Towards a Transcultural Approach for Inter-Professional Communication in Complex IT Project Teams—Aiming to Avoid Cross-Functional and Cross-Hierarchical Conflicts
Abstract
:1. Introduction: Complexity of the IT Projects
2. Literature Survey on Types of Diversity and Its Role as Possible Source of Conflicts within Organizations
2.1. Cultural Diversity
2.2. Organization Management Diversity
2.3. Professional Diversity
2.4. Diversity as a Possible Source of Conflicts
- Latent conflicts (potential, slumbering, but not yet visible or acknowledged);
- Emergent conflicts (visible but still rational).
3. Materials and Methods
- To develop and test a framework for systematic analysis of the conflict typology (management conflicts included) in the multicultural environment of IT organizational project teams;
- To propose a practice for a transcultural framework of common team vocabulary aiming to address some of the communication issues and complexities in such an IT project set-up;
- To formulate a set of lessons learned (while working in multicultural/multi-linguistic and inter-professional IT project teams)—aiming to avoid management conflicts (as cross-functional and cross-hierarchical conflicts).
- (i)
- Sending letters of invitation by e-mail to potential participants in the interview: young graduates of engineering schools of computer science and electronics who accepted to be interviewed and satisfied certain criteria: at least one year of work experience in organizational IT projects and experience intercultural interactions in a multicultural environment at their workplace (phase 1, 2020).
- (ii)
- Running interviews properly with the selected respondents using the interview guide (phase 2, 2021). In order to process the data collected during interviews, an instrument for data analysis was developed: a framework for systematic analysis of the conflict typology—FACT. During this core phase, the main activities were: identification of the inter-cultural/inter-linguistic interactions (as sources of possible conflicts in multicultural settings); identification of the conflicts, conflict parties, intensity, and type of each conflict identified; and identification of conflict mechanisms, from causes to resolution.
- (iii)
- Selectively running a number of in-depth interviews focused on unclear issues or significant particular elements of the intercultural interactions experienced by some interview participants (i.e., relevant to the conflicts identified)—when necessary only (phase 3, 2022).
4. Results and Discussion
4.1. Demographics
4.2. Hierarchy—Project Hierarchy versus Organization Hierarchy
4.3. Multi-Culturality in IT Projects
4.4. The ‘Project Language’ in Multicultural Projects
4.5. Project and Organization Interactions: Types of Conflicts Identified
- (i)
- QA manager versus HR officer(/s) (as members of different functional structures within a hierarchical organization, although);
- (ii)
- QA manager versus scrum team master (as members of different hierarchical and functional structures within the organization); and
- (iii)
- both QA and HR departments (as organizational structures) versus scrum teams (as project structures).
5. Towards a Transcultural Approach for Inter-Professional Communication in IT Projects
An Illustrative Example: The Word “Staging”
6. Conclusions, Limitations and Further Research, Lessons Learned and Recommendations
- The conflicts among participants, type, and intensity were identified, and the results were systematically presented (Table 5).
- Two cases were presented in detail (Case 2 and Case 3) to illustrate the main types of management conflicts: project (management) versus organization (management); inter-cultural and inter-professional conflicts; and cross-functional and cross-hierarchical management conflicts. The conflict mechanism, from causes to resolution (for each management conflict identified), was presented as well.
- Mastering the ‘project language’ is essential to avoid turning intercultural/inter-linguistic, and inter-professional tensions into conflicts and to keep them within the project team (Case 1, Table 5).
- The conflict between project (management and organization (management) is basically independent of any type of cultural diversity. However, if it occurs in a multicultural environment, confusion may generate negative consequences (Case 2), depending on the project and organization’s amplitude.
- Development of an original typology of conflicts by their intensity—from the less to the most intense (symbolized with capital letters—X, D, L, and I, respectively); and by nature (Table 5): cultural diversity-based (marked in green color, according to the legend), and management conflicts: cross-hierarchical (in purple) and cross-functional (in red).
- All project team members are associated with X and D-type interactions—quasi-all of which are cultural diversity-based. These ‘conflicts’ are easy to solve through inter-party explanatory discussions during either formal meetings or mostly informal talks among team members.
- There was no team member associated with impactful management conflicts (L and I-type).
- X and D-type interactions are generated by the diversity of team members (in general, cultural/language diversity), which is very common in IT project teams.
- In opposition, L and I lines describe real conflicts—either low-impact or more impactful interactions.
- The project managers are involved in all types of interactions, except the basic X-type. As expected, most of them are real, impactful managerial conflicts (5 out of 11 are cross-hierarchical, and 4 out of 11 are cross-functional).
- The members of the project management teams display a balanced, in-between variety of interactions (both inter-cultural and managerial), although they are less inclined (4 out of 15) towards impactful L and I-type conflicts.
- The calculation of the indicator of multicultural exposure by project positions (Table 4) demonstrates a relatively balanced multiculturalism among the project positions, yet points to higher multicultural exposure for managerial positions. Notably, the particular observation that members of the project management teams display higher multicultural exposure than project managers (equally represented in the panel) is arguable and needs in-depth research.
- IT projects are organizational projects directly associated with the company’s strategy. Consequently, the types of tensions presented (if not addressed properly) could develop into more impactful cross-hierarchical and cross-functional conflicts, which may negatively influence the company’s strategy.
- This study suggests that—in the case of organizational IT projects; at least—the higher the hierarchy level of the organizational management; the less frequent cultural diversity-based conflicts will be; and diversity-based conflicts [72] in general.
6.1. Limitations and Further Extended or In-Depth Research Avenues
- -
- the limited number of organizations selected to be investigated;
- -
- Despite the variety of companies, the scrutiny was not focused on a certain company size.
- -
- Despite covering a large spectrum of cultures and languages, the investigation was not focused on certain cultures or languages.
- -
- This study was conducted from the Romanians’ standpoint.
- -
- larger number of companies but focused on certain cultures or languages as the most frequent ones (Indian, Chinese, or Arabic, yet noting that each of them can be a variety itself);
- -
- larger number of companies of a certain size (either large companies or small businesses), yet active in diverse environments;
- -
- intercultural comparative studies focused on certain types of management conflict (cross-hierarchical and cross-functional).
6.2. Lessons Learned and Recommendations for Inter-Professional Communication in IT Project Teams Working in a Culturally-Diverse Environment
- Be polite; do not assume things about people before getting to know them;
- State your comments in a polite manner, listen actively, and try to understand different opinions;
- Keep an open mind to cultural differences;
- The communication should seek new perspectives for reaching a better understanding (including diversity and inclusion).
- Humans have facts and feelings; feelings point to facts, and facts generate feelings; sometimes it is rather difficult to change one’s feeling with a fact.
- As each human is a collection of facts and feelings, we (again, humans) should be aware of them and considerate of them while interacting.
- Do a little research about the respective culture in order to know what subjects you can discuss in small talks without offending other people.
- During project kick-off or when joining a new multicultural project (even if the project is already in progress), try to do some individual research about that culture (read articles, talk to other colleagues who have already experienced those cultures, etc.).
- Get an understanding of how the team perceives the project, its outcomes and objective/s as well as the way to reach them.
- In the case of virtual teams, try to get the team members to know each other face-to-face at least once or on a recurrent basis if possible.
- In the case of virtual teams, encourage, as much as possible, the use of cameras so some of the non-verbal communication can be carried out as well.
- Keep open a shared communication channel [74].
- Keep the communication going! Make sure there is a communication process in place and the team has the necessary tools for communicating.
- When the project is unstable (because of some cultural aspects), keep a detailed risk register and communicate it as often as necessary to other stakeholders in order to find effective ways to respond to some of the risks. Not all stakeholders might understand the risk, or they might underestimate it in the beginning, but transparency on the progress does help to convince them and have everybody on board.
- Try to identify your biases.
6.3. Contributions
- Proposing the term organizational management diversity (functional and hierarchical diversity) as a source of tensions (Section 2.2).
- Proposing a tool for latent and emergent conflict analysis: the framework for systematic analysis of the conflict typology—FACT (Section 3) and the multi-dimensional map of the interactions and conflicts identified within organizational projects (Section 4.5).
- Proposing the approach, term, and tool for inter-professional communication in IT project teams—the team vocabulary (Section 5).
- Proposing a set of lessons learned and recommendations for managers and professionals from IT project teams working in culturally diverse environments (Section 6.2).
Author Contributions
Funding
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Section | Research Issues | Details |
---|---|---|
0 | Demographics | Age, gender, nationality |
I | Work experience | Focused on work experience as a manager/decision-maker against total work experience Position and duration—in organization/s Position and duration—in projects Type and size of organization |
II | Intercultural experiences (inter-linguistic interactions) | Interactions with people from other cultures than yours, as a direct result of your job, within the organization (circumstances, type of culture and interaction, intensity, duration, frequency, etc.) |
III | Identification of possible management conflicts and the reasons behind them | Focus on management conflicts—on the background of inter-culturality (parties in conflict, conflict type, intensity, duration, frequency, etc.) Were they inter-professional, cross-functional, or cross-hierarchical? Were they decision-making- or strategy-linked? |
IV | Description of the most significant management conflicts 1 | In-depth discussion on:
|
V | Major lessons learnt | (Open) |
Other comments | Other details, explanations, and arguments |
Position in Organization | Project Position [Cumulative Number of Years of Project Work Experience] | ||
---|---|---|---|
Project Team Member | Project Management Team | Project Manager | |
Top management 1 | - | - | - |
Middle management | 1 | 1 | 12 |
Front-line management | 8 | - | - |
Non-managerial position | 27 | 11 | 2 |
Position in Organization | Project Position [Number of Interviewed Experts] | ||
---|---|---|---|
Project Team Member | Project Management Team | Project Manager | |
Top management 1 | - | - | - |
Middle management | - | - | 2 |
Front-line management | 1 | - | - |
Non-managerial position | 11 | 2 | - |
Project Position | Project Multiculturalism [by Number of Cultures 1 in Interaction] | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
Two | Three | Four or More | Average | |
Project manager | 1 | 3 | 5.00 | |
Project management team | 1 | 3 | 5.75 | |
Project team member | 2 | 3 | 9 | 4.50 |
Interaction Intensity | Conflict Identification 1 by Project Positions | Comments | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Project Team Member | Project Management Team | Project Manager | ||
X (exchange of different information or opinions) | ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ | ■ ■ ■ ■ | Usually enriching experiences based on inter-cultural differences | |
D (different views or expectations declared) | ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ | ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ | ■ ■ ■ ■ | Even complex interactions are mediated and solved (Case 2) |
L (low impact conflicts, ultimately may be solved) | ■ ■ | ■ ■ ■ | If not addressed, may evolve to managerial conflicts (Case 3) | |
I (impactful, longer-term and strategy conflicts) | ■ ■ | ■ ■ ■ ■ | If happens, organization strategy conflicts involve project managers |
Domain | Word | Team Definition | Example * | Dictionary Definition |
---|---|---|---|---|
IT | Staging | An environment designed for demos is used for pilots and close-circle customers. The Devops team is in charge of maintaining it, and the product owner controls access. | <Attached link to the architecture document> | N/A |
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Scarlat, C.; Bărar, D.-A.S. Towards a Transcultural Approach for Inter-Professional Communication in Complex IT Project Teams—Aiming to Avoid Cross-Functional and Cross-Hierarchical Conflicts. Systems 2024, 12, 10. https://doi.org/10.3390/systems12010010
Scarlat C, Bărar D-AS. Towards a Transcultural Approach for Inter-Professional Communication in Complex IT Project Teams—Aiming to Avoid Cross-Functional and Cross-Hierarchical Conflicts. Systems. 2024; 12(1):10. https://doi.org/10.3390/systems12010010
Chicago/Turabian StyleScarlat, Cezar, and Daniela-Anca Sârbu Bărar. 2024. "Towards a Transcultural Approach for Inter-Professional Communication in Complex IT Project Teams—Aiming to Avoid Cross-Functional and Cross-Hierarchical Conflicts" Systems 12, no. 1: 10. https://doi.org/10.3390/systems12010010