Cultural Influences in Engineering Projects

244 Pages·2014·1.808 MB·English

by  Morgan E. Henrie

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national team communications and cultural influences.
• Free MARC records
Morgan E. Henrie
He is the author of over a 100 papers, articles, and
For further information, book chapters. Dr. Henrie lives in Anchorage, Alaska
a free trial, or to order, and travels extensively for work and pleasure.
contact: 
[email protected]
ISBN: 978-1-60650-482-6
CULTURAL
INFLUENCES IN
ENGINEERING
PROJECTS

CULTURAL
INFLUENCES IN
ENGINEERING
PROJECTS
MORGAN E. HENRIE
MOMENTUM PRESS, LLC, NEW YORK
Cultural Influences in Engineering Projects
Copyright © Momentum Press®, LLC, 2015.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored
in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—
electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for
brief quotations, not to exceed 400 words, without the prior permission
of the publisher.
First published by Momentum Press®, LLC
222 East 46th Street, New York, NY 10017
www.momentumpress.net
ISBN-13: 978-1-60650-482-6 (print)
ISBN-13: 978-1-60650-483-3 (e-book)
Momentum Press Industrial, Systems, and Innovation Engineering
Collection
DOI: 10.5643/9781606504833
Cover and interior design by Exeter Premedia Services Private Ltd.,
Chennai, India
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America
A
bstrAct
Culture can be a significant contributor to, or hindrance to, a team’s suc-
cess. Research has clearly established that failing to have a cohesive
team culture creates a severe challenge to any team effort. Culture is also
something that everyone brings with them to the team. Yet, developing
an understanding of what the team culture is, what constitutes a cohesive
team culture, and how to modify it such that it enhances the probability of
team success is a challenge to team leaders. Cultural team challenges exist
within holistic, that is, teams from a single nation, or multinational teams.
Cultural Influences in Engineering Projects provides team leaders
and interested individuals a cohesive source of information, ideas, and
approaches on how to understand, analyze, develop cultural transition
plans, and methods which can improve or modify a team’s culture toward
success. Cultural Influences in Engineering Projects also includes an
extensive literature review reference set which provides the reader a ready
source where they can continue to expand their cultural knowledge base
and ultimately improve their probability of successfully managing holistic
and multinational teams.
KEY WORDS
artifacts, assumptions, behaviors, beliefs, collectivism, communication,
convergence, country, cross-cultural, cross-culture, crossvergence, cul-
tural, culture, culture transformation, divergence, engineering, ethics,
group, heroes, hybridization, individualism, multicultural, multinational,
nation, nation-state, norms, organizational culture, power distance, proj-
ects, scientific management, state, sub-culture, systems science, team,
technology, traits, uncertainty, values

c
ontents
List of Exhibits ix
forEword xi
AcknowLEdgmEnts xiii
chAptEr 1 introduction to projEcts, projEct mAnAgEmEnt,
And projEct mAnAgErs 1
chAptEr 2 introduction to cuLturE: whAt is it And why
is cuLturE invoLvEd in projEcts? 45
chAptEr 3 A rEviEw of cuLturE in projEct LitErAturE 85
chAptEr 4 projEct tEAms: thE subcuLturE within thE
orgAnizAtion 115
chAptEr 5 dEvELoping And mAintAining
An EffEctivE projEct tEAm cuLturE 149
chAptEr 6 cross-cuLturAL projEct tEAms And cuLturAL
infLuEncEs 175
rEfErEncEs 205
bibLiogrAphy 217
About thE Author 219
indEx 221
vii

L e
ist of xhibits
Exhibit 1.1. Gantt chart example. 6
Exhibit 1.2. PERT chart example. 8
Exhibit 1.3. Work breakdown structure example. 9
Exhibit 1.4. A program relationship chart. 13
Exhibit 1.5. A portfolio relationship chart. 14
Exhibit 1.6. The management continuous improvement circle. 16
Exhibit 1.7. Complexity formula. 17
Exhibit 1.8. The dedicated project team structure. 19
Exhibit 1.9. The matrix reporting structure sample. 20
Exhibit 1.10. The waterfall with feedback. 27
Exhibit 1.11. The waterfall with no feedback. 27
Exhibit 1.12. The spiral. 28
Exhibit 1.13. The transformation process. 35
Exhibit 2.1. An artifact comparison. 56
Exhibit 2.2. Espoused belief and value feedback cycle. 70
Exhibit 3.1. Culture literature reference frequency. 94
Exhibit 3.2. Communication channel example. 106
Exhibit 4.1. Team physical structure matrix. 123
Exhibit 4.2. An example for organizational cultural ranges. 132
Exhibit 4.3. Range of organization cultures. 133
Exhibit 4.4. National to country boundary comparison. 137
Exhibit 4.5. Open system culture influences view. 140
Exhibit 4.6. Example of culture traits. 141
Exhibit 4.7. Overarching culture influences. 143
Exhibit 5.1. An example of a maturity model. 160
Exhibit 5.2. Culture transformation. 172
ix