challenges that the teams face in planning an international project. Collaboration between the teams and within the teams is of prime importance here. Differences in opinions and brainstorming help the teams in generating new and productive ideas. It also helps the teams in arriving to an effective plan.

Having specific information related to the objective is also crucial for developing a proper plan of the project. Information related to requirement of the project, the group of people who are going to benefit from the project, the available resources and expected time period within which it has to be ready are all important details and the planning has to be done considering all these factors.

Every project needs guidance from the leaders and a senior management team is required not just to provide guidance, but also to provide the required resources. The senior management team also has the required experiences that are needed to understand the ways in which a particular project can go wrong. This will provide the support and confidence that the team needs in order to carry out the project.

There are a number of obligations involved in carrying out international projects, which have to be taken care of. There are different legal obligations and regulations that have to be followed by the teams. In such cases, the higher management is expected to support the subordinates.

Without proper budgeting, planning and forecast the project will not be successful in achieving its goals. Planning a project in top-down manner and not consulting the ground level people about the fruitfulness and the possibility of success of the project can not only destroy the whole project, but may also lead to the wastage of a lot of resources. This may also financially affect the companies involved.

• • 3.2 Impact of Cultural aspects on the Planning of International Projects

When considering an international project, it is expected to have cultural differences within the teams as well as the workplace (Ajmal et al., 2012). For most projects to succeed, it is advisable to select locations that have certain levels of cultural closeness. Hofstede’s Cultural dimension theory provides the five dimensions on which the cultural closeness and differences are determined (Chanlat et al., 2013). The Power Distance Index refers to the influence that a powerful member has on a powerless member in the society. In a society where the power distance is high, the less power members feel suppressed by the powerful members and their opinion usually does not hold a value in the society. Individualism vs. collectivism tells about the level of groupism that people in a society experience. It shows the importance that an individual provides to personal interests and the interest of the society. Uncertainty avoidance index refers to the level of tolerance for uncertainty in a society. Societies that have a high tolerance towards uncertainty are usually risk takers. They like to try new methods and approaches without hesitance. Masculinity vs. femininity talks about the preference in the society for masculine or feminine values. Masculine values include characteristics such as achievement, heroism etc. whereas feminine values show influence of the characteristics such as caring for the weak, modesty etc. on a person. Long-term orientation vs. short time orientation shows the extent to which people focus on long-term goals or the short-term goals. In a society where people prefer long term goals over short term ones, they are more focused on the future plans and where they see themselves in the future. On the other hand, people who prefer short term goals are more focused on their present needs. Indulgence vs. restraint measures the degree to which the simple joys are fulfilled or not. Societies that are high in indulgence level like to enjoy life and are very open towards the idea of living a luxurious life. On the other hand, people with high restraint level like to stay in control and prefer not to get involved with unnecessary luxuries.

Cultural background also defines the way people communicate. People belonging to some cultures tend to be polite while rejecting an idea and do not address the issue directly, whereas people from some cultures are more direct. There are also high context and low context cultural differences. In high context cultures, people expect guidance and personal supervision from others. In low context cultures, general instructions are expected to be good enough to get the job done. Religion is another important issue between the teams. Different religions have different belief systems and some religions even have contradictory believes. These believe systems can cause differences in the teams and may even affect the level of cooperation they provide each other.

The degrees to which two countries involved experience closeness to these dimensions determine the probability of realisation of the project.

• • 3.3 Dealing with the cultural aspects

Similarity in the culture aspects should be considered before getting involved in any kind of projects. Having similar cultural aspects will make the teams understand the circumstances and the working conditions better, which will lead to more cooperation between teams.

The companies involved in the international project should be committed towards improving the understanding of cultures amongst the team members. If needed, the staff can be provided with proper training on culturally competent practices. Before the project is commenced, the teams should be provided with a briefing on culturally apt practices in the particular business environment This will not only improve the level of understanding between the teams, but will also lead to increased productivity.

The companies should involve culturally competent principles in their strategies, programs and policies in order to let the other employees and team members understand the importance that the company provides to culturally competent behaviour.

If the two teams involved in the project belong to different religious backgrounds, special attention should be provided of not hurting the religious sentiments of each other. Contradictory religious believes should respected and should not become a reason of conflict between the teams.

• • 3.4 Applying cultural aspects in Siemens One Program

The objective of the ‘Siemens One’ project is to turn Siemens into a customer centric organisation by increasing its focus on the customers. The main focus of the company is to increase co-operation throughout the organisation. The program consists of various international projects and the success of the program depends on the good understanding of different cultural aspects in order to connect to the clients. The program intends to support the projects that would have a clear impact on the business environment (Siemens Integrity Initiative, 2016).

While dealing with clients belonging to particular cultures, the program should be focused on the cultural similarities. This will help the clients share the company’s objectives.

While entering new markets, Siemens should hire local people and bring them into the teams. This will provide a better understanding of the cultural aspects to the company. This will also help people of that particular culture relate to the company.

The work culture, level of integrity and dedication towards a cause are characteristics that are typical of particular cultures. Developing an understanding towards these factors will help the company in understanding how to deal with and what to expect from particular clients.

Paying attention to these factors will help Siemens in achieving its goal of turning into a customer centric organisation.

• 4. Case 3
  • 4.1 Increasing the effectiveness of co- operation in International projects

Cooperation plays an important role in the success of International Projects, be it within the teams or among the teams. Cooperation within the teams is important in order to carry out the projects in a systematic way and for proper sharing of resources and information between the teams. It is also important for moral support and help that will lead to the success of the project as a whole (Badiru, 2008).

Cooperation between the international teams is important as it will help the companies in understanding the cultural commonalities and differences that will provide a common ground to both the teams to connect. Most of the projects fail due to the absence of cooperation and commitment than any other known reason. There are different types of cooperation that organisation has to implement in their teams for increasing the possibility of success of the projects.

Functional cooperation techniques use the dependency of various functional groups on each other as a means to improve cooperation. It involves using of shared resources and maintaining coordination between teams. Vertical cooperation is another type of cooperation techniques, which will help the company in achieving a proper communication channel between the top management and the ground level employees. This will support the management in understanding the problems of the ground level, which in turn will help in increasing the productivity. This type of cooperation will be very effective if the two companies combine together to form a common work force and maintain a common top management to handle the project.

Lateral cooperation is easier to achieve in organisations as compared to other types of cooperation. It helps in promoting the learning process within the organisation. Achieving lateral communication is a challenging task between the teams of two different companies, involved in the international project (Badiru, 2008). This is because of the presence of huge cultural differences amongst the countries.

Imposed cooperation technique is the type of technique which has to be implemented when there is no apparent reason for the teams involved in the international project to cooperate. Such forceful method can be difficult to implement by the organisations and can result in a chaotic working environment. However this method can be very effective in establishing a cooperative working environment in the organisation irrespective of the differences within the teams.

Another type of cooperation technique is dependency cooperation, which is very similar to functional cooperation in nature. Increasing the dependency of the teams on each other for some important function will automatically increase the level of cooperation as it will be driven by their necessity for each other. This is a very effective technique in case of international projects where the companies have no apparent reason to cooperate with each other apart from causes related to the project. Dividing the whole functional process amongst the different teams amongst the companies will help the companies in establishing cooperation between the companies.

Administrative cooperation techniques make it mandatory for the teams to work together for common goals. This type of cooperation techniques helps the team in moving forward in the same direction and helps them stay focused.

An international project can also benefit from social cooperation. Understanding the cultural aspects of the teams involved and accepting them will help in increasing the level of cooperation between the teams.

In legal cooperation technique, the team members are bound to cooperate with each other due to obligation by some authoritative body. This technique is easy to implement in international projects where there are many legal obligations for both the companies.

Implementing the above mentioned cooperation technique will increase the chances of success for international projects to a great extent.

• • 4.2 Improving cooperation in Turkey Power Plant Project

In case of construction of Turkey Power Plant, the project was delayed by two months. On analysing the situation, it was found that the main reason for the delay was lack of proper connectivity between the team members and lack of cooperation. The responsible people could not be easily reached out to as there was no possible way to contact them. When the new project manager had to speak to his colleague from the other team, the person could not be contacted as contact details were not available. They also had shown lack of cooperation and irresponsibility by not being available when their services were required.

Providing the management teams with an official telephone connection in order to reach out to them will help in establishing proper connectivity between the team members. This will help the officials in protecting their privacy and still be available for their job. The officials can also use social networking sites in order to maintain connectivity. Forming a closed group page with limited access for the purpose of the project will help the teams in sharing information effectively, by keeping privacy of the employees intact. The information being shared will also be protected, as other people will not be having access to this page.

The companies may also try to implement administrative cooperation technique in order to make the teams work together. The companies can provide common pools of resources for the team members of both the companies. It may prove to be effective to keep a common management team for both the companies who will be able to judge both the companies impartially. This will remove the differences between the companies at the administrative level.

Outlining the individual commitments may be helpful in this case. Clearly defining the responsibilities will help the team members in understanding their responsibilities better. This will also help the management in finding the people responsible for the mistakes made at particular stages.

Sources of internal conflicts amongst teams should be removed. For example, similar benefits should be provided to the teams of both the companies. There should be equal opportunities of growth in the teams of both the companies. This would not only reduce the conflict, but there will also be cooperation between the teams.

A central team should be leading the whole project, who will be responsible for its productivity till the end of the project. This team will be held responsible for all the functionalities of the teams. Having a common team to lead will help both the companies to work on common grounds and guidelines. This will further reduce conflict between both the teams.

The companies can implement reward system for excellent collaborative behaviour. Including collaborative behaviour in the performance matrices will encourage both the teams to cooperate and develop a problem solving attitude together, instead of blaming each other for their mistakes.

The teams must be encouraged to develop a collaborative problem solving attitude. The Turkey Power Plant project should focus on solving the issues that the project is facing through cooperation of both the teams. The team members must be encouraged to figure out the reasons for the delay of the project and collectively approach a solution.

Transparency must be maintained between both the companies. Having a transparent approach will help the companies in building trust amongst each other, which will then increase the cooperation between the teams. All the activities performed and decisions taken about the project must be done under the complete knowledge of the teams members of both the companies.

• 5. Recommendation

The success of international project can be ensured by proper planning of the project before the companies start working on it. An approximate estimation has to be agreed upon regarding the time needed to complete the project and resources required for the process.

The risks related to the project have to be accessed before starting the implementation process in order to find ways to avoid the risks.

Cooperation between the teams is of great importance. Lack of cooperation may lead to the failure of the whole project which would cost a lot of resources and time to the involved companies.

• 6. Conclusion

International projects require a good communication system and cooperation from the involved companies. Lack of proper flow of information can not only delay the whole project but can also lead to major mistakes in the implementation of the plan. Planning and monitoring of the project are vital for successful implementation, without which it is likely to get diverted from the actual plan. Lack of cooperation among the teams, specific information regarding the project, support from the senior management and unavailability of required resources are the primary reasons for improper planning of a project. It becomes increasingly difficult to consider these factors when it comes to international projects. The companies should collect accurate information prior to planning. Ensuring that the teams cooperate with each other and have proper resources and support from the senior management is crucial for a successful international project.

• Reference List

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