Identifying Cross-Cultural Communication Barriers on Global IT Rollout Projects

Abstract

Numerous studies have been undertaken to investigate the issues long-term expatriates and global leaders managing multicultural teams encounter. However, there has been little research to date on cross-cultural communication challenges in project management, and this is particularly the case where the IT sector and rollout projects are concerned.
Our research aimed to investigate the effectiveness of cross-cultural communication on IT-related projects by identifying key challenging factors encountered by research participants. The purposive sampling criteria included “multiple years of experience in global IT rollout projects” and “working in multiple countries, including other continents as well”. These criteria stipulated that participants possess a specific kind of experience in multicultural social contexts, based on which we interviewed ten experts. These global professionals come from a variety of cultural backgrounds, and have each worked in three to twelve countries (8.4 on average).
An interpretative phenomenological approach was applied, in which the interpretation of participants’ lived experiences was linked to relevant literature: cross-cultural communication and cultural profiles, organisational and national culture models, and cross-cultural project management. Our findings revealed six significant areas that have emerged as key sources of intercultural problems on ERP related IT rollout projects: language, hidden assumptions, work-life balance, confrontation, time management, and apparent lies.
The implications and value of our study derive from the lessons learned by the interviewed experts as they are recognised as individuals with valuable information and abilities – developed through significant international experience – that may inform the practice of other project managers similarly working for multinational IT organisations.