1950 North Korea invades South Korea North Korea invades South Korea.
International Project Management Ellen moore living and working in korea
-
Upload
roberto-andre-castillo-zavala -
Category
Business
-
view
168 -
download
1
description
Transcript of International Project Management Ellen moore living and working in korea
Ellen Moore: Living and Working in KoreaAdvanced Project ManagementYasser Roberto Qarashia Castillo
Presentation Outline
Korean Business Culture
Firm’s goals
Central Issue
Constraints to the problem
Available alternatives
Implementation plan
Welcome to Korea
Capital Seoul Largest city Seoul Official languagesKorean President Lee Myung-
bak Prime Minister Kim Hwang-
sik Area Total 38,691 sq mi
(109th country in size)
2012 population est. 50,004,441 (25th largest country)
GDP (2012 est.) $1.622 trillion (12th highest)
Per capita income$32,431 (25th highest)
Source: CIA World Factbook, 2012
Korean Business Culture Korean business managers value questioning and deep
interest in their business by their service provider.
Strict organizational hierarchy is followed.
Strict supervisor-subordinate relationship.
Valid and invalid client requests are accepted without
negotiating with the client.
High loyalty to work.
Precise business rituals such as exchange of business cards,
or calling the other person by complete name and title.
Korean Business Culture Strong hierarchy prevents direct and frequent client-service
provider interaction.
Clients are considered to have higher rank in society than service provider. This results in unnecessary interference from clients.
Korean service providers don’t like to disturb their clients by asking business related issues. This can result in wrong implementation of solution.
Koreans don’t know how to say NO to clients.
Coaching Korean professionals is difficult as they would always answer in affirmative if they are asked whether they understand the matter or not.
Work Teams in Korea Team based organizational culture.
High emphasis on team building.
Team bonding both inside (e.g. lunch) and outside work environment (e.g. dining out).
Sharing drinks is a team forming activity (Bruce 385).
Challenges colleagues is a common norm in social activities and meetings.
Group Norms Face saving is given priority.
Face saving doesn’t mean avoiding negative feedback.
Demonstrating leadership by manager is important.
Leadership is demonstrated by the display of disappointment
in front of all team members, in case of below standard work.
Leadership is also demonstrated by not complementing the
team member for satisfactory work.
Frequent complements are signs of a weak leader.
Women in Korea Delineation between the roles of males and females. Males
are supposed to cater the public sphere and women are restricted to private life of home.
Social status and work equality for Korean women is improving. Means more professional women.
Women are generally paid lower than men for the same job and are given menial positions.
So, Women are not very common in Korean business community, especially in a position of power.
Women are accepted in business culture if they are qualified and have required skills to complete the designated work.
Women usually not invited to social dinners.
WSI in Korea
Western System Inc. (WSI) is a North American company that
entered in a joint venture with Koran Conglomerate Inc. (KCI) to
form Joint Venture Inc. (JVI) in Korea.
WSI is an IT company and Senior Consulting Group (SCG) is part
of WSI.
WSI has won the largest consulting project in Korea and this
project will be implemented within 7-10 years.
WSI unexpectedly got the project as the existing government
contractor has been working with government for a long time.
Central Issue Central Issue is a combination of two factors.
1. Organizational hierarchy of the project has two leaders, which can lead to miscommunication, thus contradiction in their decisions.
2. Lack of experience of the Korean assigned consultant and his team (background, or knowledge).
Other factors to consider
This tussle is resulting in delays with
deliverables of SI, which is hindering the progress of the entire project and they are lagging behind the
project deadlines by 1 month.
Ellen Moore is of the opinion that Korean consultants, such
as Jack Kim, lack the experience and knowledge to complete the assigned project
in time.
Korean consultants think that the American consultant, Ellen, is not
qualified. Also, she had no previous experience of handling
Government Agency and is unaware of Korean Culture.
Firm’s Goals
SCG consultants will assist the Korean consultants from JVI for 7 months for successful System Design and Implementation to fulfill their contract with Korean Government.
SCG also wants to educate the Korean consultants about System Implementation (SI) in order to effectively carry out the government project for JVI.
Constraints to the Problem
Lack of direct communication between American and Korean consultants due to language barrier.
Korean culture is conservative towards women in position, it is male-oriented society.
Differences between the culture and management
styles of Korean and American consultants.
Interference from client and the acceptance of out of scope work by Korean
consultants.
Tug of War between Ellen and Kim
Ellen’s issues Kim control the SI Team all the time and ignores Ellen’s
instructions.
In Kim’s presence, Ellen can’t properly coach the SI team.
Kim’s standalone decision for marketing research project.
During the dinner Kim spoken with other colleagues in Korean and tried to exclude Ellen from discussion, as usual.
Tug of War between Ellen and Kim
Kim’s issues Sharing hierarchy with Ellen is confusing.
Ellen wants to take control of his team.
He is closer to Korean consultants and has long term interest in working with them, so, they should not follow Ellen who is in Korea only for 7 months.
Available Alternatives
Take Ellen Moore out of the project.
Take Jack Kim out of the project.
Interest-based conflict resolution between
Ellen and Jack
Alternative 1: Take Ellen Moore out of the project
Pros Conflict will be resolved
Cons No experienced SI consultant will be left on the team
Jack will accept out of scope work, further delaying the project deliverables and JVI might end up losing the new and strategic client
No transfer of knowledge to Korean consultants
Alternative 2: Take Jack Kim out of the project
Pros Conflict will be resolved
Project will not accept out of scope work
Project deadlines will be followed without interruption resulting in delivery of agreed work
Cons No face-saving for Jack
Ellen doesn’t have experience in dealing with Korean clients and team members
No knowledgeable and experienced person will be left on SI team after ending of SCG contract in 7 months. May lead to project failure at later stages
Alternative 3: Interest-based Conflict Resolution between Ellen and Jack
ProsConflict will be resolved
Expertise of both Ellen and Kim will be retained
Project delivery on time
Adequate transfer of SI knowledge to Korean consultants
Cons Conflict may arise again in future
Best Alte
rnativ
e
Implementation Plan
Elle and Jack should make project decisions in conjunction.
Only one person should be acting as senior consultant.
It is recommended to make Jack Kim an assistant to Ellen for 7 months.
After the completion of SCG contract, Jack can be promoted in place of Ellen.
Project Hierarchy
Adrew Kilpatrick Principal
System Consulting Group (SCG)
Korean Consultants
Joint Venture Inc.(JVI)
Scott Adams
Senior Consultant
Systems Consulting Group
Ellen Moore
Senior Consultant
System Consulting Group (SCG)
Jack Kim
Consultant
Joint Venture Inc.(JIV)
Project Hierarchy
Adrew Kilpatrick Principal
System Consulting Group (SCG)
Korean Consultants
Joint Venture Inc.(JVI)
Scott Adams
Senior Consultant
Systems Consulting Group
Jack Kim
Consultant
Joint Venture Inc.(JIV)
Implementation Plan
Interest-Based Relational Approach recommends (Lewicki et
al. 235):
Good relationships should be made the first priority and this is
inline with Korean Culture and will help Ellen and Andrew to be
courteous and professional to their Korean counterparts.
People and problems should be treated separately. Project related
problems e.g. project scope should be identified separately than
interpersonal issues e.g. personality conflicts.
Efforts and interests should be focused on firm’s goals.
Facts should be set-out (e.g. project deadlines) in order to attain
measurable and objective approach towards decision making.
What questions do you have?
Thank You
References Bruce Tuckman. "Developmental sequence in small groups".
Psychological Bulletin 63. 6 (1965): 384–399.
CIA, 2012. CIA - The World Factbook. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ks.html. [Accessed 25 December 2012].
Lewicki, R.J., Weiss, S.E., & Lewin, D. “Models of conflict, negotiation, and third party intervention: A review and synthesis.” Journal of Organizational Behavior 13.2 (1992): 209-252.