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Project Team Members Lack Experience And Knowledge About Conditions In Other Countries
Oct 03,2007 00:00
by
admin
Project Team Members Lack Experience And Knowledge About Conditions In Other
Countries
Going beyond the project leaders, problems arise among team
members. You can have critical team members in one country who have traveled
very little and are unaware of the cultures in other places. They may have been
chosen for the team based on their technical or business knowledge. It is too
bad that cultural and societal experience turned out to be more important.
Impact
Some team members in
projects we have participated in have acted arrogantly and assumed that staff in
other locations were dedicated to the project and to them full time. This causes
much ill will and antagonism toward the project. The situation often
deteriorates rapidly before the project leaders and management are aware of the
problem. It surfaces often when the line manager in a location brings the
problem up with his counterparts in other locations. People do not respond to
the team members. Or they mislead them with optimistic reports.
Prevention
Selection of team members in international projects is a
critical success factor in international project management. For international
projects, team members must be informed of cultural and other factors in each
location. They should be presented with a variety of issues and situations and
tested through simulation. From our experience, the result often is to search
for new team members.
Action
One action is to replace the team member. However, this can
leave a gaping hole in the project. Another, better course of action is to
identify other team members or new team members and assign them to joint tasks
with the individual who has created the problem. It is not feasible to have the
project leader act as a liaison for each and every communication with other
locations.
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