International Project Management: Leadership in Complex Environments

Let’s examine now aspects of complexity. Just talking about complexity is not enough.

• Lack of control. While it may appear that you as the project leader have control, in fact you often don’t—even with top management endorsement. Each office or organization has its own agenda and overall goals. If the project does not fit within this picture, you don’t have much control.

• Different cultures. Culture factors impact an international project in many ways. They first impact the setup of the project. They affect the structure of the work. After work gets underway, there are more impacts. Culture impacts projects in an ongoing and pervasive way. This is a key lesson learned.

• Different time zones. If you have ever worked on an international project spanning many time zones, communications can be a nightmare. You end up staying awake until the early hours of the morning to talk with people halfway around the world since people’s schedules and activities are often structured around the time of day.

• Different currencies. Money can be an issue in many ways. In some countries you cannot get money out of the country easily. The currency of the local country may not be valued elsewhere. There can be an underground economy. Inflation may be a factor in a country. Inflation changes the psychology and approach to projects—long-term projects may be shelved in favor of the short-term.

• Variety of regulations and rules. Not only does each country have its own rules and regulations, but there can be local laws and interpretation as well. If you ignore this or make some unsubstantiated assumptions, then you are likely to run into major problems that can sink the project.

• Political upheaval and uncertainty. Strictly speaking, this is not a cultural issue. However, it deserves mention. Doing a project in a country with a guerrilla insurgency can create, let’s say, some challenging problems. We have carried out projects in four countries where there was civil or guerrilla unrest. This changed the project and affected the scope of the work.

• Visibility of the project to the outside world. International projects tend to attract wider visibility outside of the organization. This is due to size and scope. It is also due to the fact that more people know about or are involved in the work.