Managing Projects in Asia

I've had the privilege of working in a multi-cultural environment in Asia for many years. So many times I've seen conflicts arising from a clash of values, practices, and behaviors due to diverse cultures, particularly between people from different parts of the world. The old saying "East vs. West" may be a bit simplistic, but it's not far from the truth that Westerners do not truly comprehend subtleties of Asian culture.

I presented a paper three years ago at the first PMI Asia Pacific Congress in Singapore. The feedback to the session was very good and many people came back to me for more advice. I'll use this blog to share both this paper as well as some new thoughts on this topic.

Introduction

Over the past thirty years, Asian cultures have become a dominant theme when companies are considering business ventures or making investments in Asia. It started with Japan in the seventies, then the four “little dragons” – Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore in the eighties, and then China, India, ASEAN, and the rest of Asia in the nineties. When managers from the West thought that they’d understood Asia based on their experience in one country, they discovered that in another not-so-far-away country, people with similar color and look think and behave differently. We are talking about a very diverse cultural environment – multi-racial, varied historical background, different values, and multi-lingual, in Asia.

Hand-in-hand with business ventures and investments are projects. So project managers are facing more or less the same, if not more complex, cultural issues. Even experienced managers with good people management skills find it daunting to manage projects in Asia which has more than thirty countries/territories based on geographical classification (excluding Pacific Islands), at least ten major languages spoken, and more than twelve major economies. A project manager typically faces issues like miscommunication, clash of values, disparity in religions and customs, misunderstanding resulting from petty etiquettes, and difficulties in motivating people.

This paper will provide an analysis of Asian culture from four perspectives that a project manager is most concerned with – Authority, Conflicts and Their Resolution, Team Motivation, and Negotiation. Asians exhibit dissimilar behaviors and thinking due to their diverse cultural background, yet on a closer look some commonalities exist in most countries irrespective of their geographies, ethnicities, and languages. Based on real-life experience in managing large and complex projects in Asia, this author will share his views on handling tough cultural issues and conflicts, and offer a list of do’s and don’ts. In particular, he will focus on areas that have prevalent impact on a project, namely stakeholders’ interests and behaviors, team building, and conflict resolution, all under the context of diverse cultures.

To be continued...

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