Cultural Differences: How To Prepare As A Project Manager

When working in international project teams, worlds literally collide – because people from different cultures come together. On the one hand, cultural differences can be a great enrichment – but on the other hand they also bring with them many prejudices, strange behavior and insurmountable barriers.

In the fifth and final part of the series, we will show you how you, as a project manager, can prepare for cultural differences. Read how you get rid of prejudices and why there are always two sides to the intensity of adjusting to a foreign culture that you should know about.

Getting rid of prejudices – overcoming cultural barriers

Who does not know this: You encounter foreign cultures and behavior that you neither know nor understand. Since we humans are creatures of habit, cultural differences can quickly lead to prejudice without us knowing more about the background. This must not happen in international project teams, because prejudices will hinder cooperation.

Consider the possible consequences:

• Narrow-mindedness: You observe the behavior of others and thereby automatically confirm your prejudices.
• Misunderstanding: You misinterpret the intentions of other team members and draw the wrong conclusions.
• Feeling of superiority: They place their own culture above the foreign culture and thereby develop intolerance.

Break down cultural barriers instead

• Curiosity: Approach the foreign culture openly and observe the behavior without judgment.
• Understanding: Familiarize yourself with the other culture by analyzing the similarities and differences in thinking and acting compared to your own culture.
• Language skills: Prepare yourself for the language of the foreign culture and learn at least important greetings or vocabulary that are relevant to the project.

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Clash of cultures – one always emerges victorious

But even if each individual makes the greatest effort to accept cultural differences, one culture will always dominate in an international project team. The reasons for this are varied, but they are obvious.

It is conceivable, for example, that the dominant culture will crystallize due to the location of its parent company. The majority of project members from a certain culture can also be decisive for the dominance in the project team, as well as the preferred location for project processing.

But no matter what the ultimate reason for the dominance of a culture is, there are always two perspectives for working on a project. Your task consists of either:

Participation in a project that is dominated by a foreign culture

But even if each individual makes the greatest effort to accept cultural differences, one culture will always dominate in an international project team. The reasons for this are varied, but they are obvious.

It is conceivable, for example, that the dominant culture will crystallize due to the location of its parent company. The majority of project members from a certain culture can also be decisive for the dominance in the project team, as well as the preferred location for project processing.

But no matter what the ultimate reason for the dominance of a culture is, there are always two perspectives for working on a project. Your task consists of either:

Integrating members of foreign cultures into a project dominated by your culture.

Both perspectives hold challenges for all represented cultures that have to be mastered in order to make cooperation possible. The intensity of acclimatization plays a decisive role. We are therefore taking a closer look at both perspectives.

Participation in an external project – everything depends on getting used to it

Even if it primarily applies to your project staff, you as a project manager can also face the challenge of having to manage a project in which your culture is not the dominant one. This situation arises when the project is carried out in the country of the foreign culture. In this case, as a project manager, you come from a foreign culture and have so far mainly worked with your own culture and not with the foreign one.

The following scenario therefore often occurs in exactly this order:

First of all, there are high expectations, which are reflected in uncertainty on the one hand and great interest and curiosity on the other.

Disillusionment follows later, which is intensified by unfamiliar ways of thinking and behaving in the foreign culture, emerging language barriers and a lack of social contacts.

Ultimately, you suffer a culture shock, which manifests itself in a change in mood and the confirmation of initial prejudices, to the point of questioning your project start.

In order to prevent this scenario, you should prepare yourself intensively for cultural differences in the host culture and build up realistic expectations – including the attitude to possible difficulties.

The adjustment to the foreign culture can then take place in three intensities:

Immersing yourself in the foreign culture

The foreign culture convinces you, so that over time you discard your own values ​​and adopt the lifestyle of the foreign culture. However, this intensity of acclimatization rarely occurs and if it does, it is usually due to long-term personal ties. Often this also means that you can no longer be employed in other cultures and, moreover, no longer want to because you have already gained a foothold in the new culture.

Living in two cultures

If you are this type of person, you are called a cosmopolitan. You live both in your own and in the foreign culture. To do this, you have to be confident in maintaining your own values ​​on the one hand, and have a high level of intercultural competence on the other hand, in order to be open and tolerant towards the foreign culture. So the trick is to find the middle ground between integration and differentiation. If this succeeds, this intensity of acclimatization is the most promising, since the connection of the elements of both cultures promotes efficiency and creativity.

Rejection of the foreign culture

If you stubbornly insist on your own values, are not willing to compromise and basically want to implement your own solutions, this leads to stress, aggression and arrogance. You reject the foreign culture, which in turn leads to a rejection attitude on the part of the foreign culture – a hardening of fronts is the end product.

Ultimately it is up to you how you deal with your role as a project manager in a foreign culture. Your goal should always be cosmopolitan.

Cultural differences in your own project – your sensitivity is required

Let’s look at the other side – which will certainly appear more frequently for you: You have project members who join your project team from a foreign culture. Through the perspective described above, in which you are the newcomer in a dominant foreign culture, you can now better put yourself in the shoes of this person.

Your job is to make integration easier for the stranger. You certainly have certain expectations of the new team member from the other culture. A stranger will eventually invade your territory and have to adapt. You may even find his unfamiliar ways of thinking and behaving amusing at first. But be careful, this can change quickly on both sides and lead to irritation, arguments or frustration. Because you’re on your own territory, your self-confidence will be much stronger than that of the stranger. Your team will also notice this and feel superior. However, this will not create a good basis for cooperation. On the contrary, the intensity of its acclimatization can be negatively influenced.

Therefore, always consider how you would like to be received. Try to get rid of barriers right from the start and apply our tips from this series of articles for successful leadership, cooperation and communication in international project teams in order to make the acclimatization as optimal as possible for both sides.

Reintegration as the last step – the way back into one’s own culture

After completing an international project, the project members have to return to their own culture. Depending on the duration of the project and the intensity of getting used to the foreign culture, returning to your own culture can also cause difficulties. The originally alien values ​​may have been accepted in such a way that one’s own appearance is alien. A team member returning to you may therefore need time to reintegrate. Under certain circumstances, you can compare this to integrating an employee from a foreign culture into your team.

As you can see, working in international project teams and different cultures involves a lot of challenges – on both sides. We hope we were able to give you an overview of the topic of cultural differences. If you want to learn more, visit our project management events.

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