云南財(cái)經(jīng)大學(xué)國(guó)際工商學(xué)院澳班BUS 384論文.

1、A Research on the Relationship between Project Implementation, Project Manager and Organization CultureContent1. Introduction22. The importance of the implementation of projects and external forces changed project management ways22.1 The importance of the implementation of projects to strategic plan

2、ning and project managers22.2 External forces that have changed the way projects are managed43. Mechanisms to sustain the organization culture and project culture63. 1 Mechanisms to sustain the culture of a global organization63.2 An effective mechanism to sustain the culture of projects in a global

3、 environment74. Conclusion8Reference101. IntroductionToday more and more companies, especially global organizations, tend to use project management approach to manage the organizations. A key point of project management is the implementation of projects. To achieve an effective project management, a

4、n organization should firstly have a clear understanding of the importance of the project implementations and then consider some external environmental forces that have changed the way projects are managed.It is noted that organization culture is an important internal factor that influences project

5、management. How to sustain organization culture is now an emerging issue that enterprises, especially global enterprise, need to pay special attention to. This essay firstly analyzed the importance of the implementation of projects to strategic planning and project managers, as well as some key exte

6、rnal environmental forces that have changed the way projects are managed. And then some mechanisms were introduced that can sustain organizational culture. Finally the essay analyzed a mechanism that has the biggest effect on sustaining the culture of projects in a global environment. These analyses

7、 can help enterprises to form a clear and overall understanding of project management and the outcomes can be transferred to application in practice.2. The importance of the implementation of projects and external forces changed project management ways 2.1 The importance of the implementation of pro

8、jects to strategic planning and project managers Project is a temporary work to create unique products or services with some constraints (Kloppenborg, 2015, p. 4). Strategic planning is to set up long-term or short-term objectives to provide some kind of products or services that satisfy the custome

9、rs needs. Project manager is responsible for planning and implementing the projects to meet scale and quality requirement with limited time and cost. Implementing projects is an important part of strategic planning and an effective way to achieve organizations objectives (Wang & Li, 2008, p. 104). T

10、hus, the implementation of projects is important to both strategic planning and project managers. Specifically, the importance is reflected in the following aspects: Implementing projects contributes to achieve the objectives of strategic planning. There is a close relationship between project manag

11、ement and strategic planning. In order to take the strategy into practice, many project-based enterprises may divide an overall strategic planning into specific projects. Enterprises may implement different projects according to the organizations strategic objectives. For example, to cope with the p

12、roblem of rising price of oil, a car company approved a fuel-efficient car R&D project. In order to protect citizens health, a developing countrys nongovernmental organization approved a project to build drinking water systems for a community that suffered from infectious diseases (Liu & Cao, 2014,

13、p. 195). Implementing projects can help enterprises find out new problems and challenges, so as to adjust the strategic plans (Wang & Li, 2008, p. 105). The top managers of the organization always concentrate on the organization direction, objectives and overall plan but little care about the detail

14、s of realizing the strategic objectives. This may result in a problem that the enterprise may develop a strategic plan beyond the enterprise resource and ability. For example, in order to expand the markets, a Japanese clothing company established an annual plan to open 1000 stores in Asia. But with

15、out considering the companys actual financial capacity and real market condition, the strategic objective is impossible to be achieved. Assuming that the company transfer the plan of opening stores in China into a project and opening stores in Indonesia into another project, project managers can und

16、erstand the market conditions and customer preferences in different countries through the implementation of the projects so that they can adjust the strategic plan.For project managers, implementing projects enables them to perform their obligations and play a role in achieving strategic objectives.

17、 The implementation of projects can help project managers gain practical experience and understand how to reduce costs, better make use of resources and maximize profits. In this process, project managers are able to adjust their behaviors and thus make the implementation of projects more efficient.

18、In order to achieve an effective project implementation, the enterprise should primarily select and prioritize the projects. At first, enterprises should assess their ability to execute the project. For example, if an enterprise plans to develop a new mobile phone with the function of waterproof, it

19、 should consider whether it has a project team with creative ability and professional knowledge about waterproof and a project manager with excellent leading ability. Secondly, enterprises should identify potential projects. Strategic decision makers and project makers may not be able to find out al

20、l projects that contribute to achieving organization goals. Every person in the company should participate in the process. For example, after-sales service person may find out opportunities to improve the products through customers feedback. Thirdly, the enterprise can use financial model and scorin

21、g model to select projects. Using financial model, for example, when two projects have the same costs, the enterprise may choose the project that has a bigger net present value. Scoring models considers nonfinancial criteria to access a project. For example, a company consider develop new products i

22、s more important than maintain customer relationships, the company may give higher weights to new product criteria (Che, 2012, p. 15). Finally, when the resources required by two projects are conflicted, the enterprise should allocate the resources according to the projects priority. For example, if

23、 the enterprise is unable to deliver two projects in time, it may prioritize the project that has smaller losses. Through the above steps, the enterprises can make a better project selection and prioritization and thus promote the implementation of projects (Kloppenborg, 2015, p. 34).2.2 External fo

24、rces that have changed the way projects are managedl Product life cycleFor the products with short life cycle, time-to-market is very important. Especially for high-tech products, enterprises should push out new products as soon as possible. Developing new products using project management approach

25、can shorten the time to market. Thus, now more and more enterprises tend to establish cross - functional project teams to quickly provide customers with new products (Larson & Gray, 2011, p. 10). For example, with the development of advanced technologies, mobile phones life cycle became shortened an

26、d today more and more mobile phone companies pay more attention to new functions of mobile phones which appeal to customers. This new trend requires the project management pay more attention to product innovation and producing efficiency.l Global competitionGlobal competition has brought new opportu

27、nities and challenges to the organizations project management. On the one hand, a more open market may require a cheaper price and higher quality of a product (Larson & Gray, 2011, p. 10), which requires the project manager to complete the project with more limited cost. On the other hand, globaliza

28、tion also brought new opportunities to reduce costs and improve efficiency of project management. For example, since there are cheap labor forces in coastal areas of eastern China, many manufacturing enterprises tend to establish production plants there. Apple has set up many production plants in Ch

29、ina to produce iphone for it.l Knowledge growthWith the growth of the knowledge, project management became more complicated, because that a project may contain technical expertise in different areas, which requires more cross-functional cooperation within the organization. Nowadays, for example, bui

30、lding a road is more complicated than ever before, because it involves the design, survey, equipment, raw materials and other fields of knowledge, which were less considered a few years ago (Larson & Gray, 2011, p. 10). Thus, now more and more companies tend use project management approach because i

31、t gathers the specialists together to make joint effort to one goal.l Corporate social responsibilitiesApart from maximizing shareholder interests, taking social responsibilities is now more important for enterprises. Enterprises should consider overall interests of nature and society and achieve a

32、balance between “Planet, People and Profit”, in order to realize a sustainable development. It changed the objectives of the project and the technologies used to complete the project. For example, for a project to build a new factory, the project manager should consider not only how to reduce the co

33、st and improve the efficiency of building, but also the influence to environment and around residents brought by the project. In this situation, the project manager not only pursues the interests of shareholders and customers, but also considers the interests of related third party.l Organization do

34、wnsizingFor many large companies, expanding the businesses and company scale are the main development trends. But for more small and medium-sized enterprises, since their ability and resources are very limited, they tend to downsize to focus on core business. Outsourcing is a good example. Today a l

35、ot of mobile phone companies, like Apple, Huawei, and many car brands, like Toyota, Porsche, tend to reduce production cost and improve production efficiency through outsourcing. Outsourcing has changed the way companies processing projects, because the project managers have to manage not only their

36、 own people, but also the people come from different organizations (Larson & Gray, 2011, p. 10).3. Mechanisms to sustain the organization culture and project culture 3. 1 Mechanisms to sustain the culture of a global organizationOrganization culture is a system that allows organization members to sh

37、are their values, which makes the organization more unity and better achieve organization goals. Organizational culture can help the organization member understand what behavior is inappropriate, what behavior is encouraged (Wang, 2015, p. 47). Organizational culture is also important to project man

38、agers, because it can direct them to establish project culture.The following mechanisms can help the organization to sustain its culture:l Recruitment mechanismWhen recruiting employees, managers should consider the candidates culture fit, in order to seek for the person with consistent values with

39、the organization. In the recruitment, recruiters should clarify the values and principles of the organization. Specifically, recruiters should explain the organizations mission, vision and working condition to the candidates (Zhao, 2012, p. 33). Then managers should assess if the potential candidate

40、s values, habits and attitudes are consistent with the organization culture. Google is an example that it always pays special attention to find the right person that have the spirits Google need and do things in Googles way.l Senior manager rolesIn the process of establishing organization culture, s

41、enior managers behaviors have great impact on the organization culture. Managers should deliver the organization values to employees and influence others through their behaviors (Li, 2012, p. 88). In a case, a companys CEO has said he attaches great importance to the talents, which he hopes can be r

42、eflected in the organizations culture. But when arranging an interview of a middle manager, the CEO said to his secretary, Let him waiting for half an hour, I have something to deal with. Such a small thing has reflected his attitude to talents. The leaders of an organization are not only the builde

43、rs of the organization of culture, but also the destroyers.l Reward and punishment mechanismThrough the reward and punishment mechanism, enterprise reinforces desired behavior and discourages inappropriate behavior so that promoting the understanding of the organization values to employees. The ente

44、rprise should make a formal statement to determine what kind of reward and punishment measures they may take. Microsoft has set an award named Gates President Award for its employees, which is Microsofts highest award. To acquire the award, the person should have not only outstanding performance, bu

45、t also the values advocated by Microsoft. Setting awards can attract employees to make effort to follow the corporate values. The process can enhance employees identity of organization culture.l Communication mechanismCommunication is very important to an enterprise, especially a global organization

46、, to sustain its organization culture. In a multinational organization, team members in a project not only have different professional skills, but also have different cultural backgrounds and values. An imperfect communication system may cause a lot of problems which often waste the project manager

47、a lot of time to solve. A well communication system is like a bridge, which can make the project management process more unobstructed so that it can effectively solve the cultural conflicts. It helps the project manager better achieve project objective, establish project culture, so as sustain organ

48、izational culture.l Layoff mechanismThe people who do comply with the organization norms and values should be rewarded and those who violate the organization principles should receive the organizations help to adjust their behavior. If the person cant adjust his or her behaviors, the person should l

49、eave the organization. Enterprises can screen out those employees through the layoff mechanism, so that the organization culture can be sustained.3.2 An effective mechanism to sustain the culture of projects in a global environmentSince projects are temporary, which is totally different from operati

50、ons, the tasks of project are not completely complied with the organization goals. It may result in a divergence between the organization culture and the norms and values that the project members followed in the project. For a global organization, because it may participate in a lot of cross-cultura

51、l projects, it is a great challenge for project managers to deal with cultural conflicts, integrate the values of project team members and establish a unified project culture.Cross-cultural awareness training is considered an effective mechanism to sustain project culture. Building and sustaining pr

52、oject culture require unified vision and values in the project team. However, since the project members are from different departments or organizations, they have different cultural backgrounds and values. Since project is a temporary work, if the project manager chooses to break their original valu

53、es and beliefs to form a unified culture, it is not a wise choose. It may increase the conflicts. A better choose is to introduce different cultures to project members to increase their understanding of other members cultures, that is, making cross-cultural awareness training. This mechanism can mak

54、e the team members to accept each others values and cultures, so as to make their faith and vision consistent, increasing the possibility to achieve project success. Using this mechanism not only can make an unified culture within the project team, but also allows the team members to present their c

55、ultural features, encouraging the innovation. This mechanism also makes the team members to respect each other so that they do things in the project ways, rather than in their own ways (Li & Wang, 2012, p. 88).Here we use Foxconn, the largest electronics manufacturer in China, as an example to expla

56、in the mechanism of cross-cultural awareness training. Foxconn is the original equipment manufacturer of many well-known mobile phone brands, like Apple, Huawei, Nokia, Motorola, etc. Since Foxconns partners are all over the world, it always confront with lots of cross-cultural projects. Foxconn are

57、 used to make cross-cultural awareness training for the project team, in order to sustain project culture. The first is language training. Foxconn would require project managers to learn the language of their project partners to promote their communication. The second is culture introduction, including intro