International project management

LEARNING IN AND LEARNING FROM INTERNATIONAL PROJECTS

Chapter 11

INTERNATIONAL PROJECTS AND ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING (1)

Organizational learning:

 Individual learning is a prerequisite for organizational learning. Another prerequisite is effective communication between the individual learners embedded in the organization’s culture and organizational structure.

Due to their time limitations, resource constraints, great complexity, diversity, and risk propensity, international projects are a rich source of organizational learning.

Purpose of learning from projects:

 Reduction of project risk.

 Development of project competencies.

 Creation of sustainable innovativeness and competitive advantage.

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KNOWLEDGE AND KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

Knowledge:

 We have to distinguish between data, information, and knowledge.

 By patterning them in a certain way, unstructured, isolated, context-independent data are transformed to information.

 Knowledge is created if cognitive behavioural patterns or heuristics are applied to this information.

Explicit knowledge:

 Can be expressed in words or figures.

 It is documented and easily accessible.

Tacit knowledge:

 Resides in an individual’s actions and experience, as well as in his values and attitudes.

Knowledge Management is about sharing and leveraging knowledge within and outside of the organization.

To enhance organizational learning, knowledge management needs to be applied in and to international projects.

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INTERNATIONAL PROJECTS AND ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING (2)

Categories of knowledge derived from international projects:

 Technical knowledge regarding the product with its components of the service, including its underlying technologies.

 Procedural knowledge regarding manufacturing a product or delivering a service, including the application of a certain project management methodology.

 Organizational knowledge regarding communication, leadership, and co-operation.

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‘Strong‘

knowledge,

including true

beliefs backed

up by valid

justifications,

easy to make

explicit and

transfer

throughout the

organization.

‘Weak‘ knowledge,

tacit, sticky in local

projects, difficult to

globalize or

transfer.

Discerned

elements (e.g.

number of warranty

claims, test data)

Data that is

processed and

patterned

Actionable

information

transformed into

knowledge

Knowledge

embedded into

indiv. and org.

processes adding

value to the

organization

Learning 1. Data 2. Information

4. Individual and

organizational

processes

3. Knowledge

Context External

environment

Strategy (implemented

via international

projects)

Organizational IT

infrastructure and

systems

Organizational

culture

National culture

of workforce

Educational

background of

employees

Common corporate language

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Knowledge management cycle in international projects

PROJECT LEARNING AND CULTURAL CONTEXT

As shown on the previous slide, learning in and from international projects is embedded in context.

Part of this context is national or regional culture.

Tacit knowledge reflects culture and needs to be interpreted with a cultural lens on.

In the Arab and Chinese world, individuals are socialized in networks (wasta / guanxi) with their own rules regarding knowledge creating and sharing.

Intercultural knowledge is not only needed to interpret tacit knowledge, but also to turn tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge.

The following slides explore the details how culture impacts learning in and from international projects.

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People from individualistic cultures may tend to

regard knowledge as their personal possession they

can or cannot share with anybody else. People from

group-oriented cultures may tend to consider

knowledge as something belonging to and residing

in the group.

Individual Group

Individuals from universal cultures may tend to strive

for universally applicable knowledge and apply one

fits all solutions globally. Individuals from

circumstantial cultures may tend to adapt knowledge

to its specific context.

Universal Circumstan-

tial

Individuals from task-oriented cultures often are low-

context communicators. They tend to codify

knowledge using ICT-supported knowledge mgmt

tools. Individuals from relationship-oriented cultures

may focus on tacit knowledge residing in the people

of their network and prefer high-context information

modes.

Task Relationship

Individuals from rather theory-oriented cultures will

tend to learn from abstract knowledge and focus on

cause and effect relations. Individuals from pragmatic

cultures will tend to prefer cases and easily

transferable knowledge focusing on useful results.

Theoretical Pragmatic

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Cultural impact on learning

• Avoidance of loss of face

• Impact of collectivism

• Impact of multi- disciplinarity

• Discontinuities

• Fragmentation

• Lack of time

• Lack of transparency

• Focus on evaluation at the end

• Marginality of sender

• Stereotypes of and against the sender

• Linguistic ability of the sender and the receiver

• Lack of support by organizational culture

• Not Invented Here Syndrome

• Lack of incentives and motivation

• Lack of discipline

• Lack of skills

Issues regarding learning in and from

international projects related to…

… cultural

diversity

… the nature of

a project

… communica-

tion

… the overall

organization

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Impediments to project learning

Great diversity reflected in multi-culturalism, differences in language, organizational culture,

functional culture, or educational background, complicates learning in and from international

projects.

METHODS OF LEARNING IN AND FROM INTERNATIONAL PROJECTS

All approaches aiming at capturing knowledge and experience derived from international projects need to:

 Link the knowledge with the context in which it was created.

 Span geographical and organizational boundaries.

Human-centred methods:

 Knowledge networks / Communities of practice.

 New roles dedicated to knowledge management.

 Mentor relationships.

Process-based methods:

 Project audit.

 Structured project walkthrough.

Content-based approaches:

 Micro article

 Learning history.

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Name of Method Description Main Advantages Main Disadvantages

Knowledge

networks /

community of

practice (IPMs)

Individuals with the role of

international project managers

exchange experience via email

or intranet and meet to maintain

their networks personally at

regular intervals

Tacit knowledge can be shared on the

face-to-face meetings but also easily

via phone, email or intranet crossing

organizational, cultural, and geographic

boundaries

PMs of international projects

may be too heterogeneous

to create common reference

frame

New roles

dedicated to

knowledge

management

New roles such as regional

engineering managers who

collect learning from projects

and other relevant knowledge

and disseminate it in their

networks around the globe

External and internal knowledge is

collected and disseminated; due to

personal networks, tacit knowledge can

be shared across organizational,

cultural and geographic boundaries

Effectiveness of the new

roles dependent on

qualification (including

cultural intelligence) of

individuals assigned to the

new roles. Difficult to span

functional boundaries

Mentor

relationships

Experienced international

project manager is shadowed by

to-be project manager

Good tool to share tacit knowledge,

also across organizational, cultural, and

geographic boundaries

Time consuming,

effectiveness depends on

the performance of mentor

and relation between the

two

Project audit Project-external auditors sit

down with PM to check project

documentation for compliance

and deviations from plan. Most

adequate for learning if based

on issue log

Neutral view on evaluation; adequate

for fostering project management

methodology across organizational,

cultural and geographic boundaries.

Tends to focus on

compliance issues at the

expense of organizational

learning

Overview of methods of project learning (1)

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Name of Method Description Main Advantages Main Disadvantages

Structured project

walkthrough

Method focusing on project

team, face-to-face. Project team

controls the evaluation process

determining its own evaluators

and rules

Atmosphere of trust leads to honest

reflection; crosses organizational,

cultural and geographic boundaries;

effectiveness of sharing tacit knowledge

depends on documentation of

walkthrough process

Lack of intercultural skills

may interfere with process;

cost intensive to gather

international project team at

one site

Micro article Short articles of maximum one

page comprising key experience

or lesson learnt from a project

highly visualized, written in an

entertaining way, and

disseminated digitally

Sharing of tacit knowledge possible due

to inclusion of context. Can be

disseminated also as video clips,

cartoons or other visualized forms

travelling well across organizational,

cultural and geographic boundaries

Takes time and resources to

create articles. Strict

anonymity required in case

of negative lessons learnt

due to potential loss of face

for certain cultures

Learning history Documents of 20 – 100 pages

narrating the history of the

project chronologically quoting

directly project participants

anonymously. Distributed as

hard copies at a special

workshop

Through the direct input of project

participants very authentic and through

comments of editors very context rich.

Good to turn tacit knowledge into

explicit knowledge. If workshops are

carried out in different locations,

suitable for the whole organization

Takes a lot of time and

resources. Only meaningful

for strategic and big projects

Overview of methods of project learning (2)

THE PHASE OF PROJECT COMPLETION

The process-oriented project learning methods are especially linked to the project completion or project termination phase.

Evaluation-based learning is one of the main tasks of this phase. The project manager or project auditor evaluates the actual project results versus plan regarding:

 Project schedule.

 Accuracy of the resource estimates.

 Impact of resources availability of shortages on the project.

Typically, evaluation-based learning focuses solely on the hard facts as mentioned above. The soft factors are frequently neglected.

Another important task is the handover of the project or service to the customer and to ensure customer satisfaction with the deliverables.

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• Project budgets and actuals

• Project schedule with estimates

and actuals

• Customer’s goal

• Technical specifications

• Change requests

• Issue log

Input

• Finalized project documentation

including project acceptance

document signed by internal or

external customer

• Explicit and tacit technical,

procedural and organizational

knowledge packaged to make it as

easy to re-use as possible in form

of:

•Analysed project performance

statistics

•Stories/Analogies/Cases/Project

histories

•Re-using project team as is or

experience of project team via

communities of practice

OutputCompletio

n Phase

Controls:

Organization‘s

project mgmt

standards/

procedures

Constraints:

strategic, financial,

time, legal, cultural,

environmental,

ethical

Mechanisms: Debriefing workshop

Project audit

Project walkthrough

etc.

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Main inputs and outputs of the project completion phase

Integrating project learning

into project management methodology

Establishing knowledge enablers:

Moving towards the ideal of a learning

organization

• Trust

• Motivation

• Absorption

capacity 14

Fostering project learning in an international context