Discussion/ Technology and Operations Management
International Project management is very essential to control resource usage to ensure quality productions. International projects involve many people with different cultures and backgrounds. It is therefore necessary to have management system that harmonizes the cultural, social, political and economic differences amongst them. Project manager should be tactical and wise in decision making to ensure every project member is well catered for and maximum utilization of the resources is achieved to meet project objectives (Kwak, 2002). Development of an international project management plan in workplace
International project development environments are affected with many factors originating from within and outside the development environments by nature. International project development plan may be affected by cultural, social, political and economic factors and so the management plan should consider all these factors (Kwak, 2002). The international project management plan should consider all possible physical factors in the countries involved for mitigation. In addition, the laws and regulations governing different countries should be considered to ensure political stability.
With the political factors solved, there will be improved returns on investments due to reduction in risks resulting from uncertainties in the international project development environment. In any business, there has to be legal requirements to be met. An international project development management system has to meet all the legal requires in terms of government policies and regulations. These factors may affect prices, exchange rates in the markets, taxations and even financial management systems. This may lead to some people losing their jobs and others incurring losses in the business.
As a business right, political factors should be well managed to ensure market stability for the market users (Kwak, 2002). Cultural factors such as style or values should be considered when developing an international project development management system. Since some countries are not aware of the some cultural resources in other countries, assistance should be provided to facilitate the international projects development process. Cultural value should be put into consideration when designing the management system. When planning for an international project management system, technological factors should be put in to consideration.
This is because technological designs and level of use vary from country to country (Kwak, 2002). This may lead to varied participation levels in a project and so a project manager should consider the variation to successfully manage a project. Employing project management techniques to skillfully and ethically lead complex international projects in organizations Project management is a technique through which projects can be evaluated to encourage soft skills application in contrast with the hard skills to achieve the project goals.
Soft skills are mostly based on the technical resources required to carryout a project such as stakeholders’ contributions, collaboration or teamwork, organizational behaviors and management strategies (Marques, 2005). According to Harold (2005), for a successful project management in an organization, skillful and ethical techniques for a success in a complex or large organization are as follows. First, there has to be process integrations in the organizations. Integration of processes involves forming teamwork or collaborations in a project to ensure every member’s requirements are catered for in the product design.
In addition, teamwork ensures success because of improved participation amongst members. Second, incorporation of cultural values at the design stages of a management system. Incorporation of the cultural values in multicultural organization will ensure equitable presentation of all members rights and therefore not to lower their dignity or abuse their rights (Harold, 2005). Third, information and support managements, which includes monitoring and assessing the communication systems to capture everyone’s views in terms of comments or suggestions.
Forth, trainings should be provided to all members of an organization particularly in technology use to enable them to embrace technology use. In many occasions, management well trained employees in an organization are highly empowered and they participate fully in all areas within the organization to improve productivity. Fifth, behavioral excellence that involves instilling ethical values to the employees. Employees have to know their rights and how to protect them in the organization.
Management system should provide fro a way in which petitions in the working environment can be solved fairly to create unity and harmony amongst workers (Harold, 2005). Diversity & cross-cultural perspectives, Team building skills, Decision making in the workplace In a multicultural environment, there has to be change management, which enables new members in the organization to be induced well and successful fit in the new working environment. Decision-making based production methods should be put in to considerations to avoid resource wastages and satisfy all internal requirements in an organization.
Lean manufacturing should be adopted to only produce when needed to minimize resource consumption in the organization (Joomla, 2009). In addition to lean manufacturing, project management should be carried out in all projects in an organization. This is to ensure quality performances to continuously improve in productions. Project management will also ensure cost effective use of resources particularly in a large and complex organization. In diverse and multicultural organizations, conflicts are likely to happen due to the cultural and environmental differences.
Conflict management system should be availed to provide fair judgments to the organizational members. Teamwork or collaboration should be encouraged to facilitate decision-making and enhance innovativeness (Joomla, 2009). Enhanced decision making and innovativeness will lead to quality production through making good plans for investments. Innovation may also lead to improvements in the supply chain levels. A well-managed supply chain model can be improved through innovation or technology use to eliminate non-value adding processes to production processes.
Conclusion Project management is very fundamental in all projects whether in large or small organizations. International project management is just as necessary as the local ones (Marques, 2005). In multicultural organizations, the employees have to be trained on various social, cultural, political and economic factors to ensure uniformity during a joint project. Project managers are required to consider the cultural factors when designing a management structure for all the members to be accommodated and be free to fully participate in the organizational tasks.
Reference:
Harold, K. (2005). Advanced Project Management best Practices on Implementation, 2nd
ed, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, New Jersey
Joomla. (2009). Certification, Innovation, Decision Making, Project Management, Team
Building, Conflict Management: Certification Programs for Educational and Business Organizations Standards or Courses Custom Designed for your Organization. Joomla. Viewed on 13th June 2009, Available at http://endeavourprojects.com/Joomla
Kwak, Y. H. (2002). Critical Success Factors in International Development Project
Management. Viewed on 13th June 2009. Available at http://home.gwu.edu/~kwak/Kwak_CIB65_2002.pdf
Marques, G. M. (2005). Discussion of the distinguishing features of Project Management
in the 21st Century. Viewed on 13th June 2009. Available at http://www.caaei.org/anexos/65.doc
