Page 124 - Global Project Management Handbook

DEVELOPING MULTINATIONAL PROJECT TEAMS 5-13

that is more flexible and responsive to quality and time-to-market pressures. To be effec-
tive in such a team environment, the leader must create an ambience where people are
professionally satisfied, are involved, have mutual trust, and can communicate well with
each other. The more effective the project leader is in stimulating the drivers of effective
team performance (see Table 5.1), the more effective the manager can be in developing
team membership and the higher can be the quality and candor in sharing ideas and
approaches and in effectively transferring knowledge and integrating work among global
partners.
The effective team leader is a social architect who understands the interaction of orga-
nizational and behavioral variables and can foster a climate of active participation and
minimal dysfunctional conflict. This requires carefully developed skills in leadership,
administration, organization, and technical expertise. It further requires the project
leader’s ability to involve top management and to ensure organizational visibility,
resource availability, and overall support for the new project throughout its life cycle.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Managing global project teams is not for the weak or faint of heart. However, observa-
tions from best practices show that specific working conditions and managerial processes
appear most favorably associated with teamwork despite the complexities, organizational
dynamics, and cultural differences among global companies. These conditions serve as
bridging mechanisms that enhance team performance. A number of specific recommen-
dations may help managers to facilitate working conditions conducive to organizing and
developing high-performing global project teams. The sequence of recommendations fol-
lows to some degree the chronology of a typical project life cycle.

Early Project Life-Cycle Team Involvement
As for any project, effective project planning and early team involvement are crucial to
successful project team performance. This is especially important for product develop-
ments where parallel task execution depends on continuous cross-functional cooperation

for dealing with incremental work flow and partial-result transfers. Team involvement
early in the project life cycle also will have a favorable impact on the team environment,
building enthusiasm toward the assignment, team morale, and ultimately, team effective-
ness. Because project leaders have to integrate various tasks across many functional lines,
proper planning requires the participation of all stakeholders, including support depart-
ments, subcontractors, and management. Modern project management techniques, such
as phased project planning and stage-gate concepts, as well as established standards, such
as Project Management Book of Knowledge (PMBOK), provide the conceptual frame-
work and tools for effective cross-functional planning and for organizing the work toward
effective execution.

Define Work Process and Team Structure

Successful project team management requires an infrastructure conducive to cross-
functional teamwork and technology transfer. This includes properly defined interfaces,
task responsibilities, reporting relations, communication channels, and work-transfer pro-
tocols. The tools for systematically describing the work process and team structure come