This week’s Insightful Project Manager podcast is about how cultural differences make it difficult to manage teams in other countries, namely India. The original post was written by Andrew Gurbaxani.

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 By Andrew Gurbaxani

The local art museum in Atlanta sponsored an Indian Film Festival recently, and one of the films screened was the little-known independent picture “Outsourced”. In this film, a maker of American novelty items outsources its call center to India, with all the concomitant problems and hilarity. The American executive was sent to India to train his replacement, and the rest of the call center staff realizes that managing in India requires a different set of skills and sensitivities than managing in America. Instead of trying to impose American values and management techniques on the Indian team (as he initially does,) the executive finally wises up and learns what works in the local culture. Of course, this is all accompanied by many laughable and unfortunate misunderstandings, and even a romance to boot! I would recommend the movie if for no other reason than it serves as a case study on how to (and how not to) manage across cultures.
 
Even within India, there are social forces underway that are making it difficult for managers (project managers included) to successfully manage teams. For instance, female managers, once an extreme rarity in India, now are relatively commonplace. Workplace assumptions that were disregarded by American workers long ago (lifetime employment, company loyalty, tenure-based promotions, etc…) are now starting to lose sway in India and in other emerging markets as well. This has all had a profound impact on the aspirations of workers around the world, who are increasingly participating in their society’s newfound prosperity, and dealing with the consequences (e.g., overnight working hours for the Indian call center supporting the American consumer.) Add to this the emergence of global virtual teams and rapid technology change, and you have a bewildering mix of trends that are no less than revolutionizing the way project teams are formed, managed, and rewarded. Remember the “good old days” of collocated project teams, stable corporate and technological infrastructures (IBM SNA, anyone?)

This week The Insightful Project Manager, Lisa Grant, interviews Peggy Joyner who has worked as both a Project Manager and a Program Manager. She also has experience setting up Program Management Offices in both the state and local sectors.

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This week The Insightful Project Manager, Lisa Grant, explains why managing your career or getting professional help managing your career is so vitally important.

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