Growing number of organizations and project teams incorporate members with different cultural backgrounds. Project Managers usually have to learn and manage the subtle social and cultural differences of team members, having in mind that the project should be achieved with as little friction as possible.

Sometimes the difference is obvious, but sometimes it is very subtle and yet very important. Failure to understand it, usually under the cloak of "single corporate culture", might influence the project outcome significantly. On the other side, making decisions based on cultural bias might open some moral questions, such as "Am I treating all members equally" and "Should I make difference between members, based on their origin".



After reading few books and cases on organizational development and change management, I have learned about the Geert Hofstede's work, including his findings on Cultures on Organizations. Hofstede started working for IBM in 1965 as a trainer in the international Executive Development Department, which provided a valuable base for his scientific work. He uses the following five cultural indicators to position certain team member based on cultural background:

  • Power Distance Index (The level of power distribution and authoritarian managerial figure), meaning that people coming from countries like Austria and Denmark have low power distance index expect more democratic and consultative relations between hierarchies, while team members from countries with higher PDI such as many Asian cultures have more paternalistic relations between team members and higher management, including PMs. PDI distribution in Europe is relatively correlated with geographic position, coming from low PDI in the North to high PDI in the South.
  • Individualism / Collectivism - personal choice versus life long team devotion. Cultures from Latin America are dominantly collectivistic, while western cultures nurture the individualism.
  • Masculinity / Femininity - Masculine cutlures respect competitiveness, team / organizational agressiveness, ambition, accumulation of wealth, while feminine cultures respect quality of life, rich relationships.
  • Uncertainity avoidance - the level of uncertainity anxiety in a certain culture. Cultures with high uncertainity avoidance index (such as Mediterranean countries, Latin America, Japan) tend to choose more conservative approaches, are reluctant to changes, and tend to stay longer with current team since they are accustomed to it.
  • Long / Short term orientation - the distance of society's horizon or importance of future versus past. Asian cultures are long term oriented, taking into consideration every choice and it's influence over long term karma, versus short term societies (Western cultures) which are based on short incremental cycles.

Even if you don't follow statistical numbers and indexes vigorously, the approach and set of indicators themselves open a new perspective in intercultural relations and communication among team including the difference in relationship between members and the management (PDI). The analysis is valuable both inside team / organization and between entities (such as partner companies, customers, potential markets and so on).

Further reading: PDI Table & Map,  Personal site, 1, 2