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ABSTRACT: In tough economic times and under global competition, management by projects is now regarded as a competitive way for managing organizations. This paper wants to outline the importance of cultural differences aspects in project management. The main objectives followed by the paper are to see the impact of cultural differences of project management, to find the advantages of a multicultural team and how can we use them to face the challenges of operating in a dynamic business environment characterized by high levels of uncertainty.
Keywords: cultural, management, project, tool.
JEL codes: M16
Introduction
Projects today have dramatically increased in complexity, requiring a culturally and functionally diverse mix of individuals who must be integrated into an effective unit - a project team. Effective teamwork is the key to project success during all phases of the project life cycle. Tough global competition has created an acute need for faster, more flexible, and highly competitive operations. These needs can be met only by developing high-performing teams. Effective team building is one of the prime responsibilities of the project manager (Knutson, Joan, 2001).
With the advent of the global economy comes an increased interaction between people of different countries and an increase in the need to deal with cultural differences.
Every organization has a culture unique to itself, and this is true of divisions within large corporations. The important thing to understand about culture is that in most cases there in nothing absolutely right or wrong about cultures - they just are. It is only in a relative sense that you can say something is wrong in another culture (Lewis, P. James, 2008).
Differences in national culture influence not only the surface behavior but there are also essential conditions for understanding the values adopted by business people. Each person comes to the negotiation table with skills and habits that are often not aware and that there are only subconsciously. For example there are two extreme types of behavior between Latin and Anglo Saxon, the first are followers of speech, and others are likely to listen, Latinos tend to generalize, while Anglo Saxons are very analytical, Latinos have a great spontaneity while Anglo Saxons show a remarkable self-control. But this does not mean we can not find...