Purpose And Scope


Technical Purpose

The technical purpose is to get your ideas and information across to the audience, whomever they may be, in a clear, concise, and understandable manner. You can also add the phrase “with limited effort.” In international projects your communications efforts could consume much of your time as you try to reach people, retrieve information sent to you, etc. In standard projects you can afford to be slack and not well organized. Lack of organization in international projects can cause you more pain, distress, and extra work.

What types of things can go wrong in communications for an international project?

  • People misunderstand the words and take offense. It then takes weeks to recover. Some words that are acceptable in one language can end up being offensive in another language. For example, a major drug store chain renamed itself in the signage in over 1,000 stores. No one considered what the word meant in Spanish. It was not nice. Sales to Hispanics in the US dropped off dramatically as a result. It took over a year to recover and go back to the old name—with many lost sales.

  • People are not sensitive to dates. This is not just holidays. It includes the vacations of the team members, when major activities (like year-end closing or inventory counting) go on, and so on.

  • People use the software tools in different ways in different cultures. This seems strange, but it is true. Each country tends to adapt software tools such as e-mail, etc., to fit their established culture.

  • People lack cultural sensitivity. A project leader may make direct contact with employees in a department to gather information. In some cultures, this is an affront to the manager of the group.

Experience shows that these things occur most often among headquarters or at the dominant location. Managers think that their needs override the culture factors. This is a big mistake.

Business Purpose

Even with good technical communications, you may fail. The business purpose is that you communicate and get results. This is much more than just communications. It is success after you communicate. The business purpose is to be effective in communications.

Political Purpose

The political purpose of communications in an international project is to be successful in the project and with management and organizations in a political sense. Through communications you can build either enemies or friends and allies. You prefer the latter over the former. In most international projects if you make an enemy of someone, it is likely to come back and haunt you later. This is due to the length of the project. Typically, international projects tend to have a broader scope and last longer. The only thing comparable to an international project is an organization that has very stable staffing over a long period. An example is the faculty at most universities where a high percentage are tenured. These people have to deal with each other not for years, but for decades—a daunting prospect. Younger professors who fail to grasp this basic end up being thrown out and being denied tenure. It is also due to the fact that you will probably need their support later for some issue or other. Now this is not to say that you will make friends forever. This will never happen. Rather, it is that you not make enemies. Neutrality and indifference are OK as well.

Making enemies in an international project will exact a high price for the project and the team.

This is another reason why you want to have two project leaders. If one rubs some manager the wrong way, then the other manager can recover. In communications, one can play the role of the good guy and the other the bad guy. Then they can rotate the role. This brings up another basic point.

Communications, even informal communications, must be planned. There are too many dangers and risks to leave it to chance.




International Project Management
International Project Management: Leadership in Complex Environments
ISBN: 0470578823
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 154

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