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The role of a manager is evolving in response to the needs of companies operating on the international stage. The complexities of globalisation brought to the area of management are great and require the 21st century manager to adapt in order to offer modern solutions to modern problems. One area in particular of growing importance is intercultural management skills.

The majority of companies can no longer escape the need to buy, sell or work with people from different cultures. Multinationals have offices spanning the globe; manufacturers increasingly rely on foreign markets and distributors; services and products are no longer solely marketed at native audiences and many industries rely on immigrant labour. In short, very few businesses escape the need for intercultural communication.

As a result, companies are increasingly recognising that in order to grow, diversify and retain a competitive advantage, intercultural management skills are critical. ‘Intercultural management skills’ is a loose term used to refer to the capability of a manager to communicate and deal effectively with people from different cultures. ‘Communication’ has long been recognised as the key to business success; however, ‘intercultural communication’ is now an increasingly critical term..

Intercultural communication is critical to business performance in a variety of ways. Internally, an intercultural manager needs to be able to act as a medium between senior personnel and staff; communicate clearly and effectively with colleagues; build and nurture efficient intercultural and transnational teams and display strategic global thinking.

Externally, an intercultural manger must demonstrate business acumen within a framework of intercultural awareness to supervise entrance into foreign markets; oversee the proper selection, mentoring and guidance of company representatives working with foreign interests; negotiate and manage conflict with clients and provide insight into potential areas of success or failure emanating from intercultural differences.

The intercultural manager is therefore tasked with the responsibility of ensuring that communication between colleagues, clients and customers is clear, coherent and free from intercultural misunderstandings.

In order to achieve this, the intercultural manager must possess certain key attributes. These are namely, intercultural awareness, flexibility, capitalizing on differences and patience.

Intercultural awareness is the fundamental foundation of all intercultural management skills. One must possess hands on experience of living and/or working in different cultures, an understanding of how culture manifests in interpersonal interaction and have received intercultural training to consolidate those insights and awareness. Only through an appreciation of intercultural differences will the manager develop further skills.

Once intercultural awareness is active within a manager and they are able to see beyond surface level manifestations of cultural differences, flexibility naturally occurs. Flexibility refers to the ability of the manager to adapt their behaviour and management style to deal effectively with intercultural challenges and to think out of the box when it comes to offering solutions. The flexible intercultural manager is able to cushion intercultural tests and control outcomes positively.

Similarly, the intercultural manager needs to be astute in using intercultural differences positively. Cross cultural differences do not inherently lead to negative consequences. They only do so when mismanaged. It is therefore the responsibility of the intercultural manager to assess the potential of personnel, products and policies being steered by cultural differences and ensuring it does so for a constructive outcome.

Finally, the intercultural manager needs patience. As the Dutch proverb says, “A handful of patience is worth more than a bushel of brains.” Patience is the key to a successful intercultural manager as it allows one to maintain focus, analyse problems coherently, evaluate options and implement solutions.

In conclusion, the success of businesses in today’s globalized world economy relies heavily upon them investing in cultivating intercultural managers. With human traffic across borders constantly on the increase and business interests dependent on foreign markets, the intercultural manager is critical to the co-ordination, supervision and implementation of clear intercultural communication.

Neil Payne is Managing Director of Kwintessential, a London based cross cultural training provider.
Visit their site at:
http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/cross-cultural/cross-cultural-awareness.html

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Project Management is the procedure of systematizing and managing resources in such a way that these resources deliver and execute the task required to accomplish a project within a defined range, time, and cost constraint. Furthermore, it is the management approach of setting and attaining goals while optimizing the use of multiple resources such as time, funds, manpower, equipment, energy, space etc. over the course of a project.

Project management is an art and a science, an artistic science with a goal driven methodology.

Literally almost all the individual and business activity involves carrying out a non-repetitive task to achieve their definite goals.

So we all practice project management? Not necessarily!

A project is always provisional and a one-time attempt undertaken to achieve some specified result or outcome with definite start and end points. Each project must have a procedural and scientific approach. This art of management secures optimum results with nominal efforts resulting in maximum prosperity and contentment both for employees and employers.

The characteristics of projects being interim or a one-time undertaking can differentiate it from operations that are permanently enduring functional work to create the same outcome. However, there is a big difference between carrying out very simple tasks involving few individual business goals versus projects that involve complex blends of people, resources, budgets, workforces, and time constraints.

Therefore, this result oriented management process with technical skills and philosophy, scientific procedure and organizational methodology, results the requirement and development of project management today.

Any venture that is a collection of linked activities with a clearly defined start and finish point carried out in an organized manner, to achieve some specified goals is a project; and to make it successful it entails a management system.

To make a particular project successful it requires an effective solution that delivers to the standards required and within the established time and cost constrains. Project management is a series of activities embodied in a process of getting things done by working with members of a project team in order to reach the project schedule, cost and technical performance objectives; in addition combining the systems, techniques and workforce to control and monitor activities undertaken within the project.

Project management coordinates the resources necessary to complete the project successfully. The main objective of project management is a successful project execution. A project will be deemed successful if it is completed at the specified level of quality, on time and within budget.

Prime characteristics of project management are as follows:

1. Objectives oriented.
2. Change oriented.
3. Functional coordination.
4. Planning and control.
5. Constrains of time, cost, and quality.
6. Unique art.
7. Knowledge of multiple sources.
8. Better utilization of sources and tools.

Technical competencies for successful project management:

1. Risk Management
2. Integration Management
3. Scope Management
4. Procurement Management
5. Time Management
6. Communications Management
7. Budget Management
8. Quality Management
9. Human Resource Management

Project management ensures responsibilities clearly defined and resources focused on specified objectives. The project management process also provided a structure for communication within and across organizational boundaries. All the projects share similar features and follow similar processes. This has led to the development of project management tools and techniques that can be applied to all projects, no matter how diverse; however this managing process may face a variety of challenges as well.

Successful project management always is result oriented and should envelope its goals as follows;

1. Project must be completed.
2. Project must be competed within the budget.
3. Project must be completed within allocated time.
4. Project must perform to satisfaction.

Possibly because project management is so much associated with information technology (IT) these days, many relate “project management” only with technical skills; however in spite of the technological advancement, it is yet a universal fact that the human creative workforce lie at the heart of any organization and its systems, to overlook this artistic side of project management can lead to project mismanagement, resulting in project failure.

The fusion of art and science by developing a proficiency in the art and expertise in the science, a project management plan can boost the success velocity for their projects, and will be better able to accomplish projects on time and on budget, without sacrificing quality.

Author: Bharat Bista

Resource and Reference:

Surrex Project Management is a premier provider of project management strategies and solutions specializing in IT services for mid-size and Fortune 500 companies, with timely, reliable, high quality Project Management Solutions and Project Management Tools.

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Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation.

There are other useful definitions in this field, for example, creativity can be defined as consisting of a number of ideas, a number of diverse ideas and a number of novel ideas.

There are distinct processes that enhance problem identification and idea generation and, similarly, distinct processes that enhance idea selection, development and commercialisation. Whilst there is no sure fire route to commercial success, these processes improve the probability that good ideas will be generated and selected and that investment in developing and commercialising those ideas will not be wasted.

Psychological Reward

Psychological rewards and recognition are major factors in the motivation equation.

Status theory argues that every action, movement and inflexion of human beings is in some way related to status. There are compelling arguments that human behaviour is based on status seeking. In the animal kingdom, higher status individuals have more sex, more access to food and resources, more space and so forth.

The present day occupation with celebrities is a testament to the power of status. Big Brother and reality TV show how far people will go to get it.

Status is addressed in the corporate world in expressions such as “give the dog a bone.” Consequently, there is a tendency to give people high-sounding names without considering the other motivational factors. People either resent this or are happy for only short periods.

Psychological rewards include an environment of psychological safety and freedom - accepting an individual as unconditioned worth; recognising that the individual is capable of producing but that their value is not based on producing; understanding empathetically; understanding the individual from their point of feeling and view (Vernon, 1970).

These and other topics are covered in depth in the MBA dissertation on Managing Creativity & Innovation, which can be purchased (along with an Innovation Management Bible, a Creativity and Innovation DIY Audit, Good Idea Generator Software and Power Point Presentation) from http://www.managing-creativity.com/

You can also receive a regular, free newsletter by entering your email address at this site.

Kal Bishop, MBA

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You are free to reproduce this article as long as no changes are made and the author’s name and site URL are retained.

Kal Bishop is a management consultant based in London, UK. He has consulted in the visual media and software industries and for clients such as Toshiba and Transport for London. He has led Improv, creativity and innovation workshops, exhibited artwork in San Francisco, Los Angeles and London and written a number of screenplays. He is a passionate traveller. He can be reached on http://www.managing-creativity.com/

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