The Relationship Between Multicultural Teams and Project Performance Sayed Mahdi FADHUL

Outline 1. Research Background 2. Research Rationale 3. Statement of Research Problem 4. Aim 5. Impact of Culture 6. Framework 7. Findings 8. Conclusion

Globalisation Research Background . The world has become a global village now. . teams are getting to be more diverse in their composition, . team members from various countries and . distinct cultural backgrounds doing work closely together. (Adler, 1997; Hofstede, 1991; Maddox, 1993). Managing cultural diversity has become a significant element of today's organisation Recently, there is a broad understanding of the necessity to deal with diversity in all kinds of organisations and to recognise the benefits and difficulties for different agents engaged (Kochan, Bezrukova & Ely, 2003; Dietz & Petersen, 2006; McKay, Avery & Morris, 2009). they probably speak distinct ‘languages’ and grew up in distinct places that could have distinct norms and values. Therefore, it is worth addressing that today’s organisations should understand and recognise the possible effects of diversity on the team’s performance (Nam et al., 2009).

Research Rationale Numerous researchers have studied and investigated culture in projects (Barthorpe et al., 2000; 1999; Earley & Erez, 1997; Kandola and Fullerton, 1998; Meek 1998, and Ochieng and Price , 2013) assert that our understanding of cross-cultural management factors on multi-cultural project teams is: inadequately developed and somewhat limited. Furthermore, there are limited theoretical and empirical studies concerning how the cultural diversity could impact on team performance. (Mannix and Neale, 2005; Moon, 2013; Nakui et al., 2011; Van Knippenberg and Schippers, 2007).

Statement of Research Problem The researches in the area of people management show that there is a lack of study of the cultural aspects of management of people and it appears as an emerging topic and the current literature not taking into consideration the specificity of managing effective multicultural project teams. (Ancona & Isaacs, 2007; Rodrigues & Sbragia, 2013; Stahl et al., 2010). The above point towards problems caused in managing culturally diverse workforce and their performance. Literature further highlights that this problem is even more pronounced in different context. Ochieng & Price (2010), Stahl (2010) and Irina & Vrânceanu (2014) confirm that there is still a need for further study to investigate the cultural influences and factors affecting the teams dynamics and project performance.

Aim This study aims to investigate the cultural factors that influence the multicultural project team performance and determine the cultural dimensions that would impact on the project performance.

Impact of Culture Researchers have often reported conflicting finding about the team's composition, whether the cultural diversity can affect on its performance. Several researchers claim that the diverse teams have shown to outperform the homogenous teams. (Bantel, 1994; Comu et al., 2010; Daily, Loveland, & Steiner, 1997; Jackson, 1992; Ochieng & price, 2010; Watson) Williams and O’Reilly’s (1998) study reviewed about 40 years of diversity studies; they came to the conclusion that there is no constant major effect of diversity on performance. Stahl et al. (2010) has conducted a meta-analysis of 108 empirical studies in performance in about 10,632 teams.

Culture vs Team Lack of knowledge to manage well culturally diverse workforce is a major gap in the literature as multiple factors seem to affect the management of the multicultural teams. Bebenova-Nikolova (2014) The disagreement between these reviewed researches raises essential concerns in regards to the characteristics of this issue and how best to analyse and investigate it.

Culture vs. Performance Previous research studies showing the relationship between National Culture and Team Performance (Dynamics).

Research Framework Team Performance Trust Power Distance Knowledge Sharing Uncertainty Avoidance Integration Masculinity vs Femininity Time Individualism vs Collectivism Quality Cost Communication Culture Dimensions Project Performance Independent Variable Mediators Dependent Variable

Framework A conceptual framework is developed in order to address the cultural complexity within multicultural project teams and examine the relationship between national culture and team and project performance. The framework is expected to provide the crucial factors to be investigated in the context of projects management.

Conclusion Lack of knowledge about managing cultural differences successfully is a major challenge in achieving successful performance in projects. Choosing not to gain knowledge and understand the cultural differences complexity limits the chance to control performance. The above argument is supported by the first analysis conducted by Hofstede (1980) who proposed that 80 percent of the cultural differences in the employee's behaviours and attitudes are influenced by national culture which still has resonance nowadays.

Questions?