ENGM117: International Project Management - Cultural, Communication

This report outlines the learning experience in international project management (IPM) through teamwork, focusing on cultural aspects, communication strategies, and managing geographically dispersed teams. It reflects on the importance of understanding diverse cultures to avoid misinterpretations and conflicts, emphasizing the need for respecting cultural differences and fostering effective cross-cultural communication. The report also highlights the significance of utilizing communication tools like video conferencing to manage international projects efficiently, address communication barriers, and build trust within multinational teams. Furthermore, it discusses the challenges and benefits of geographically dispersed teams, stressing the importance of collaboration, clear guidelines, accountability, and cultural awareness for maximizing productivity and achieving project success. The module's impact on personal development is also considered, emphasizing the importance of international project management skills.

ENGM117 Assessment 2

TABLE OF CONTENT
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
Cultural Aspects...........................................................................................................................3
Communication............................................................................................................................4
Geographically Dispersed Teams................................................................................................5
Module impacted on me personally.............................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10
APPENDIX ...................................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
International project management is defined as the proper management of the work
related to projects that involves the intentional resources and better team working in order to
attain goals. The current report will outline the learning of the international project management
by working in the team. Further this will outline the areas that helps the learner to have great
understanding of IPM. This will include the cultural aspects, communication by managing
project internationally and geographical dispersed teams. This report will provide the reflection
on the three areas that helps to know about the learning in international project management by
working with teams.
Cultural Aspects
The culture can be termed as the sharing of the sets and attributes that helps any group or
the group of organization to work properly. This used to provide them the solutions in order to
work effectively in the team (Paulmakesh and April, 2021). As there are different type of people
in the country and every country as its own nationality which used to affect the international
management of the projects. By working in the International management project with my team
members I have learnt about the various cultural aspects of the different countries. This helps me
to know and gain my knowledge and have achievements in my project. There are a billion of
people and everyone has its own language, character, thinking, languages, etc. this used to affect
the effective working of the projects internationally. By knowing about the different culture it
helps me to have effective working with my team members. This provides me an opportunity in
order to have better working for the international projects. There are several cultural variables
that must be maintained in order to have better team work which includes the accent, silence and
eye contact. In order to attain the success the person must respect every culture and do not
differentiate with the different culture followed by the people.
From this I have learned that we must avoid the cultural arrogance and should have
proper understanding of the cross cultural differences that helps to manage work effectively. As
in order to work with the team and understanding the culture there is happening of the
misinterpretation which used to affect the proper management of the international projects. As
my team was very effective and by this we have gained the success by having proper
management of projects (Bond-Barnard, Fletcher and Steyn, 2018). There was happening of the
conflicts while working with the team which has affected the work. In order to improve this there

must be coordination among the team members that helps in improving the work and manage the
project accordingly. As there are various communication variables so by avoiding the
misinterpretation of those variables helps the person to have effective working in the team. This
helps me to develop the understanding about the different knowledge and cultural structures of
different cultures and makes me to get the best solutions for this. This also removes the
communication gap and fear of having the communication with the different cultural people. By
working with the different type of people help me have the openness with every type of people.
This makes me learn about the various international resources and have the great team which
helps me to attain the goals in the market. There are several benefits of having the international
project management as this helps the people to know about different culture and gain knowledge
by working in the international market. As there were many cross culture disputes so this project
management helps me to resolve that disputes.
By identifying the behaviours of the people and making them know about the importance
of working helps me to resolve the conflicts. It is very important to have good team behaviour
while working with the team. By this I used to focus on the cultural differences faced by the
team members in order to have effective working. Making them know and aware about the work
makes them to have the proper working and management of the projects (Vrchota and et.al.,
2020). In order to manage the conflicts I have given the responsibilities to each member that
makes them focused towards their work. As international management project is itself the wide
term and it requires proper working so the members must know the importance of culture and
work accordingly.
Communication
In order to work in the international market it is very important to have the good and
effective communication with the team members. In the today's fast growing market the
immediate communication is the most required thing. This can be done by having the cloud
sharing, video conferencing and having the direct messages to the international teams (Picciotto,
2020). As the technology has enhanced and the communication in the international market has
become easier so by this it helps the person to have proper management of the international
projects. In order to manage the international projects I have the effective team which helps me
to manage the work properly and attain the success in life. In order to have the communication
the person must find the best tool to have the effective and proper communication. As I have

used the best source of communication that is video conferencing in order to have the proper
functioning of work with the team members.
To manage the work I have also communicated them the proper process that helps me
and team to have the completion of work on time. In order to remove the communication barriers
the managers must have the proper communication of technologies with the employees, speak
and make them understand slowly, clarify them the tasks not just goals, etc. This factors helps
the employees to work effectively and have the great learning from the work (Chawla and et.al.,
2018). In order to have the multinational teams there is lots of difficulty in order to manage the
work and it creates the barriers in order to have proper communication. There are various
multinational communication tools that can be used to have the proper communication which
includes slack, zoom, Monday, Microsoft team and front. As there was several problems in order
to work with the internation teams and have effective management of the projects. By working
with the various teams this helps me to find the best solutions for managing the projects. It is
very important to build the trust among team and have proper coordination and communication.
This will help all the teams to grow in the global market and this will increase the productivity in
the market. By communicating the proper task and responsibility to each team helps them to
have and ensure the increase in the productivity (Ward and Given, 2019). There are some
multinational communication practices which includes the aligning expectations of the
multinational collaboration, must use the team building process to encourage multinational
collaboration. By assigning and communicating the work to the employees I used to give them
some space that makes them to work independently and effectively.
As the communication is the most important factor that is used in the multinational
companies to have the proper management of the work. This makes us to have the parallel
working of the projects in the international market. By this I have used to get the feedback from
the people and makes me to improve on those communication barriers (Glikson. and Erez, 2020).
This also reduces the communication gap and fear of having the communication with the
different type of people in the market. By having the proper communication it also helps to know
about the employees where they are lacking and in what work they are good as well.
Geographically Dispersed Teams
During the whole module period I have learnt that cultural diversity also plays very
important role in understanding the views of the other people and understanding various distinct

features of the culturally diverse people in team (Kosmützky, 2018.). Also, I have come to know
that geographically dispersed team have differences relating to thinking, language, values and
behaviours etc. Furthermore, I have learnt about international project management that every
diverse project needs to enough collaboration among the team members so that the task are
divided efficiently and also chances of conflicts are minimum. Moreover, during module I have
learnt that project management by various members of the team would be executed in the best
way only when there is improved coordination among the minorities so that all the queries are
resolved in systematic manner (Davidavičienė and et.al., 2020). Also, during the module I have
analysed that to build but strong diverse team it is required that all the team members
communicate among each other on timely manner so that availability of resources and the cost
involved in undertaking of various task might be analysed. This way the best projects are
delivered in the future with maximum positive outcome along with development of team that is
highly capable of overcoming various barriers.
Furthermore, this type of learning was very good to me I have analysed that certain skills
like leadership, critical thinking, communication etc. are needs to be present so that work within
the team is able to be managed in most efficient way without creating problems for the others.
Also, I have realized that having geographically dispersed teams helps in expanding the market
opportunities for the future and are also helped in promoting greater flexibility and creativity for
each individual (Barnowska and Kozaryn, 2018). Thus, through working in diverse teams the
individual is able to learn new ways of conducting various task, maintain the self-esteem through
providing each other the required support etc. Also, the strong team is one where in spite of
being located in various areas the team is able to monitor the project and identify loopholes and
inform the team to take corrective action as soon as possible. However, in spite diverse team
having lot of benefits of executing the good project even though major problem is that if one of
the team members is not having the enough trust on among others than there are chances that
there would be display of poor productivity that it would only lead to losses. Moreover, I have
understood that to handle any project efficiently it is very important for project manager that
clear guidelines are created and measurable goals are defined so that all the members are able to
follow and execute it in proper manner (Aggarwal, Hsu and Wu, 2020). Also, during the module
it was clearly mentioned that to execute such kind of diverse team projects it is very important

that project manager ensures accountability of each member on daily basis for the work and
monitor the progress of project in accordance with set goals and targets.
However, the project would be executed in the best possible way only when each team
member is interested in the contributing its best through showing the active participation. Also,
project members team need to analyse and accepts the cultural differences and time zone
problems so that productivity might be maximized through effective planning (Garro-Abarca
and et.al., 2021). Hence, I had learnt that in international project management it is very important
that teams are very well aware about the project deadlines while keeping in mind various aspects
so that greater effectiveness might be achieved (Otto and et.al., 2018). Also, to learn about
geographically diverse teams its is essential that all the team members are actively involved in
the conducting various meeting before the start of the project so that success might be achieved
in the end. Furthermore, it is better that team is able to understand differences and is ready to
take certain initiatives within the project so that chances of errors are minimum.
Module impacted on me personally
From this module I have learnt about the importance of the international management of
the projects. This makes me to know about the usefulness of the working with the multinational
teams in the market. From this module I have gained my knowledge by knowing about the
cultural aspects in order to work in the international market and team. By taking the
responsibility and managing the conflicts helps the organization to have the effective working in
the market (Lifintsev and Wellbrock, 2019). By knowing about the different culture it helps me
to have effective working in the international market. From this learning module it provides me
an opportunity in order to have great working for the international projects. This makes the
person to know about the different culture, languages, character, etc. This also makes me know
about the behaviour of the different people which helps me to know how to solve the conflicts
with the multinational teams. Further, from this module I have also learned about the importance
of communication in order to have international project management. The proper communication
with the people in the international market helps the business to grow and have great success.
The communication is the most important factor in order to have proper functioning of the
international project management. It is very important to create the trust among team and have
proper coordination which makes them to grow in the market.

This is the best source for the different organization to know about the cultural aspects
and to have the proper functioning of the work. It is very crucial to have communication that is
used in the multinational companies to have the proper management of the work (Ward and
Southwell, 2021). This makes me to learn about the parallel working on the projects in the
international market and helps the market to work globally. In order to have the proper
communication it is very important to have the proper management of the work which helps
them to grow in the market. By having the geographically dispersed teams it helps me to learn
about the efficiency in the work and have ability to choose the best members in the team. In
order to have the proper management of the work it is must determine the best teams and have
strong communication technology to communicate. The communication is the main source of
managing the people and having the geographically dispersed team. From this I used to know
about the importance of communication by working with the multinational teams. This helps me
to know about the cost saving while working with the multinational teams and makes them to
create the trust among them. This also makes me to know and understand about the international
management of the projects in the global market. By having the proper and effective
communication it also helps the employees to know about the areas where they are lacking and
in what work they are good. This used to encourage the people to have the effective working in
the company (Costeleanu, 2021). This helps me to gain the searching and analytical skills by
having the research for this module. By searching the information I have increased my
communication skills by communicating with the different people in the market. This is the best
method of working and managing the projects with the multinational teams in the global market.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that project management is very essential to
ensure that targets are achieved on time and there is the best utilization of resources. Also, the
study had discussed in detail about how cultural aspects impacts the working of diverse team and
what are the ways in achieving the best outcome from the international project. Furthermore,
report had identified how communication within the project management helps in solving
various queries and make effective decisions within the group. Also, impact of geographically
dispersed teams in analysing changing market environment and monitoring individual work had
also been discussed in detail. Lastly, detailed reflection on how the overall learning in the

module have impacted both personally and professionally had also been discussed under this
report.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Aggarwal, V. A., Hsu, D. H. and Wu, A., 2020. Organizing knowledge production teams within
firms for innovation. Strategy Science. 5(1). pp.1-16.
Barnowska, B. and Kozaryn, M., 2018. Benefits from the implementation of project tasks with
the use of virtual team. Management. 22(2).
Bond-Barnard, T. J., Fletcher, L. and Steyn, H., 2018. Linking trust and collaboration in project
teams to project management success. International Journal of Managing Projects in
Business.
Chawla, V. and et.al., 2018. The sustainable project management: A review and future
possibilities. Journal of Project Management. 3(3). pp.157-170.
Costeleanu, M., 2021. Linguistic and cultural barriers in multinational COMPANIES. Annales
Universitatis Apulensis. Series Philologica. 22(2). pp.419-423.
Davidavičienė, V. and et.al., 2020. Factors affecting knowledge sharing in virtual
teams. Sustainability. 12(17). p.6917.
Garro-Abarca, V. and et.al., 2021. Virtual teams in times of pandemic: factors that influence
performance. Frontiers in Psychology. 12. p.232.
Glikson, E. and Erez, M., 2020. The emergence of a communication climate in global virtual
teams. Journal of World Business. 55(6). p.101001.
Kosmützky, A., 2018. A two‐sided medal: On the complexity of international comparative and
collaborative team research. Higher Education Quarterly. 72(4). pp.314-331.
Lifintsev, D. and Wellbrock, W., 2019. Cross-cultural communication in the digital age. Estudos
em Comunicação. 1(28). pp.93-104.
Otto, T. D. and et.al., 2018. Long read assemblies of geographically dispersed Plasmodium
falciparum isolates reveal highly structured subtelomeres. Wellcome Open Research. 3.
Paulmakesh, D. A. and April, Y. M. Y., 2021. Implementation of Project Management for
Strategy Realisation. Journal of University shanghai for Science and
Technology. 23(10). pp.887-892.
Picciotto, R., 2020. Towards a ‘New Project Management’movement? An international
development perspective. International Journal of Project Management. 38(8). pp.474-
485.
Vrchota, J. and et.al., 2020. Critical success factors of the project management in relation to
industry 4.0 for sustainability of projects. Sustainability. 13(1). p.281.
Ward, W. S. and Given, L. M., 2019. Assessing intercultural communication: Testing technology
tools for information sharing in multinational research teams. Journal of the Association
for Information Science and Technology. 70(4). pp.338-350.
Ward, W. S. and Southwell, A. F., 2021. Intercultural Relations in International Agricultural
Research Teams: Perceived Issues Influencing Communication Effectiveness. Journal
of Intercultural Communication Research. 50(2). pp.122-145.

APPENDIX
1. Cultural aspects
Cultural aspect is one of the most important aspects that helps the person to know about
the different culture in the market. In order to work in the international market the company used
to face the problems regarding the different culture in the different country. As every market has
its own language, national character, thinking, perception, behaviours, etc. which used to affect
the working of the team. As my team was working with the different culture so this used o create
the problem for them. This is very hard for them to know about the different culture as this used
to affect the working. The proper management issue was faced by the team members as it is so
difficult to work in the different culture. This used to create the conflicts while working in the
international management of the projects. In order to work with the multinational teams it is very
important to have the discipline in the workplace. As it is very important to understand about the
structure of the different culture as it helps the people to have the effective solutions to the
problems rises. As the team was facing the management of work in the different culture this used
to have risen in the mismanagement of the work. In order to manage the conflicts it is very
important to know about the importance and understanding of the different culture while
working with the multinational teams. In order to overcome from this problem the team members
must respect the every culture with whom they are working.
2. Communication
Communication is the most important factor that helps the person to understand the
importance of proper management in the workplace. As growing in the multinational team it is
very crucial for the firm to have the better communication with the team members. As my team
was working on the international project management so it is very important to have the better
communication. As the team was facing the issue that they were not able to have the proper
communication with the multinational teams. It is very effective for them to know the
importance of having the proper communication in the market. Due to lack of proper
communication it has affected the working of the team members in the global market. In order to
improve this the leaders must communicate the proper working to their team as this is the most
important to make them know about their role. By having the proper communication it helps me
and my team members to get the constant feedback from the market. As there was lack of
communication which used to create the lack of knowledge of responsibility in order to have

effective working. By having the clear communication of the roles and responsibilities to the
team members makes them to have the proper functioning of work in the international market.
3. Virtual teams
Virtual teams has become important unit in order to have the success in the organization.
The international virtual teams helps the companies to cope up with the failures by managing the
things virtually. As the multinational teams used to operate in the different culture this used to
affect the communication as there is diversity in the different market. As the team members were
facing the problem related to delay by the work from the other teams operating multinationally.
This was just due to having the ineffective communication among team members. In order to
overcome from this there must be proper management of the team which helps them to have the
effective working in the team. By hiring the best people it will help me to have the proper
management of the work and secure the profits of the workplace. There were some challenges
that has affected the work which includes lack of team trust, not having clear working directions,
less productivity, etc. Geographically diverse teams is very important which helps all the team
members to participate actively. This helps in the conducting various meeting before the start of
the project which helps them to attain the success in the global market. By assigning the
particular task to the team helps them to have effective working and helps them to grow in the
market.
4. The fourth presentation is based on the NGO's Cola Life which is the international NPO made
on 21 June for the well-being of the people. As the children are causing from diarrhoea and
resulting in death due to lack of proper treatment. There are some strategy which the company
can adopt in order to overcome from this is asking the actual needs of the people. They make the
customers aware about the importance of ORS drink which make them feel good. In order to do
this the project managers of the cited company used to face some problems like mobilizing the
resources in order to support the project, they have to ensure that the project made is helpful in
order to minimize the goal, etc. The company has also adopted various ways in order to avoid the
challenges in the NGO project. The aim of the project is to sell their products to every area of the
world and make the children safe from diarrhoea. There are some NGO's that used to help the
society in order to improve the communities and increase the participation of the citizen to grow
the product and welfare in the market.