Managing Cultural Diversity in Project Management

Running head: PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Project management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

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PROJECT MANAGEMENT
1. Introduction
The main focus of the paper is on the scenario as per which the project manager is
leading within a global project that have team members from different countries. The project
mainly aims to showcase how the cultural diversity in the contemporary project management can
be managed effectively. While working with a project team that have different members of
different culture, it is important for the managers to manage the diversity effectively by utilizing
different types of strategies as well as methods. Moreover, it is identified that the paper also
focusses on the ways that are generally used by the project managers while communicating
successfully within the multicultural team and additionally provides proper advice for the
individuals who works within a multicultural team for dealing with the challenges.
2. Discussion
2.1 Reason behind the management of cultural diversity in project management
It is found that presently the projects are very much complex and therefore they generally
need proper culturally as well as functionally mix project team. According to Hajro, Gibson and
Pudelko (2017), effective teamwork is generally considered as the key for the success of all the
different phases of the project lifecycle and if issues related to cultural diversity occurs then it
generally impacts the success of the project negatively. In addition to this, it is quite challenging
to overcome the underlying prejudices between the various cultures. While working with the
multicultural team generally arises a number of challenges as well as issues which are mainly
linked with the difference in ethics as well as culture can occur that can further create conflict
within the entire project (Furukawa 2016). The other types of challenges that occur within the
team includes language barriers, cultural differences, technical challenges as well as issues

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PROJECT MANAGEMENT
related with decision making. In order to manage the conflicts as well as challenges that are
linked with the multicultural team within the project therefore it is necessary for the project
manager to undertake effective steps. It is found that for successfully progressing the entire
project with the help of the project team by reducing conflicts then it is the responsibility of the
project managers to manage cultural diversity effectively (Guilherme and Dietz 2015). This is
mainly done by the project managers by successfully developing proper cultural competence that
further enhances the ability of understanding as well as communicating with the different
cultures by effectively interacting with other cultures
2.2 Ways in which the project managers lead the multicultural project team
The project managers generally need to lead the multicultural team of the project by
utilizing a number of steps. According to Ozga et al. (2018) it is important for the project
managers to break down the cultural differences as well as language barrier that exists within the
team. As the project managers need to work with the multicultural team therefore, they must
proactively accommodate various types of work schedules by working around all the cultural
customers such that the entire project can be leaded by the project managers efficiently (Mitchell
and Westbrook 2016). On the other hand, the project managers must have the proper ability of
intervening in order to keep proper focus on the original cause of the conflict and for helping
different parties for successfully understanding the root cause of the problems. In addition to this,
fostering norms of trust by getting the team together face to face for discussing the project issues.
Moreover, in order to lead the multicultural team, it is also important for the project managers to
assign proper roles and responsibilities as well as benchmark for each of the project team by
successfully revising it necessary while the entire project is generally progressing. Furthermore,
it is also the responsibility of the project managers for successfully avoiding the creation of the