Introduction

The science and art of project management continues to evolve at an amazing pace. Today's trends of project management office (PMO) and project portfolio management (PPM) are already giving way to much more comprehensive and financially sound principles as financially focused project management (FFPM). And thanks to continued advances in technology, the world is getting smaller, greatly changing the way projects will be managed in the future. Project management professionals of the future must master the management of cross-cultural differences as international projects become the norm.

Crossing Cultures with Project Management ^[1]

Differences in approaches, values, and expectations between customers, suppliers, and team members with different cultural backgrounds have resulted in many project failures. By understanding the impact of cross-cultural differences, engineers can increase the probability of an international venture's success from setting up a new plant abroad to selling advanced equipment, products, or services to international clients.

Engineers are trained to focus on technical data, scientific evidence, and hard facts. Because the laws of physics are universal, they tend to expect that nationality and cultural differences will not play a significant role in the practice of engineering. After all, a car is a car and it performs the same transportation function the world over.

Yet car designs differ significantly from country to country. For example, the models sold by General Motors and Ford in Europe are quite different from their North American counterparts. Few people mistake cars designed by such Italian manufacturers as Ferrari and Lamborghini with...