Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/49082

Title

Strategies for best practice in project management

Author(s)

Saee, John

Abstract

Globalisation of the world economy has had far-reaching implications for existing organisational structures and, hence, their management practices around the world. As a result, many organisations now recognise that they can increase their flexibility and responsiveness in globally competitive market environments through deployment of transnational project teams---powerful vehicles to develop innovation and change within their companies. Such teams consist of membership with multiple nationalities, working on activities that transcend national borders (46; 47; 16). In this organisational setting, specialists from various functional areas across the organisations located in different geographical areas work together jointly and in ad hoc project teams from inception to completion of projects for which they are wholly responsible. These project teams are empowered to act on behalf of their company (36). Meanwhile, it is argued that international project teams are where most of the boundary-spanning work in international enterprise goes on, making them a key factor in organisational success and an important catalyst for individual and organisational development. In particular, the ability to learn in and through international project teams is seen as a key developer of a more international outlook. Project teams also help the organisation share information, knowledge and resources across boundaries, transmit and recreate corporate culture, and provide examples of best practice (15; 16). Similarly, project management provides an organisation with powerful tools that improve its ability to plan, organise, implement and control its activities and the way it uses its people and resources. The need for project management arose as a result of a number of emerging environmental forces in modern society. Of the many emerging environmental forces involved, three feature most prominently: the growing demand for complex, sophisticated, customised goods and services; the exponential expansion of human knowledge; and intense competition among firms for profit maximisation and provision of quality service fostered by the globalisation of the contemporary market economy. This has, in turn, put extreme pressure on modern organisations to make their complex, customised outputs available as quickly as possible. Responses must be made faster, decisions must be made sooner and results must occur more quickly (30). Project management, including international project management, is not simply regarded as an interesting application of previously expounded theory; it is regarded as very much the future of management (19). In this research article an attempt has been made to understand the dynamics of international project management and to identify various factors which are crucial in the context of project management across cultures. An effort has been made to understand how these factors affect the performance of a project across cultural, economical and political divides in an international setting. This research article also discusses what strategies and tactics should be adopted to render the project successful. It has been emphasised that the factors identified as crucial must be considered by management in order to develop appropriate strategies to follow the best practice in international project management (22).

Publication type

Book chapter

Research centre

Swinburne University of Technology. Faculty of Business and Enterprise. Australian Graduate School of Entrepreneurship

Source

Contemporary corporate strategy: global perspectives, Chapter 15, pp. 252-268

Publication year

2007

Keyword(s)

Boundary spanning;  Corporations;  Flexibility;  Globalisation;  Innovation;  International business enterprises;  Management;  MNEs;  Multinational enterprises;  Project management;  Strategic planning;  Strategies;  Transnational project teams

Publisher

Routledge

ISBN

9780415385954, 0415385954

Publisher URL

http://www.routledge.com/0415385954

Publisher URL

http://books.google.com/books?id=OXNwE9txe24C

Copyright

Copyright © 2007 John Saee.

Peer reviewed