Intercultural project management: how much is it culture free?

Project Management is a well-defined structured activity. When Project Management tools and practices are applied to international projects, are these tools stronger than culture? Or is culture overwriting them? If yes, how strong and expensive is the impact? This was the starting question for our research within the emerging discipline of Intercultural Project Management which meets today’s urgent need for specific knowledge and experience when working with culturally diverse teams in joint global business and development projects. The authors believe that the most flexible PM structural approach is that which moulds and shapes its components and real practices in what the authors call “Culture Sensitive Project Management”: cultural reflections cast a richer light on even the most advanced PM practices. The result is a new project management approach which is truly able to adapt in order to maximize ways of reaching its goals, based both on the outcomes of research and on practical experience.