Report on Challenges and Opportunities in Global Project Management

This research report investigates the challenges and opportunities in global project management, particularly focusing on the impact of cultural diversity on companies like ESI International. It reviews existing literature, research methodologies, and ethical considerations, employing a mixed-method approach to gather comprehensive insights. The study identifies key challenges such as communication barriers, cultural differences, and coordination difficulties arising from globalization and distributed teams. It also highlights opportunities such as access to new markets, diverse perspectives, and enhanced problem-solving capabilities. The report addresses research questions related to overcoming these challenges and emphasizes the importance of training and adaptation in global project management. Data collection relies on secondary sources, ensuring ethical considerations are maintained throughout the research process. Ultimately, the research aims to provide actionable recommendations for companies to navigate the complexities of global project management effectively.

Research in business

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Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................2
Research objectives.....................................................................................................................................3
Research scope............................................................................................................................................3
Literature review.........................................................................................................................................4
Justification.............................................................................................................................................6
Research questions......................................................................................................................................7
Primary question......................................................................................................................................7
Secondary questions................................................................................................................................7
Research Design and methodology..............................................................................................................8
Qualitative research design:.....................................................................................................................8
Quantitative approach:.............................................................................................................................9
Mixed approach.......................................................................................................................................9
Data collection method................................................................................................................................9
Ethical consideration.................................................................................................................................10
Research limitations..................................................................................................................................11
Time schedule, organization of Study and project budget.........................................................................11
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................13
References.................................................................................................................................................14
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Introduction
In today's world, Global project management is a very important concept as it is relevant to
almost every industry sector. Basically, globalization is playing a very important role in the
Global project management processes. Because of the globalization interaction between the
people of different countries and cultures has been increased and also has witnessed a
"Projectification". The concept of global project management offers various challenges as well as
benefits to the company. This report is written with intent to find out the benefits and challenges
in Companies because of the cultural diversity. ESI International Company provides the training
to improve the skills of the employees and also offer consultancy services in managing the
various programs and contracts and business skills. However, it can be said that global project
management is a journey of exploration as it involves the cross cultural interaction in global
projects learning to recognize the cultural differences. This Research report will include the
review of the previous literature, research methodology and ethical considerations studied by the
researchers. Therefore, in this research report mixed approach has been chosen to find out the
better outcomes (Aaltonen, Murtonen, & Tukiainen, 2009).
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Research objectives
Because of the globalization and due to diversity in the countries various challenges as well as
opportunities have been faced by the companies in managing their projects. However, there are
many factors that make this concept a very challenging one. Management and coordination of
the Global projects is difficult because of the different time zone, different culture, different
language, distributed teams and distant locations. The purpose behind this study is to analyze the
challenges and opportunities faced by the company because of diversity at the workplace. This
study is also focusing more on the solutions to resolve the issues of global project management
(Shenhar & Dvir, 2007).
Research scope
With the development of the communication networks across the globe and accessing the new
market, knowledge, expertise has been the primary catalysts of global businesses. Global project
management is very beneficial for the people who want to invest in the international market.
Training is assumed to be the best part to solve the challenges faced during the project
management. The scope of this research project is to make organizations aware about the
challenges and how to resolve these challenges during the project management. Communication
is a very important part for managing the Global projects when the companies are working
together as a team. Some of the devices that used while doing Global projects are
videoconferencing, chats and phones which are totally opposite to the face to face
communication (Aarseth, Rolstadås, & Andersen, 2013).
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Literature review
Various studies and researches have been done in the previous years on the topic of global
project complexity and challenges and the opportunities for the companies. According to the
various studies, it is very difficult to ignore the complexity of global projects because it's very
challenging task to operate and co-ordinate the projects. It is observed that if project teams are
located in different locations then a company needs some additional devices or methods to
facilitate the communication. Communication is a very important part for managing the Global
projects when the companies are working together as a team. Some of the devices that used
while doing Global projects are videoconferencing, chats and phones which are totally opposite
to the face to face communication (Zhang, Marquis, Filippov, Haasnoot, & Steen, 2015).
Some of the authors emphasized on the fact that training is very important in the case of
managing the Global project. Every employee working in the diverse culture should have the full
knowledge about political, legal, cultural values and other information related to the global
projects. According to the viewpoint of Adam Alami, there are various factors that cause
complexity to the Global projects and some of factors includes locations of different time zones,
communication, cultural issues and control (Alami, 2016). Cultural diversity is the most
important a critical factor that need to be considered while managing the Global projects.
Some of the studies reflect the significance of diversity in the Global projects. It is analyzed that
the cultural diversity or factors can make or break the Global projects. There are many
opportunities for the companies if they invest money in the Global projects. Company will
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receive a large amount of profits, if they successfully run the projects in the Global Businesses.
Moreover, it is also found that working in a diverse culture leads to generate different ideas for
the companies as it will come from the diverse team members. Global project management also
leads to learn about the new things and understanding of the cultural differences. Also, making
mutual adjustments and adaptations is also a long lasting Process (Rodrigues & Sbragia, 2013).
It can be said that global project management is a journey of exploration as it involves the cross
cultural interaction in global projects learning to recognize the cultural differences. According to
Lanubile, global project provider fundamental benefits to those companies who undertake and
choose to invest in it. The best part of global projects is that it provides an opportunity to explore
the wide range of markets including on unexplored markets. It is analyzed that the belief,
traditions and Customs of the different regions or countries in the world bring a great level of
diversity to the working environment of the companies that facilitate improvement in the
collective thinking (Kujala, Brady, & Putila, 2014).
According to the viewpoint of Peter Smith, Various challenges faced by the companies while
managing the Global projects. The major challenges that company may face is related to the
project cost overruns, organizational culture, communication coordination, power and
relationships (Smith, 2014). From the review of literature, social conflicts are evident in this
worldwide Global models and this affect the relationship between the groups involved in the
projects and weakens correspondence procedure.
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Talking about the ESI international company, they are offering the various courses and the
training programs to manage the various projects and also includes the programs like risk
management, asset management, performance management, financial management. This
company still is unable to manage the global projects because of the cultural diversity and the
social conflicts. This is the reason that these social conflicts affect the relationship between the
groups involved in the projects and weakens correspondence procedure (ARUP, 2017).
Justification
In the previous literature review, there are many problems that have been found related to the
Global project management, but there are no measures are taken or implemented by the
companies in order to handle this situation. The surveys and researchers explain in the literature
review more about the challenges faced by the company and less Emphasis has been given to the
opportunities as well as the problem solving methods for the global issues (Bergerud, 2012).
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Research questions
There are two types of research questions on which this research is based. The first one is
primary question consist of only one question which is considered to be the main question of this
research while this secondary questions are derived from the primary question.
Primary question
1. What are the challenges and opportunities for ESI due to cultural diversity?
Secondary questions
2. What actions that can be taken to resolve the issues and overcome the challenges of
global project management?
3. Why training is essential in the Global project management?
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Research Design and methodology
Research methodology is the most important part of this study. To carry out this research, mixed
research method has been adopted in which both the methods qualitative as well as quantitative
are being utilized in order to get the better results. The main objective of this study is to carry out
the research in order to determine the various challenges and opportunities for the company
because of diversity. This research project involved quantitative and qualitative approaches for
the deep study analysis part with regard to the challenges and opportunities for the company
cultural diversity in organization (Smal & Jõgeva, 2016). Coming to the approaches part there
are three types of the research approaches which can be used to carry out the research which are
explained as below:
Qualitative research design:
This research design is all about the collection of the secondary data that is derived from the
existing studies or researches done by the various scholars. This method is useful in gathering the
information of high quality related to the topic. This strategy or approach has been chosen
because it allows the evaluation of the issues faced by ESI international company in the global
management. This method is assumed to be more effective in comparison to other methods (Torp
& Klakegg, 2016).
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Quantitative approach:
With the help of this approach, numerical data collected through the interviews of
questionnaires. The main focus of this research approach is on the numeric values of the data and
various researchers use this approach to collect the primary data.
Mixed approach
Mixed approach refers to the combination of the quantitative and qualitative approaches which
are being used to carry out the research work. Therefore, in this research report mixed approach
has been chosen to find out the better outcomes.
Data collection method
As this report is based on the secondary data, so this will be based on the already exist material,
which can be collected through the articles, journals, newspaper books and online sources. It is
the approach which can be used to analyze the issues faced by the Global project management
company by managing the cost factors effectively and also by saving the time. This research
project will help to analyze the different methods can be used to resolve the issues of global
project management within the organization. The data can be analyzed through the process of
data listing. In this research work graft can be used in order to represent the quantitative data so
that it could be easily understand by the users (KPMG, 2007).
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Ethical consideration
Ethical consideration is also the significant part of the research work as we need to follow some
ethical values and principles. To identify the model information some of the ethics and values
have to be followed by the researcher. The data that is collected is currently based on the mixed
research approach which includes primary data and secondary data. First of all, the most
important ethical consideration that we need to take care is related to the confidentiality, privacy
and authenticity of the collected data. During the research work there are some of the ethical
values that should we consider while conducting the research which are as follows:
Goodwill: It is important to focus on those companies which are facing the Global project
management issues within the organization. ESI International Company has been chosen as an
example and it is important to take care of goodwill of company (Richardson, Marion, & Onu,
2015).
Confidentiality and professionalism: while collecting the secondary data, it is important is that
making use of the data which is based on the volunteer participation of the people or from the
annual reports of the companies. All the information collected through the secondary sources is
kept confidential and it will be destroyed after reaching the outcomes of the analysis (Malathi,
2011).
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Research limitations
On the topic of evaluation of issues related to Global project management within the
organization, there is enough research has been done but there is still some study left to research
in order to generate the better measures for reducing the global issues. As we know that
technology is growing very quickly and new additions are being made every second, therefore it
is quite difficult to study all the information with regard to the challenges. Also, it is quite
difficult to cover and consider all the studies done by the various researchers (Shakir & Nørbjerg,
2013).
Time schedule, organization of Study and project budget
This part of the research work represents the time schedule for each and every activity that
performs during this research. This can be explained with the help of Gantt chart which includes
activity and the time of performing that task. With the help of Gantt chart, the time required to
complete these tasks has been shown in the form of table and this activity is useful to manage all
the projects activities as well as the cost of the company.
From the below table, it is clear that the company need to review the previous studies that took
around the 6 weeks to the company. This activity does not involve any cost because the review
of literature is done by studying the internet material, books and journals. Moving further to the
study, next part involves the research methodology and collection of the secondary data. The
budget assumed to carry out this project study is to be around $500.
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