MSc Project Management Dissertation

Vardaan Sharma MSc Project Management10232721 Dissertation

Vardaan Sharma

10232721

“The issues and impact of communication in project management”

- An analysis of communicational issues on global projects and its impact on them.

MSc Project Management

Dissertation

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MANCHESTER METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY BUSINESS SCHOOL

MMUBS

DISSERTATION

Academic Year 2013-2014

Vardaan Sharma

10232721

“The issues and impact of communication in project management”

- An analysis of communicational issues on global projects and its impact on them.

Supervisor – Ruth McQuater

September 2014

This dissertation is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science

©. Manchester Metropolitan University, Business School 2014. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be produced without the written permission of the

copyright owner.

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Declaration

The author whilst studying for this Masters programme, not been registered to any

other programme in any other university. The data in this dissertation has not been

used in any other submission for an academic assignment and acknowledging any

assistance revived. This particular dissertation is library-based; with qualitative

analysis through external research as well e.g. interviews. The whole research is

completed in accordance to the university guidelines.

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Abstract

As project management grows and projects become global, it’s important to pay

attention to communication and develop communication skills as a project manager,

in order to have successful projects. This research study illustrates the importance of

communication and the influence communication has on project management. The

research analyses projects in two different scenarios in organisational projects and

construction projects, as well as explaining communication in project management

practice. The study begins with an introduction to project management and then

demonstrates the inter-link of communication with project management, thereafter

displaying the aims and objectives of the research. Following the aims and objectives

of the research the study begins with an introduction of communication, however,

there is no clear definition of communication in terms of management, which allows

the research to explain communication through models and concepts. The research

then writes heavily analyses of literature on communication in organisational

projects, construction projects, project management practice and concludes with

explaining the effects of effective communication. The study analysed around 250

journal articles, from which there were various journals ranging from communication

journals to project management journals. The project management journal used

were in the time-horizon from 1998-2010 and the other journals used weren’t put

into a time-horizon as the study looked at journals from almost any year to locate

the correct data/information required. The paper then explains the next chapter,

which is methodology, where the study demonstrates how the research was

gathered and as to why that type of particular research method chosen. In the later

stage of the study, the research then displays all the gathered data and analyses it,

the study portrays this via graphs and pie charts and then discusses the links

between the literature gathered and the research conducted. The study concludes

with a re-examination of the research and debates about the limitations of the study

and in the end states some points, those can be considered for the study, had it

carried on, in order to make the research even better. The moral of the study is to

portray a view of the importance of communication and it’s influence on project

management.

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Keyword(s): Organisational Projects, Flow of information, Construction Projects,

Effective communication and Project Management.

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Table of Contents

1.0 INTRODUCTION 9

1.1 INTRODUCTION 91.2 DEFINITION OF COMMUNICATION 111.3 COMMUNICATION ISSUES 121.4 COMMUNICATION CHALLENGES AND IMPACT 131.5 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES 151.5.1 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES 151.6 RESEARCH SCOPE AND STRUCTURE 15

2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW 18

2.1 COMMUNICATION THEORIES 182.1.1 SHANNON AND WEAVER MODEL 192.1.2 GALLE’S MODEL OF COMMUNICATION 202.1.3 FUNCTION MODEL OF COMMUNICATION 212.2 MULTI-CULTURAL COMMUNICATION 222.3 COMMUNICATION ISSUES IN PROJECTS 242.3.1 PROJECT AFRICA – 1 242.3.2 PROJECT AFRICA – 2 252.3.3 IT PROJECTS 262.3.4 APC–YRTSB HOTEL PROJECT (CHINA) 272.3.5 PERSIAN GULF CONSTRUCTION PROJECT 282.3.6 AEI PROJECT 292.4 COMMUNICATION METHODS 312.4.1 COMMUNICATION FRAMEWORK 322.5 CONCLUSION 34

3.0 METHODOLOGY 36

3.1 INTRODUCTION 363.2 RESEARCH PHILOSOPHY 373.3 RESEARCH APPROACH 393.4 RESEARCH STRATEGIES 403.4.1 GROUNDED THEORY 403.4.2 ETHNOGRAPHY 403.4.3 CASE STUDY RESEARCH 413.5 RESEARCH CHOICE 423.6 SAMPLE 433.6.1 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT 433.6.2 BUSINESS SOURCE PREMIER 433.6.3 OVERVIEW 443.7 RESEARCH TIME HORIZON 44

4.0 DATA ANALYSIS/COLLECTION 46

4.1 OPEN CODING ANALYSIS 464.2 SELECTIVE CODING ANALYSIS 474.2.1 RESEARCH JOURNAL CODING 474.2.2 PROJECT MANAGEMENT JOURNAL CODING 484.2.3 COMMUNICATION JOURNAL CODING 494.2.4 ARTICLES CODING 504.3 INTERVIEW DATA COLLECTION/ANALYSES 52

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4.3.1 ADOBE INTERVIEW/FOCUS GROUP 544.3.2 THE AUTHENTIC FOOD COMPANY INTERVIEW 544.3.3 INTERVIEW RESULTS 554.4 DATA COLLECTION METHODS 55

5.0 DISCUSSION 57

5.1 DISCUSSION 575.2 IMPLICATIONS 60

6.0 CONCLUSION 62

6.1 CONCLUSION 626.2 LIMITATIONS 646.3 RECOMMENDATION FOR FUTURE RESEARCH 65

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 66

APPENDIX 1 – QUESTIONNAIRE 67

APPENDIX 2 – ADOBE INDIA INTERVIEW (TRANSCRIPT) 69

APPENDIX 3 – THE AUTHENTIC FOOD COMPANY INTERVIEW (TRANSCRIPT) 74

APPENDIX – 4) PERMISSION LETTER FROM ADOBE (INDIA) 85

APPENDIX – 5) PERMISSION LETTER FROM “THE AUTHENTIC FOOD COMPANY” 86

APPENDIX – 6) PERMISSION LETTER 2 FROM “THE AUTHENTIC FOOD COMPANY” 87

REFERENCES (BIBLIOGRAPHY): 88

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List of Table/Figures Page

Figure 1.1 – Shannon and Weaver Model 19

Figure 1.2 – The conceptual model of functional communication 21

Figure 1.3 – Communication Capabilities Framework 32

Figure 1.4 – Research Onion 36

Figure 1.5 – The four-management research philosophy 38

Figure 1.6 – Bottom up inductive approach 39

Figure 1.7 – Qualitative method design 42

Figure 1.8 – Selective coding and core category 47

Figure 1.9 – Research journal coding 48

Figure 2.0 – Project Management Journal Coding 48

Figure 2.1 – Communication Journal Coding 50

Figure 2.2 – Topic themes coding 51

Figure 2.3 – Model of communication management in Project Management 52

Figure 2.4 – Communication Breakdown 55

Figure 2.5 – Data Collection 56

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1.0 Introduction

The study begins with the chapter of introduction, which introduces the topic of

communication with a major link with project management. The chapter discusses

the importance and influence that communication has had on project management

by illustrating case studies about real life projects. The chapter then displays

definition of communication listed by various authors, furthermore discussing the

issues of communication in project management and its impact. The chapter then

concludes with the aims and objectives of the study, as well as describing each and

every chapter in the study.

1.1 Introduction

Project management is mainstay in the business world. Nowadays almost every

organisation has a project going on and the requirement for project management

skill sets is now larger than ever. Project management defined is “a temporary

endeavour, undertaken to create a unique product or service” (PMI, 1996). In terms

of looking at communication research, Mehta, (2002) describes communication as a

process of transferring information from one location to another. Furthermore,

Craig, (1999) states that communication doesn’t have a specific theory from which

its know from in comparison to other management topics, such as culture or

leadership. The effective flow of information is vital to everyone involved in a

project, as effective flow of information will lead to a successful project, allowing

transferring of data across various departments in the project to keep the project

team updated.

Projects encounter various issues when in progress and projects that involve

members from various cultures and ethnic backgrounds can lead to a lot of

misunderstanding, as working ways are completely different. This most certainly was

the case in some medium to large-scale projects in Saudi Arabia in 2005. A research

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study by Assaf and Al-Hejji, (2006) outlines that a large construction project was

taking place in Saudi Arabia, with major client dealing with a firm from Hong-Kong.

The construction project faced major difficulties due to data or important

information not being effectively transferred around the projects, which caused

major problems. The problems that occurred were as simple as paper work not being

transferred over through departments for signing off aims and objectives, which

meant that some teams still were working on completed tasks, which caused the

projects to be very inefficient as other tasks were lacking due to lesser attention

being paid to them. Also, as the project had two teams, one in Saudi Arabia and one

in Hong-Kong, the above issue here occurred as both teams couldn’t converse with

one another effectively, which led to many major decisions not being made on time

due to incomplete tasks and this led to the design and the scope of the project being

changed time after time.

Assaf and Al-Hejji, (2006) state that this happened due to different working styles of

the team in the project, where the management should have implemented similar

working ethic in regards to similar types of working styles, which suits both teams. In

the later stages of the project, new management was brought and some were let go

off, due to the early failure of the project. The project sponsor in Hong Kong also had

to increase the financial strength of the project, as it was going over budget, hence

many redundancies were made and this was also a major issue in the project as it

lost vast amounts of experience due to some experience staff being made

redundant.

Furthermore, Al-Momani, (2000) relates to similar incident that occurred in Jordan

when over a 130 projects were delayed due to the lack of interaction between

various departments within a project. Al-Momani, (2000) explores, how due to major

developments taking place in Jordan in the late 90’s, many construction project took

place. These projects were liaising with many foreign firms and the problem

occurred as no real strategy was implemented on how to successfully achieve set

objectives in the project and this led to the bare minimum correspondence between

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clients. The clients in the end were very disappointed as the project kept having

delays, which led to low productivity and major financial implications.

In relation to the research conducted by Assaf and Al-Hejji, (2006) and Al-Momani,

(2000) the analyses of the projects comes down to conclusion that communication

here was the major issue as both studies illustrate how due to the lack of

information not being distributed around the a project effectively, the project

encountered the above problems.

1.2 Definition of Communication

Communication over the years has had many different definitions and due to that

Dance (1970), expresses that communication shouldn’t have a specific definition, as

many scholars would rage in arguments over as to which one is most suited. Due to

that, Dance (1970) clearly stated that communication should be described as a

“family” of related concepts to clear any confusion.

Firstly, Bowen and Edward, (1996) state that communication is a process to acquire

all desired information, decoding this information and effectively distributing the

information to its required destination. Bowen and Edward, (1996) then define

communication as “data, which have been processed and presented in a format

which gives them meaning”. In respect to the project discussed above in Saudi

Arabia by Assaf and Al-Hejji, (2006), the information flow should have been given a

meaning which both parties can understand as the project had two project teams in

different parts of the world.

The importance of communication in project management is so huge that

practitioners usually refer it to as the “Lifeblood” of the project. Project team

members need to share, collaborate and integrate knowledge and information to

comprehend a project (Zulch, 2014). This reflects largely on the projects delayed in

Jordan stated by Al-Momani, (2000) as due to a lack of interaction in those projects,

not enough information was integrated to give a comprehensive knowledge of the

work that was needed to be done and and what way. In relation to project

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management, communication would be used for requesting information, sending

information, asking questions, giving a direction, constructing teams or networking

(Zulch, 2014). In order to understand the process of communication, there are three

main factors involved in communication, which also define the topic.

To conclude the theory of communication, its is a process in which “information that

flows from the sender, encodes the data through the transmission channel/medium

by a verbal or non-verbal method, to the receiver that decodes the message.” These

were the missing elements from the projects examined earlier, as those projects

didn’t have the flow of information, and due to that any information that was

distributed wasn’t encoded effectively for project teams to understand. Particularly,

in the Saudi Arabia project as two different project teams were from different parts

of the world and needs encoding of information in order to interact with one

another effectively.

1.3 Communication Issues

Communication in general and not just in project management has various issues,

which cause it to fail. One of the biggest factors in failure of delivery in regards to

effectively distributing information is the inability to have feedback. According to

Engelbrecht A, (2010) there is an illustration that feedback within communication

will allow the flow of information to be shared or distributed within a project team.

As feedback, gives the project team members to monitor and review various actions

or tasks within the project. This allows planning to develop a lot more and in an

effective way in a project, which then outlines a much clearer scope and aim of the

project, for the project team members to work on. However, if feedback isn’t their in

a project or isn’t as effective then this can cause information to be misunderstood

and can lead to various tasks within a project going wrong. In the long run this lead

to a lack of trust within project co-member and allow conflicts to arise when aims

and objectives of the project are not being met.

Furthermore, Le Roux (1999) speaks similarly about the specific issue in

communication, which is feedback, however it explains it as reviewing. Le Roux

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(1999) says that communication is not functional when it’s isolated, as it requires a

process. Hence, internal and external communication need reviews to set mutual

goals and objectives as inability to construct such a process could cause a project to

fail, especially large-scale project where there are many levels of hierarchy.

Communication can also be an issue in project management when it’s ineffective in

terms of delivery of information or data. The reason for ineffective communication in

projects can occur due to inadequate flow of information, which can mean that tasks

and analytical processes may not be defined properly and there is uncertainty

regarding responsibility, which can cause the scope and objectives of the project to

fail, as there is no definitive focus. Talukhaba et al, (2011) explains that in order to

manage a project effectively, there is a need to focus on selling and reselling ideas,

where the focus has to be on regular explanation of project scope and

methodologies. As this will keep hindering over project teams throughout there

project journey and allow them to have a clear-cut focus on the aims and objectives.

All together, Talukhaba et al, (2011) meaning is for project managers to act as alarms

to their project teams by reminding them about the task in hand, so all the tasks are

done to an effective and efficient level.

1.4 Communication Challenges and Impact

There are many communication challenges that occur in project management and no

more than “electronic communication”. Schahaf, 2008 claims that due to

technological advancement, project are now becoming IT Projects and one of the

most recurring challenges in communication is misunderstanding of communication

due to the distribution of international teams. Correspondingly, electronic

communication is very much reliant on power and due to power shortages or

breakdowns; this can cause the project team member to feel anxiety, leading to

conflicts between project team members. Sarker and Sahay, (2003) relates to the

statement above as electronic communication is about projects with virtual teams

and the major power in those projects is the software which is used to communicate

with. The breaking down of the software can cause teams to feel isolated and they

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are unable to covey information, which in the long run will lead to misunderstanding

of task, allowing conflicts to arise.

In IT projects, the use of technology plays a vital part in the success of the project

and due to that some of the critical challenges arise as overloading of emails and

protocols can lead to a delay in response, which can create an obstacle in developing

a confortable environment to initiate a project (De Sanctis & Monge, 1999). Thus,

this can cause further delays in the project scope and objectives, which are the core

point of a project. As mentioned earlier about feedback by Le Roux (1999) that

alternatively feedback will also be delayed if the responses are delayed due to failure

in electronic communication and this can cause implications to team performance.

Furthermore, face-to-face transference of information is also a major challenge in

projects, especially global projects. Stawnicza, (2014) illustrates that face-to-face

interaction is the “highest level of richness” in communication in regards to project

management, explaining that it’s a major requirement for project success. In regards

to global projects, there can be a lack of face-to-face communication, which can

weaken the trust between project team members and can also cause a lot of de-

motivation within the team. Due to all these issues occurring, Stawnicza, (2014)

states that this can cause less corporation in the project teams, which has significant

impact on large scale projects and can eventually cause divisions within co-members

causing a negative effect on the scope of the project.

To conclude, communication is distributed into many sectors such as transferring of

information, data, face-to-face interaction and electronic communication via emails.

All these sectors of communication have their implications as listed earlier in the

study. The major issues in regards to these types of communication is that they are

not used effectively as due to technological advancement, face-to-face interaction

levels have lowered in projects especially large scale projects. This in the long-run

causes levels of anxiety as explained earlier by Schahaf, 2008, which also coincides

with De Sanctis & Monge, 1999 stating that overloading of emails and protocol can

also lead to delayed response as information that is being communicated isn’t

physically being said. Furthermore, both the above issues combine and present the

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major issue, which is ineffective distribution of information and how that can cause

projects to be delayed or even fail.

1.5 Aims and Objectives

The aim of this research of this thesis is to explore communication theories and

investigation of the impact that face-to-face communication and electronic

communication have on projects with the purpose of determining the importance

that feedback has on communication and the impact that ineffective has electronic

and face-to-face communication

1.5.1 Research objectives

To examine the literature in the 21st century on communication by analysing

communication theories and project management.

To analyse communication in multi-cultural projects and to illustrate the link

between the two.

To illustrate the impact and influence feedback has on communication in

global projects by looking at examples through literature and case studies.

To make recommendations and draw upon a conclusion from the study of

literature and evaluation of research about the challenges of electronic and

face-to-face communication and its influence on project management.

1.6 Research Scope and Structure

Communication as a whole is a very broad field and within communication there are

several of interesting areas of study, however the principal focus of this study is how

some of those areas in communication link with and influence project management.

Topics such as culture, leadership and sustainability are so broad ad have so many

areas of study that its almost not possible to explore them all. Hence, why this

research looks at two major kinds of communication in order to recognize the

influence of the area on projects, mainly with linking in global projects.

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The research begins with the chapter of the literature review, which outlines some

very important areas of communication. The literature begins explaining the

academic side of literature, as it outlines some famous models, created by some

famous authors. The literature then discusses how communication is in multi-

cultural projects as projects in the 21st century are most if not all multi-cultured. The

research then explores 5 case studies to highlight the issues that communication can

cause in real-life projects and the impact that it has or can escalate to. The literature

then outlines a few ways in communication should be handled by discussing

strategies and finally concludes with the outline of the study by explaining why this

kind of research took place.

Furthermore, the next chapter illustrates the methodology taken to achieve this

particular study. The methodology outlines the research philosophy chosen in the

study, as well the research approach taken to achieve the qualitative data required

to attain the aims and objectives. The chapter further explains the research

strategies chosen to conduct the following research, such as conducting interviews,

which is the ethnography approach, using grounded theory and analyzing existing

case studies those have already been evaluated. The methodology then illustrates

how the qualitative choice of research was made and what needs to be done to

achieve this particular type of research. Following on, the sampling area is described

in detail with explanations of the uses of project management journals and the

methodology chapter decisively concludes with the research time horizon, explaining

the time-scale that the research took and why.

The study then moves onto the data analysis of the research, here the dissertation

displays the gathered research in data form. The data here highlights the evidence to

support the thesis and the aims/objectives, the study here portrays the gathered

data and presents it in either graph or transcript form. The evidence is then fully

evaluated and related back to the literature findings of the research, which allows

the study to make a comparison between the literature gathered and external data

conducted.

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The research then gradually moves onto recommendations, where the writer makes

recommendation as to what else could have been done differently if the research

was done again. Recommendations are also made on the research itself, such as the

theories gathered of communication and project management on the bases of the

limitations of the research. Further on in the research, limitations and implications of

the study are also gathered and evaluated in terms of the manner in which the study

was conducted as well as the study itself.

The final chapter of the research study is the conclusion, where the study concludes

all of the research that its gathered and conducted. The conclusion is not a repetition

of the research findings or data, it simply an further analyses of the data and findings

with some opinions on the research by the comparison of various findings. That

concludes the dissertation research with just the references printed further on for

any possible future crosschecking.

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2.0 Literature Review

The succeeding chapter gives an understanding of communication in literature form

and discusses topics ranging from communication theories, which describe various

theories on communication in project management. The chapter then moves onto

looking at multi-cultural communication and showcases the importance of multi-

cultural projects and how communication can be a major issue in multi-cultural

teams. Then in relation to multi-cultural projects, the chapter explores the effects of

miscommunication in real-life projects by discussing 5 different projects around the

globe. To conclude the literature the chapter presents research of how

communication should be looked at and handle by drawing up research from

different authors.

2.1 Communication Theories

“Communication is widely regarded as the key to successful implementation of

organisational change”. The importance of communication processes in shaping

organisational phenomena (such as organizational IT implementation projects) and

changing individual cognition of change such that it is accepted and enacted

appropriately (Lewis et al, 1998). Adequate interaction, especially face-to-face is a

bare minimum requirement for IT projects, especially as project team members are

working with colleagues from various locations without physically seeing them.

Given that low amounts of interaction is rated very highly in regards to IT project

failure, it’s adequate that it remains or it should be a central to projects.

Furthermore, Vann, (2004) argues that “clashing grammars”, or different language

used by technical and project management specialists making up IT project

management teams and that used by user groups affected by the system

implementation, is implicated in many of the many behaviours typically described as

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resistance. Given this, it follows that project managers need a deep appreciation and

understanding of information processes, as well as skills in the practical art of

communicating.

2.1.1 Shannon and Weaver Model

The major understanding of a communication process within projects arrives from

the “Shannon and Weaver, (1949)” model. Vikkelsø, (2005) explains a

communication process model by Shannon and Weaver (1964) of information

transmitter. This model consists of different types of stages, which occur during

communication in order to explain the reader a basic communication process.

The model is shown below in fig.1.1:

The way, in which the model works is that the information source selects a desired

message, which may be written, spoken or consist of images, those translate a

meaning. In terms of project management, this would be a message to conduct or

complete a task. The process works in the way that a transmitter transforms the

message into an indicator, where the communication network passes that indicator

to the receiver, and then the receiver converts the indicator back into a message and

delivers the message to its desired destination. The one negative side to the model

is that the indicator may summon other information or data in, which can cause the

message to be misinterpreted, causing ineffective information to be transferred. In

relation to project management, the project manager may ask the team members to

perform a certain task, however, as the information gets past along the message

may get changed slightly, which could in the long-run cause the project major harm

(Winthereik & Vikkelsø, 2005).

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The model goes onto examine the process of information flow within a project or an

organisation and recently the model has been going changes to add a “feedback”

loop, which corresponds with the Introduction of study. On the other hand,

Schramm complained that the Shannon-Weaver mode had failed to take into

account influence of social contexts or the 'shared field of experience' in human

communication.

Shannon and Weaver, (1964) also discuss that the components of the model

illustrated above must be looked at intensively when considering project

management. In relation to the process that the model outlines, the sender is

reliable for making sure that the information sent or delivered is clear and complete,

which then allows the receiver to take the information correctly and understand it in

the manner it was intended to. The receiver then has the responsibility to make sure

that the information they received is completely understood and is fully correct, and

acknowledged. A failure in this process will cause a negative effect or impact on the

project.

2.1.2 Galle’s Model of Communication

In the context of project management, Galle’s model of communication offers

further insights into communication within project management. Galle (1999)

discusses his theory, adapted here to the framework of project management,

suggests that in order to arrive at the final outcome or conclusion of an IT project in

terms of both delivery of a product and business value, the key processes involve

both production and interpretation of ideas amongst key stakeholders, supported by

appropriate artefacts, which in the case of project management are the project team

members and project sponsors.

Following on, the language game or method is vital in success of a IT project, which

translates to the fact that the project team members and external parties involved

will distribute or deliver information in their own manner in order to make them feel

confortable, which is explained by Wittgenstein, (1967). It is vital that project team

members work around this and build bonds in order to have effective dialogue

within the project. However, when ‘thrown together’ for the purpose of

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implementing innovative IT systems for instance, dialogue between and amongst

these groups may become more complex, misinterpretations and misunderstandings

can occur, as participants fail to realize others may be relying on different language

games or methods, and thus not sharing their interpretations of events, nor having

insights into their intentions for their dialogue.

2.1.3 Function model of communication

Moving aside from project management solely, the process of information and data

delivery also assists in bringing in organizational change, which has long-term effect

on organizational projects. Changes in the organization are primarily its (working)

culture and communication of data, which plays a big part in controlling the change.

De Ridder, (2003) states that communication has two roles to help in bringing

positive organizational change, from which the one of the roles is to convey to the

employees about their roles with the organization and project, alongside any

changed or upcoming polies and the second role is to produce a means of

information process that brings together community, allowing information to flow

from one another. This allows the team members who are involved in various

projects in the organization to gain a “social identity”.

Following on, Elving (2005) draws a function model of communication in regards to

organizational change to illustrate the effects about delivery of dialogue on

organizational change. The model is divided into five stages, which are as follows;

firstly there is the first type of communication, which is to inform and then there is

the second type, which is to create a community as mentioned earlier by De Ridder,

(2003). Furthermore, these two types of communication are used to settle down any

uncertainty of job security, which is caused by the implementation of change. Once

the change is accepted and uncertainty over job security is settled, then the

organization gets ready for the implementation of change, which in the long run

leads to effective change as communication led to organizational team members

avoiding any uncertainty over job security, due to change.

Fig. 1.2 The conceptual model of function communication (During organizational

change)

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2.2 Multi-cultural Communication

Multi-cultural projects are becoming much more common nowadays and especially

in the construction industry as many firms are trying to pick global talent to keep

them competitive in todays market. Many studies have shown the positive effect of

having multi-cultural teams, such as, Earley and Mosakowski (2000) stated that

multicultural teams are used as they have the ability to out-perform monoculture

teams, especially when the requirement is of multiple skills and judgement.

However, its not all well and good with multi-cultural project teams, as due to the

widespread locations of the team, it can become really problematic to work

effectively and efficiently due to cultural ethical working differences. The statement

is supported by Rijamampianina and Carmichael, (2005) who research about a

human resource management firm in South Africa, stating how the organisation did

not take into account cultural differences, which meant that employees in the

organisation had various ways of working. The company had offices spread out all

over the African continent and due to that weekly meetings could only be done

through Skype, which caused anxiety between staff members, as when tasks weren’t

being completed, they couldn’t physically demonstrate the method to other staff

members in the organisation due to location differences.

In relations to the above, due to globalisation, many projects around the world are

now being dealt through technology rather than physically. Globalisation has led to

projects being conducted internationally with various kinds of people and due to

that, IT projects are flourishing. In regards to IT projects, many firms are saving on

costs such as traveling and physically meeting, however, IT projects have had various

issues in the recent years. The major issues those have occurred in IT projects,

especially overseas IT projects are uncertainty, unknown identity and

interdependence as talked about by Lewis, (2006), which translates to members

having indecisions, allowing them to not distribute efficient information as they are

unsure about their work, leading to incorrect decisions being made. These issues

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have come into play due to the failure of integrating effective flow of knowledge

within these projects.

Furthermore, the geographical location of multi-cultural project teams, posses its

very own challenges in regards to delivery of information and data. Emmitt and

Gorse (2007) has studied that many communicational issues have been resolved

from multi-cultural project teams, such as telecommunications where the usage of

email and Skype allows project teams to communicate with one another from

various parts of the world, however some communicational issues such as direct

delivery of speech and signals remain unresolved. Emmitt and Gorse (2007)

articulates that the “loss of face-to-face communication can lead to

misunderstanding and the loss of non-verbal signals – such as eye contact and body

language”. This consequently will lead to major implications in achieving mutual

trust and confidence within multicultural project teams, it can also become

extremely difficult to manage or even supervise multicultural project teams without

face-to-face contact. This then hinders chances of building client relationships, which

then affect the project as whole in a negative way.

As Earley and Mosakowski (2000) mention earlier that project teams have a working

culture, they discuss how distribution of information is used to build that culture.

The stimulation of effective information and data encourages a strong working

culture in a project, although individuals have various different perceptions of ways

of communicating and this can cause conflicts in the long run. This is where Ochieng

& Price (2010) illustrate how many individuals are resistant to change and different

types of communication can cause them to retaliate as they may be told to

communicate and work in a manner in which they are nit suited to or feel

confortable with, this can break a team moral and hinder more damage on a project,

especially large scale projects.

2.3 Communication issues in projects

Research illustrates that in extreme scenarios, misinterpretation of information and

data in projects in general has such a catastrophic affect as researched by Hass

(2007) that USA in 2006, 65% of projects had either failed or gone over time and

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budget. This ended up costing the US businesses over $30 billion due to application

failure leading to misunderstanding of information. Following on, Hass (2007)

mentions how many of these projects were missing a loop of management; where as

flow of information would travel across projects or even organizations as mentioned

earlier in the study by Galle’s model of communication (1999).

In relation to the above, James et al, (1998) discusses how construction firms tend to

less communication methods within their hierarchy systems. Meaning that many

construction companies, especially in the UK prefer or have a high level of face-to-

face communication. The reason being that, due to the high levels of risk in

construction projects, face-to-face communication narrows down the chance of it

leading to misinterpretation of dialogue, which could lead to catastrophe within

construction projects. This interlinks with Limaye and Victor (1991) stating how it’s

the completely opposite for Middle Eastern firms, which doesn’t allow that

management loop to build and have a steady flow of information when working on

cross-cultural projects. (Hass, 2007)

2.3.1 Project Africa – 1

In project management, the process of delivering information and knowledge very

much coincides with culture as the approach of delivering information is done

according to the culture of the project or the project team members. Ndiritu & Lynn

(2003) talks about a couple of projects in the African continent those had issues due

to communication from cultural differences. The first project that Ndiritu & Lynn

(2003) mentions is the “Cut-Flower Project” in Uganda, where the project was failing

due to it being poorly capitalised and having weak management. The scope of the

project was very poorly delivered within the project team members even though the

business plan and structure was designed to a very good level. Ndiritu & Lynn (2003)

also states that the African culture is very much based on “High Power Distance”

founded by Hofstede, (1984).

The failure of the projects leads to failure of information distribution within the co-

members. The project owners in this case were very reluctant to discuss further

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objectives and aims of the project with the co-members, as they feared for loss of

control of the project. Hence, the high power distance is very much a cultural factor

in the African culture, which has caused poor levels of delivery within the project and

leads it to be poorly handled.

The conclusion of the “Cut-Flower Project” was that it was completed, however, it

was done very poorly and Ndiritu & Lynn (2003) says that the project owners had

firstly implemented ideas beyond the scope of the project, henceforth mentioned

earlier that the scope of the project was not fully clarified to the co-members and

due to the fear of loss of power in regards to the culture of the owners, issues were

not distributed or even distributed around the project.

2.3.2 Project Africa – 2

Similarly, Ndiritu & Lynn (2003) also discusses the ICDC project in Kenya, which is

more of an internal organisational project, rather than a singular project. The project

stands for “The Industrial and Commercial Development Corporation”, here the firm

is trying to separate management from ownership and trying to implement

processes for further business development, which can aid the company in gaining

better results. Ndiritu & Lynn (2003) speaks about the issues those occurred in the

firm that this project had to be evolved.

The organisation had owners, who also came under management and due to the

high levels of power distance Hofstede, (1984) in the African culture, they didn’t

delegate tasks as much, which led to the interaction levels between the

management and staff being low and poor. The firm then due to this experienced

some negative results as the company had 41 equity investments, out of which 12

went into liquidation. This occurred as there was overload of work that the owners

had taken on and not delegated it around the firm, which led to the work being over

due and causing this negative effect. Due to the lack of interaction between the

owners and staff, the firm then decided to split the management from ownership, so

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that way managers/project managers can interconnect more often with their co-

members and achieve future aims and objectives effectively.

2.3.3 IT Projects

As mentioned earlier in the study, that IT projects are the ones that have major

issues in relation to delivering precise information within them as they have

involvement of teams from around the globe. Carvalho & Laurindo (2008) talks

about a study that he conducted on an organisation that has a turnover of R$ 700

million, with 2,500 employees and carries out large size projects on a regular basis.

In one of the projects that the firm carried out, had particularly major implications

due to transferring of data, as the project was done globally, which involved team

members from around the globe. Carvalho & Laurindo (2008) doesn’t give in many

details as to what major implications were caused due to communication, other than

the fact that the project was not as efficient and the international clients were not

very pleased with the performance of the project team members, which caused the

firm a lot in revenue.

Carvalho & Laurindo (2008) states that the reason for project failure came about due

to three major reasons, which the organisation recognised after the project, had

come to an end. The three reasons were, that there was difference in language

between systems and business, which led to a difference in perception and due to

that their was a lot of misunderstanding of tasks during the project. The firm then

also realised that they didn’t plan for project delivery, when they believe should

have, as there was over 80% of co-operating with clients overseas.

In the end Carvalho & Laurindo (2008) illustrates some of the points that the

company is setting out, which can help them perform much better in future projects

such as:

Preparing a formal meeting plan

Holding monitoring meetings, but previously scheduled between participants

Preparing minutes from the meetings and distributing them to everyone

interested in the project

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Using, with common sense, emails to publicize project progress.

To conclude the project, Ruuska and Vartiainen (2003) state that “a project as a

complex work system in which human elements, organizations, procedures and

techniques are integrated with communication”. The statement relates with the

above project, as the project should have integrated all the tasks with effective

interaction, which would have allowed the project to be performed much better.

2.3.4 APC–YRTSB Hotel Project (China)

In construction projects, face-to-face interaction is more essential than almost

anywhere else as there is a much higher risk proportion involved and uses of many

resources. In a case study by Pheng, (2000), it illustrates how a construction project

in China of the APC–YRTSB hotel took a much longer time period to build/complete

than anticipated due to the failure of cross-cultural interaction. The project itself had

workers from various parts of China and as the hotel was preparing to welcome

customers from various parts of the world, its project managers were liaising with

other hotels around the globe to build a partnership.

The author states that the Chinese followed “one-way communication” process,

where they would only pay attention to their contractor, who was in charge of

providing all the construction, installation and design services. This led to the

company entering alliances those do not suit their interest. Furthermore, the firm

was then collaborating with businesses that they didn’t need to liaise with, which in

the end caused the project to be delayed and also run over budget, as the scope of

the project was not clear from the outset. The firm then ended all ties with firms it

was liaising with that had to profit towards this project, which ended up costing the

organisation much more than anticipated and led to the project being well over

budget.

However, Pheng, L. S. (2000) talks about having a ‘two-way communication’, where

the project managers would interact with their partners and build the scope of the

project around that, which would assist the project staff to gain better insight and

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this is exactly what APC–YRTSB hotel did by paying more attention to their Chinese

partners, in order to complete future construction projects on time. Liaising with

their Chinese partners would help the hotel execute their project and build the hotel

that will be suitable for all foreign customers.

2.3.5 Persian Gulf Construction Project

As mentioned earlier in research, a construction project in The Persian Gulf had also

experienced issues in inter-cultural interaction, as UK construction companies those

were looking to operate in Persia could grasp effective flow of information straight

away. Here, Loosemore & Muslmani (1999) states that UK construction companies

failed to co-operate with their Arabic counter parts due to cultural differences. In the

Arab world, you must converse with Arab clients in some Arabic language to gain

their trust, only then you can work well with them. The author here makes an

analysis that during the late 1990’s, the UK construction industry was in decline as

there were not many construction projects available. The opportunity arose for UK

construction firms to seek out projects in the gulf of Persia, as this was a growing

market with major opportunities to exploit.

Loosemore & Muslmani (1999) illustrates that even though the UK firms conducted

projects in the Persian Gulf, those projects still weren’t as successful as they would

have expected them to be. The main reasons for those project encountering trouble

was issues with inter-cultural collaboration, as the Arabic clients have certain ways of

working, this caused many tasks in the projects to be delayed. Limaye and Victor

(1991) researched about Arabic culture and explain how there are certain factors

that need to be considered when doing business with them, such as very less eye-

contact, not shouting and have a very family orientated atmosphere within the

team. The author’s mention that these factors are not very much used in the

western world, hence alliance issues will occur when doing businesses with Arabic

clients.

The projects in the end had been delayed due to the flow of information being slow

and late. This then caused a lot of objectives to be held back as there were some

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conflicts within the projects teams from the UK and the Persian Gulf, while delivering

information data. In the end the projects, just as the earlier ones mentioned in the

dissertation, ran over time, which ended up costing the firm a lot more than

expected and this caused the project to go over budget, as stated by Loosemore &

Muslmani (1999). The projects were completed, however, due to co-operation

issues, some UK firms had withdrawn businesses from the Persian clients, reducing

the amount of foreign projects in Persia, which has led the nation to conduct its very

own domestic projects and work with Arabic firms.

On the other hand, Loosemore & Muslmani (1999) suggests that gaining trust is the

best way to work in cross-cultural construction projects as this will then lead to the

foreign project team members to correspond much more effectively and work

towards the success of the project. The trust factor will allow the project members

to interact in the same way as the culture tells them to depending on which type of

client they are dealing with.

2.3.6 AEI Project

Project management culture is based on the team ethics and workmanship, which

then creates the path for success in a project and allows the project manager to

handle future hurdles. Kerzner, H (2013) talks about a research project about

development materials that was being conducted by the “American Electronics

International”. In 2002 the organisation won the chance to deliver this project and

decided to use the matrix approach to conduct this project and in the proposal stage

of the project, the project manager decided to hold a meeting, which will look to

satisfy customer requirements and delegate tasks to each management member to

shift the project from the proposal stage to the planning and execution stage

successfully.

The project was already half completed and so far it was a great success, with all the

aims and objectives being met and also the budget being controlled. In the latter

stages of the project, the current project manager had to leave the project due to

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personal circumstances, which mean that a new project manager was assigned. The

team was still working at a good pace and effectively, however, the new project

manager liked to work at his own pace and during a meeting, the project sponsor

had asked the project manager for the project report and the project manager had

failed to produce it. Therefore, this would lead to many conflicts and

misunderstanding between the project sponsor and manager in the latter stages of

project.

Furthermore, meetings were cancelled in the project as due to laid back attitude of

the new project manager and this led to project staff not interconnecting enough

with their project manager and as the project was going from the controlling stage to

the closing stage, this would cause many implication. Kerzner, H (2013) then states

how the project went into the closing stage and all tasks those were nearing

completion, still had much work left to do and due to less co-ordination between

project team members, more and more work was being delayed.

In the end, the project did reach its completion stage eventually and what had

looked like a perfectly stable and efficient project, in the end turned out to be a

disaster, as some of the aims weren’t met such as client satisfaction, as the project

was dealing with many electronic firms and those firms were very disappointed as

the project looked to be successful but then had a major downfall. Due to this some

project staff had left the project, as they didn’t want to work under the new project

manager to due to working cultural differences. The project manager was eventually

let go off and “American Electronics International” failed to secure another large-

scale project for then next few years. Kerzner, H (2013) mentions how the new

project manager failed to even interconnect with its staff through emails, which in

the end led to the project culture being very conservative and leading the project to

be a failure.

2.4 Communication Methods

“The realm of mistakes that can be made related to communication is boundless” as

stated by Cervone, (2014). The author discusses how there are various

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communication issues and to name them all would be impossible, therefore here

outlines some of the major ones that do have an adverse impact on a project.

To begin with Cervone, (2014) lays out and describes 3 major implications from not

having efficient interaction during a project life cycle:

Not differentiating stakeholder needs – During a project life cycle, the teams

will come across various different stakeholders and they won’t all have a

monolithic way of thinking. Different stakeholder will have various methods

of working and engagement level in the project. Subsequently, project teams

need to consider different ways and forms of co-operating, which will be

effective on different stakeholders.

Overlooking cultural differences – As mentioned earlier that different project

groups work differently and due to projects having teams from all around the

globe, not all working styles will be the same. Hence, a project that solely

plans on interacting with its team through blogs or emails may not be

acceptable in other working cultures, which will in the long-run lead to issues

arising and affecting the project in a large-scale manner.

Not recognizing the need to change communication over time – During a

project life cycle, the levels of interaction changes depending on what phase

the project is in. During the start of the project, what was said may not be

implemented in the correct manner as aims and objectives may have been

altered. In regards to this, if there is no feedback mechanism and flow of

information is similar to how it was at the start of the project, then not

enough or efficient flow of information will be passed around in the project

for it to be a success.

Following on, Cervone, (2014) talks about two strategies, which can be implemented

in order to have effective collaboration in a project. The first strategy it states is to

have engagement of all stakeholders throughout the project; in this manner every

stakeholder is being informed throughout the project as well as engaging in the

project. This is the long-run helps build a communication loop, which is a pathway

for the feedback mechanism mentioned earlier in the thesis and allows the project

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to run its course. The second strategy Cervone, (2014) explores is to have less

passive communication, which correlates to emails and podcasts. Cervone, (2014)

states that passive communication can allow less engagement for stakeholders in a

project, which leads to the lack of concentration. However, face-to-face

communication, telephones, video conferences or even presentation will allow

stakeholders to engage more in a project and eventually producing their best work

for the welfare of the project.

2.4.1 Communication framework

In relation to the above about sufficient distribution of information or information

strategies by Cervone, (2014) the author Wellman, (2012) states that effective flow

of dialogue assists a project to thrive under difficult circumstances and one of the

many ways to have an effective dialogue in projects those are struggling, is to “over

communicate”. This aids the project teams to immediately respond to change and

successful projects are usually those, which respond to change. This type of

interaction also helps build a strong team culture in a project (Wellman 2012).

Following on, Johannessen, & Olsen (2011) draw upon a framework, which describes

four types of communications, which interlink and this requirement in project

management is essential to implement a successful project. The framework is

illustrated below:

Fig.1.3 Communication capabilities framework

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Firstly, the ‘economic/technical’ communication is a type of interaction, which is

used for current situations. This type of communication is considered to be a

“feedback communication”, as the project manager must define the boundaries set

in the project, resources being used in the project and then gains the information

back in regards to whether or not the project is being constructed in the manner in

which it was communicated. Secondly, ‘management communication’ is a detailed

type of co-operation, where the project manager must focus and deliver instructions

on detail and the correct allocation of resources. This helps gain control of the

project, which assists the economic/technical communication to give feedback.

Thirdly, ‘cultural communication’ plays an integral part in project management

success. This type of delivery sets a system in the project, which enables the team

member and project managers to adapt to unseen change; those can hinder the

project as cultural communication moulds the surroundings into the system. This

system is about exchanges experiences, bringing innovation into the project and

learning from outcomes. The final and the fourth type of communication is ‘social

communication’, which is interaction in the system as a whole. Here the role of

communication is to remain effective through stability and change, therefore,

promoting innovation, dynamism and creativity in the project. Social communication

integrates with all the other three types of communication as it looks at the system

of communication is projects as a whole (Johannessen & Olsen, 2011).

2.5 Conclusion

To conclude the literature of the study, all the issues discussed above relate to one

central factor, which is communication. Beginning from the issues of delivery of

information to the interaction with overseas clients, all issues relate to

communication, which is a huge factor in project success and failure. The theme of

the research was to highlight the issues within communication in project

management, which is very significant as many projects fail or are unsuccessful due

to these issues as explained earlier by exploring various projects around the globe

such as the Persian Gulf construction project researched by Loosemore & Muslmani

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(1999), where due to ineffective interaction between two parties, the project in the

end was unsuccessful. Similarly, this issue also caused the AEI Project to be very

unstable and ineffective as Kerzner, H (2013) explained how not enough face-to-face

interconnection occurred in the project, which meant many meetings and plans

were cancelled, leading the project to be unsuccessful.

The study tries to explain this by listing various reasons as to why communication

leads to so many issued within project management. The research study compiles

together many descriptions by authors such as Earley and Mosakowski (2000) who

talk about cultural issues being the main cause of problems in projects from

communication, as projects now contain members that have different working styles

and how that can cause conflicts as it builds form anxiety from not being able to

demonstrate something to one another. Furthermore, the study mentions how

communication issues can be caused by something as simple as the lack of face-to-

face communication stated by Emmitt and Gorse (2007). The author also mentions in

the research that due to the lack of face-to-face interaction, the stimulation of a

project weakens, causing it to be ineffective, as many project staff will not have to

motivation to work.

The research has a huge a part in illustrating the means of information and

interaction by discussing communication theories. The study explained the meaning

of communication by describing two major models in academia in firstly the Shannon

and Weaver (1964) and Galle’s model of communication (1999). The models explain

how communication is described in academic terms, for instance the Shannon and

Weaver model illustrates a process, which describes how information is passed along

effectively and how it’s important to keep that information as clear as possible, so

the information can reach the desired destination and be seen as successful flow of

communication. Following on, Galle’s model also discusses the importance of having

a effective flow of information, however this model explores more side of

stakeholders by highlighting there importance in the project and how information

should be distributed differently to different stakeholder depending on how each

stakeholder receives and interprets information.

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Ultimately, the goal of the study is explain to the issues of communication, especially

in multi-cultural projects as all projects in the future will be multi-cultural and the

importance of the discussion is that communication comes in various forms and as

there will be plenty of communicating in multi-cultural projects, future projects need

to be aware of the negative effects that communication have on them. The study has

structured it self a in a way in which it begins by explaining the term

“communication” in academia and then moves on to discussing various forms of

communication in multi-cultural projects and how then can be real issues. The study

then moves onto illustrating the effects of poor communication by exploring real life

projects in 5 case studies, the study then breaks down into explaining how those

issues can be dealt with by examining some important points by Cervone, (2014) on

the project life cycle and Johannessen, & Olsen (2011) on how to build a

communication framework to work around.

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3.0 Methodology

The foremost purpose of this chapter is to summarise and justify the methodology

chosen to conduct this particular research. Also to deliver an explanation of the

methods used during the progression of this study and samples from which data was

gathered.

3.1 Introduction

The methodology is designed to address the most important question in the study

that is going to be conducted, ‘how shall I gather my research’? The methodology

will consist of the following headings from the “research onion” to explain how the

dissertation research has been conducted; Research philosophy and rationale,

research approach, research strategies, research choices, time horizon, data

collection/data analyses, limitation/problems caused in the research and anticipated

time the research took (Saunders, 2012).

Fig. 1.4 – Research onion by Saunders, (2012).

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3.2 Research philosophy

Johnson and Clark (2006) state that as a business researcher, the student must be

aware of philosophical commitments they make, as this helps us to understand the

choice of research strategy we intend to make. This has a significant impact on not

just what we do but also how we do it and whether we understand the study being

investigated. This particular study has taken the path of ‘Interpretivism’ as the study

looks to achieve the research objective. The reasoning behind conducting this

particular philosophy is because the study required qualitative data and in depth

investigations of case studies those have already been written about the research

topic. The methodology approach in this research is of content analysis; it’s an

approach to the analysis of documents and texts that seeks to measure background

in terms of fixed categories and in an efficient and replicable manner (Bryman and

Bell 2007). The content research analyses looks at consumer behaviour, which

involves printing materials and more importantly verbal and non-verbal

communications. It is skilled at determining relationships between different

concepts, which in this case will be used on project management journal articles as

well as business management articles, which relate to the topic of “communication”.

The project management journals used are from 1999-2010, which covers a 10/11-

year period and other business journals, which range from the past two decades.

Furthermore, the prime research method is the qualitative method, which will is

used throughout the study. The type of research that has been taken to conduct this

particular study is “Interpretivism” as mentioned earlier and Interpretivism can be

signified as the Social Constructionism in the field of management research.

According to this philosophical approach research give importance to their beliefs

and value to give sufficient explanation for a research problem (Cooper, 2006).

Through the help of this philosophical, researchers focus to highlight the real facts

and figures according to the research problem. This kind of philosophical approach

understand specific business situation. In this approach, researchers use slight

sampling and evaluate them in detail to understand the views of large people (Kasi

2009).

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The research is solely based on qualitative research and research of theories by

various authors on the research topic, which in this case is “Communication” in

relation to project management over the past two decades. The journals analyzed

give theories and concepts, which have been put into “selective coding” to refine the

theory and give it more meaning to the reader. Strauss and Corbin (1998) describe

selective coding as refining and integrating emergent theories and/or concepts to

illustrate to the reader, as to what the theory describes in terms of the research

topic.

Fig. 1.5 The four management research philosophies

Saunders, A (2012)

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3.3 Research Approach

The dissertation is observing the role of communication research within project

management, with the use of project management journals from 1999-2010, use of

many other business journals which relate to communication in organisations and

few communication journals those illustrate general understanding of the concept of

communication. In order to achieve this particular research, the approach taken

from Saunders, A (2012) is an inductive approach. This allows the research to

gradually build overtime; it gives the researcher and the reader a close context of the

research and it allows a structure to be built to permit changes of the research, as

the research progresses. Finally, one of the most important part of this research, it

allows the study to collect qualitative data, which is one of the reasons that this

study isn’t a deductive study as the inductive patterns of this study don’t allow the

research to build a hypotheses, as its an exploratory thesis.

As research illustrates that the study is going on the Interpretivism route, which

requires the study to go down the inductive pathway. Goddard and Melville (2004)

state that inductive research involves observations and development of explanation

in theories, as the study doesn’t know what type of methodology it will follow. Fig

1.6 is displaying something called a “bottom up” approach, as there are no theories

to begin with but may evolve as the study carries on, plus no theory pattern need to

be tested before conducting the study.

Fig. 1.6 Bottom up inductive approach

Goddard and Melville (2004)

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3.4 Research Strategies

As the majority of following research is of qualitative data, therefore, the following

steps that have been taken to achieve those data throughout the research are:

3.4.1 Grounded Theory

This is the best example of an inductive approach research. In grounded theory, data

collection is begun without a framework; observing a series of data generates

theory. Once many theories have been observed and looked at, the researcher then

comes up with choices of theories that it will implement in his/her study and look for

various other studies, which replicate or even argue the theories researched by the

researcher to build a literature review. Furthermore, various coding methods are

required to conduct a grounded theory and in this study, there are two types of

coding methods chosen, which is open coding and selective coding as mentioned

earlier in the research philosophy section. Strauss and Corbin (1998) illustrate the

process of open coding as breaking down, comparing, examining and categorizing

collected data. On the other hand, selective coding is refining an emergent theory

and making it central, which in this case are “Communication” and other theories are

generated in comparison to the core theory.

3.4.2 Ethnography

Ethnography is the study of social interfaces, behaviors, and observations that occur

within teams, groups, communities and organizations. The fundamental aim of

ethnography is to offer holistic insights into people’s views and actions, as well as the

nature that is, sights, sounds of the location they occupy, through the collection of

detailed interpretations, discussions and interviews (Saunders, A. 2012). In this case

the study has observed two major organizations in different parts of the world, in

order to make a comparative analyses. The study has had discussions with project

managers and team members in “Adobe India” located in New Delhi, the capital city

of India. The discussions were about the researched topic of communication and

how much of an influence it has on the projects that are conducted within the firm.

Furthermore, another firm observed is “The Authentic Food Company”, which is a

40


frozen food supplier in the United Kingdom in Manchester and carries out various

projects around the world, including China, India and Germany. The discussions in

this firm were also with various project team members from various department on

how influential and important communication is, when carrying out international

projects. The study will look at the difference between the communication influence

and importance between these two firms, in order to evaluate the research topic of

communication in finding out its importance in project management in practice. The

study will interview 9 project managers from the two firms combined, and it will ask

them questions from a questionnaire built to gain relevant data for this study via

research. The questionnaire will be attached on to the appendix, as well as the

transcript of the interview, with an addition of confirmation letters from the both

firms confirming that the interviews have taken place and that the permission has

been granted to take the interviews.

3.4.3 Case Study Research

The study contains slight bit of case study research, as it does look at case studies

about construction projects from various parts of the world, in order to give the

study a general insight into how communication affected these projects and what

steps were taken to improve communication in these projects. However, due to

confidentiality issues, not many projects could be researched, which allowed the

research to study three different international projects from the time span of 1999-

2007, giving the study a general idea of communication issues that occur in various

projects around the world. Yin, R. K. (1984) describes the case study methodology as

“an understanding of a complex issue or object, which can extend experience or add

strength to what is already known through previous research”. Many researchers

over the years have used the case study methodology, however, due to this study

containing only three cases, researchers also believe that such a small amount of

research is invalid to provide any form of conclusion. Hence, the study mentions that

only a slight bit of case study methodology was adopted to give only a general

insight about construction projects and their issues with communication.

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3.5 Research Choice

The choice of research in this study is a qualitative one and "a qualitative approach

to research aims to understand how individuals make meaning of their social world.”

(Hesse-Biber, S. N. 2010) There are various methods of gaining qualitative research

and those methods can be discussions, journal research, interview and reading

theories. This gives the study a range of insight into the research question, especially

as it allows the study to build an argument and a comparative analysis to draw upon

a conclusion. The way in which Hesse-Biber, S. N. (2010) explanation about

qualitative research being able to be researched through a various of methods links

in to this particular dissertation is by this study using various journals from project

management to general business journals, as well as books and other article and

finally interviews with a couple of companies. All of these methods lead to the

results being interlinked with one another to form a dissertation research. Hesse-

Biber, (2010) illustrates in fig 1.7 about how methods of qualitative research relate

back to each area of the research, which gives the research a broad view of the study

conducted.

Fig. 1.7 Qualitative method design

Hesse-Biber, (2010)

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3.6 Sample

In a content analysis, the research conducted can only be dependable if the

documents its being researched from is well used and popular between many

colleagues. As the researched is based on communication and project management,

various journals on these two topics have been researched throughout this study

and the intent is to only use journals based solely on these two topics.

3.6.1 International journal of Project Management

The International Project Management Association (IPMA) publishes this journal.

This is a non-profit project management firm and it embodies over 50 project

management associates from all over the globe, including the UK’s very own

association of project management (APM). Including the journal of project

management, the IPMA has been used in this research eleven times, and those

journals used have been from a time span from 1998-2010. This particular

association published any journals, which talk about the project management

practises that are happening around the world, various projects, further research

into new practises and it even has a forum from which project managers from

around the globe can discuss and share their skills.

3.6.2 Business Source Premier

The study has used “Business Source Premier” from Manchester Metropolitan

University to find six journal articles. Business source premier is an online library

service provided to students from many universities. The one used in this study is

from The Manchester Metropolitan University, which is one of the largest

universities in the UK in terms of students and campus size. Also, business source

premier provided from the university has numerous numbers of journals to search

from in any particular topic and the search engine in business source premier allows

the searcher to refine its search, so any journal on any specific topic can be

retrieved.

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3.6.3 Overview

Looking at international journal of project management, it is fair to say that many

professionals use these journals across the globe and its safe to say that it’s the

leading journal for any research in project management. This outlines that the

research conducted in this study from these journals is reliable and critical in

analysing any topic in relation to project management. Moving on to business source

premier, this system as been embedded in many universities across the UK and is

used by thousands of students everyday. It’s fair to say that any sources of journals

gathered from here are also very much reliable. The dissertation also used journals

from “Google Scholar”, which is also a very trust worthy location to gain information

from, however, the only downside to Google Scholar is that sometimes the

researcher doesn’t get the journals it wants due to the broadness of the search

engine. Altogether, the research tries to gain as many journals as possible to make

the study as strong as possible, nevertheless, due to the time frame in which this

study has to completed, its not possible to analyse every single project management

or even communication journal. Therefore, the dissertation went simply for the IPM

journal, as it’s the leading journal in project management and helped gain this study

the information it needs.

3.7 Research Time Horizon

This dissertation study had a submission date of 8th of September and the

dissertation began on the 8th of June. Therefore the study had a time horizon of

being cross-sectional, where the study is more like a “snapshot”. Saunders, (2012)

says that cross-sectional study is a study on a particular phenomenon and most

academic courses undertake these study. Cross-sectional studies usually employ

survey strategies as well as interviews and also may employ qualitative

methodology.

This particular study has taken the qualitative methodology, as well as conducting

interviews as mentioned earlier, however, the study has also analysed a few case

studies, which means that study also contains some form of longitudinal study. The

44


reason being because analysing case studies, those have been researched over an

extensive period of time can also constitute of being a longitudinal method

(Saunders, A. 2012). Although, the most of the research is or will be classed as cross-

sectional as the study wasn’t conducted over a vast period of time.

45


4.0 Data Analysis/Collection

The succeeding chapter presents data collection and analyses throughout the course

of this research. The chapter has many parts in which it explains, the open/selective

coding, it then illustrates journal coding as well as the project management journal

coding done for the collection of the data for this research and it then condenses the

journals to communication journals and displays the coding for those journal articles.

The chapter then draws out coding for articles chosen to input information in the

research, then a model of communication shows expresses each topic used to get to

the final research question, in order to try and answer it. The chapter then moves

onto discussing about the interviews conducted, presents the data from the

interviews and then finally draws to a close by displaying the data collection

methods to demonstrate which type of method was used and why.

4.1 Open coding analysis

Open coding analysis is the initial phase of the coding process in terms of grounded

theory approach in qualitative research. The purpose of open coding is to begin from

raw data and break that data down into various segments, in order to interpret

them. The data that is broken down will form a basic unit for the research, which will

create a phenomenon for the study. There are three ways of conducting the open

coding analysis, which are line-by-line analysis, sentence or paragraph analysis and

perusing a whole document for data analysis (Strauss and Corbin, 1998). The method

implemented in this dissertation study for open coding is paragraph analysis, to try

and locate any well-used term in relation to communication in project management.

4.2 Selective coding analysis

Selective coding is the latter stage of coding analysis of grounded theory approach of

qualitative data. The purpose of selective coding is to figure out the core variable

that includes all of the data. Selective coding come around when researcher has

decided which category is central to the research and when all the segments and

sub-segments are systematically linked with the core segment. Fig 1.8 illustrates

46


selective coding with all the sub-categories linking to the core category of a study in

a qualitative research. (Anselm, 1987)

Fig. 1.8 Selective coding and core category

Anselm, (1987)

4.2.1 Research Journal coding

The sample of journal articles covered were 156, each and every article abstract was

read thoroughly and analysed. The articles were searched for findings of

communication themes in project management, business and communication

theories. There was a contextual analysis of the journals done by searching for vital

words, themes or phrases of communication in management terms. This resulted in

the study picking in 39 journal articles were coded as “communication articles” for

management, the rest of the references used were books and online articles.

Following on from that, there were 12 journals categorized as “Project management

journals”, which meant that there was 22 journals were categorized as just plain and

simple “Communication journals”. Furthermore, that leaves only 5 journals, which

were “non-communication” articles, however, they were used because they had

links of communication in management study. In terms of all of the articles used 6 of

them were from “Business source premier” from the online library of Manchester

Metropolitan University and the rest were from “Google Scholar” and “Emerald

Journals of management”.

47


Fig. 1.9 represents a pie chart of open coding in journals used in the dissertation

study. The chart illustrates total number of articles used and divides the articles into

the categories of the type of articles that they are.

4.2.2 Project Management Journal Coding

Project management journals were used to make analysis on the project

management side of the research as 12 journals were used from an analysis of 59

project management journals. The 12 journals chosen were coded because they had

data and information about “Communication” on project management, which linked

perfectly with the research. The journals looked at were from the time line of 1994-

2014, which is time span of 20 years, however, the ones coded and selected were in

the time horizon of 1998-2010, which is a time span of 12 years.

Fig 2.0 Project Management journal coding

32%

58%

11%

Fig 1.9 Research Journal Coding

Project Management Journal Communication Journal Non Communication Journal

19981999

20002001

20022003

20042005

20062007

20082009

20102011

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

PM Journals picked PM Journals Analysed

48


The above fig 2.0 illustrates the number of journals used in each year in comparison

to the journals analysed each year. The years between 1994-1997 and 2012-2014

don’t seem to be on the graph, as no journal was picked in those years to use in the

research. Although there are a few years in the graph shown as well where the

journals from those years were not picked to analyse and the reasoning behind that

is that those years fall in between the other years, so not including them would have

been near enough impossible. Furthermore, 6 journals were looked at or analysed in

1998, from which 2 were used as those included “Communication articles” and

similarly for 2005 where 6 journals were analysed and 2 were picked as they strong

links with “Communication in project management”. The rest of the years only 1

journal was picked to put into the study as only those journals had strong links with

the topic of “Communication”. Also as the research is about communication

organisational project as well as construction projects, the years in which only 1

journal was used, only they had data about communication in construction projects

and that’s what was required in the dissertation.

4.2.3 Communication Journal Coding

A further 22 journals were also used in the research from a selection of 97 other

journals analysed which were categorized as “Communication articles”. These

journals had strong links with communication, theories on communication and also

talked about communication is organisations and construction. The chosen 22

journals on communication also includes the 3 case studies used in the literature

about construction projects. A further 5 articles were also used in the study,

however, those articles were “non-communication articles” and their usage came

about as they minor links to communication, although they weren’t articles specially

about communication. Meaning that a total of 27 journal articles were used,

separate to the project management journal articles. There was no time horizon set

for these particular journal articles as communication as whole topic in management

was being searched and due to the study being qualitative, there was also a need to

find theories from past authors, which led to journals being searched from 1970 to

2013.

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Fig 2.1 Communication Journal Coding

The above fig. 2.1 differentiates the communication articles analysed from the

communication articles chosen and the non-communication articles chosen. As it

should be, more articles were analysed than picked and one of the reasons for

choosing the articles those were chosen was because they contained information

regarding communication in either general projects or organisational projects. The

years not included in the graph must not be mistaken for not having any literature

about communication, as those years were not researched due to the information

being found in other journals in other years. The years in which many more journals

were analysed are the years in which the availability of those journals was a lot,

hence the usage of much more journals.

4.2.4 Articles Coding

The final trait of open coding data analyses is present on the table below in fig 2.2

illustrating the different articled searched to input information in various headings

within the research. As there were a total of 38 journals used, with 3 books and 1

online article, which equals to a total of 42 references used for only dissertation

research, the table below represents the coding for each journal and shows how

many articles were required to input data into each topic. The table shows the

popularity of topics within the topic of communication, illustrating the most journals

used for topics in the dissertation study. The table also illustrates project

management topics used in relation to communication, presenting a diverse

19701972

19791989

19991995

19982000

20012002

20032004

20052006

20072008

20092010

20112012

20130

2

4

6

8

10

12

Communication ArticlesArticles AnalysedNon-Communication Articles

50


research on the topic of communication in project management. The topics listed

below are the main topics of the articles used in the research and not all of the

topics are listed as it been coded.

The topic-coding table outlines very clearly that most of the articles have been used

to cover the communication management topic, which is the topic that outlines the

importance of communication and its influence on projects. Furthermore, project

management is also a topic that has had many articles used on it, as it’s also a vital

part of the dissertation study and all the other topics have an almost similar articles

used on them for data collection, as they are important but not core.

Fig 2.2 Topic themes open coding

Topic Articles

Project Management 8

Communication Management 11

Organisational Communication 4

Project Communication 3

Construction Case Studies 3

Effective Communication 4

Non-Communication Articles 5

Fig 2.5 Model of Communication Management in Project Management

The model of communication in fig 2.3 illustrates the chose topics of this study and

how they have been combined to put into one-research question. The beginning two

topics are just on communication as whole, which then links into the project

management side of things, furthermore, the project management side of topics

spread out into various communication topics, which fulfil the literature on

communication in project management. All the topics then come to one conclusion

on stating the importance of communication and its influence on project

management, which tries to answer the dissertation research question.

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4.3 Interview data collection/analyses

Conducting interviews was a large part of this dissertation study and there was

interviews conducted between two major firms as those firms had experienced and

qualified project managers. The study had chosen 3 organisations to interview;

however, it could only have been possible to interview 2. The 2 firms interviewed

were “Adobe” a software organisation and “The Authentic Food Company”. To

conduct the interviews at “Adobe”, there was a need to travel to India, as that’s the

branch of adobe the interviews were set up at. There was a questionnaire designed

to use in all the interviews, which is attached onto the appendix of the study.

Communication Management

Non-Communication Articles

Project Management

Organisational Communication

Project Communication

Construction Case Studies

Effective Communication

Importance of communication and its influence on project management

52


The reasoning behind choosing adobe was because; research showed that adobe

carry out many project on a daily basis and this could be the scope for researching

organisational projects, for this study. The advantage here was that, there was no

issues in gaining permission to interview the project managers as my uncle was a

project manager himself, which allowed the study to interview not just the project

manager but the project team members as well. The firm is based in New Delhi, India

and so a trip was taken to India to conduct this particular research. The second firm

interviewed was “The Authentic Food Company” which is frozen food manufacturer

and supplier, based in Manchester. The reasoning behind choosing this firm was

because; this firm has 3 project managers and all 3 in different department, which

would be very useful for this research study, as most of the company projects are

based in Europe, which requires the project managers to communicate heavily with

foreign clients.

Once again, as my father is a development chef in the firm, it wasn’t an issue to gain

permission to interview the project managers in the firm and before picking this firm

to be interviewed, there was research conducted via gaining insight information as

to how many projects the firm has and how strong is the firms base on project

management. Once there was enough evidence that the firm has strong bonds with

project management practises and it communicated with foreign clients, it was clear

that this firm was perfect for this dissertation study. The third firm selected was a

construction firm called “Manchester and Cheshire Construction Co. Ltd.” This

particular firm was not interviewed as non of the project managers were able to chat

or have a professional interview before the 21st of September, due to work

commitments. There was also an attempt to try and get the project managers to

answer the designed questionnaire in their spare time, however that wasn’t possible

either and so the only data collection possible on construction projects was done

through case studies in the literature.

53


4.3.1 Adobe interview/Focus group

The interview at adobe was more of a focus group as 5 project team members were

interviewed together, with the project manager as well, altogether 6 candidates

interviewed. The age group of all the group members was between 30-40, however

the project manager was 42. The response was very similar, through the analyses of

the questions answered, most if not all the candidates believed that electronic

communication was the most effective and considered communication a vital part of

project management in practise. The differentiation was that all 6 candidates stated

that electronic communication was important but only for large-scale projects and

for smaller to medium sized projects, all types of communication are essential but

more verbal communication as the hierarchy levels in small to medium sized firms

are very flat and communication verbally can be reached far out easily.

4.3.2 The Authentic Food Company Interview

The interview at “The Authentic Food Company” was conducted between 3 different

project managers and surprisingly all 3 were aged between 35-40. Similar responses

were also collected in this firm as like adobe, as all 3-project managers agreed that

communication was the most vital part of project management, especially projects

that are conducted abroad. Electronic communication was once again chosen as the

most effective way of communicating and reasons the given reason for it was the

increase in technology and the enlargement of the global village. On the other hand,

only one candidate chose face-to-face communication as he worked in purchasing

and he claimed that for him its face-to-face communication, which seems effective.

On the other hand, all three project managers did state that electronic

communication is at its most effective in large-scale projects due to the hierarchy

being on a large scale. Furthermore, in small to medium sized projects, it’s not

essential which communication is effective as they all are.

4.3.3 Interview results

A total of 9 candidates were interviewed, from which 8 agreed on electronic

communication being the core of project management success, however, all 9 also

stated that its only most effective in large-scale projects and in small/medium sized

54


projects, all types of communication can work. Fig 2.4 displays the percentage of

candidates favouring electronic communication and clearly outlines the importance

of electronic communication.

4.4 Data collection methods

The research was done over a three month time period and in those months there

was various ways in which the data was collected, fig 2.5 presents the different types

of methods used in the collection of the data for this particular research, outlining

the amount of each method being used in the research. As demonstrated in the

below chart that 73% of the data was collected through journal articles as it’s a

qualitative research and the use of grounded theory was implemented on the

research. Following on, only 6% of case studies were used, which was to cover the

construction projects side of the research and only a few books were analysed as

most of the data required would have come from journals and not books. The usage

of books was only implemented to search for theories from famous past authors on

the particular subject. Hence, only 4% of the data collection was books. To conclude,

17% of data collection was interviews as 9 candidates were interviewed to gain data,

still meaning that the large chunk of the research was virtuously gained from journal

data collection.

11%

89%

Fig 2.4 Communication Breakedown

Non Verbal CommunicationFace-To-Face Communication Electronic Communication

55


17%

6%

73%

4%

Fig 2.5 Data Collection

Interviews Case Studies Journal Articlas Books

56


5.0 Discussion

The Penultimate chapter of this dissertation study will look to summarise and discuss

the findings of this particular study, presented in the previous chapter and how they

associates with the literature presented on this topic in Chapter 2. The chapter will

further illustrate the implications in the literature of the research before drawing on

the final chapter of this study, which is the conclusion of the research.

5.1 Discussion

The results of this study were achieved in two different manners in that literature

was highlighted via researching communication and project management articles,

which were then analysed through the open coding methodology. The findings of

the literature of Catalin, D. (2008) were very similar to the model of “Information

Transmitter” developed by Shannon and Weaver (1964). Identifying that Catalin, D.

(2008) communication process, portrayed a similar model of communication to the

one by Shannon and Weaver (1964) illustrating that the published communication

journals had chosen similar models to demonstrate the flow of communication in

management.

The paper includes various models and concepts, however the core model, which

defines the research or is the most important part of the research, is the

“Communication Capabilities Framework” by above Johannessen & Olsen (2011) as it

identifies all the capabilities required in various types of communication, for it to

result in success in project management. The model assists in understanding the

capabilities communication has and what need to be done in order to achieve those

capabilities in various types of communication from, social, economic, management

to cultural communication. One of the most interesting factors about the model is

that it doesn’t look at the communication capabilities from a project management

view fully, it looks at communication in general management within projects, which

in the long-run can be used to inter-link with project management as identified by

Johannessen & Olsen (2011). The reason being that the “Communication Capabilities

Framework” doesn’t fully look at the project management side of things is because it

57


believes that it’s almost logical to inter-link with general management rather than

specifying it to project management, as it gives the framework an opportunity to

work in all sorts of projects. The concept of the model helps in understanding the

communication process that should be adopted in project management as each

capability identifies multiple types of communication scenarios which can occur

during organisational projects or projects in general. Therefore, depending on the

situation, a project manager can adopt to a certain type communication method to

inform their team for e.g. cultural communication is used when unseen change

occurs in a project, which then allows this type of communication to set a system in

the project, which includes exchanging experience and learning from outcomes.

Hence the importance of the model in project management, however, the model

itself was part of communication journal and not the international journal of project

management.

Further studies in the research on identifying which communication process leads to

project success have led too much more concepts and models being identified.

Author Galle (1999) draw upon a mechanism that identifies strategies that should be

applied in communication to make it the most essential part of project success. Galle

(1999) states that communication processes it’s strongest suit in stakeholders and

that how ideas those are generated withina project must be conveyed around the

whole project to gain feedback, which is majorly discussed in the research by

Engelbrecht A, (2010). The theory has been verified or used by the “International

Journal of Project Management”, which gives the model an acknowledgement of the

fact that it’s used in project management practice. The mechanism however, focuses

the model on construction projects as it’s trying to explain large-scale projects,

which is similar to the research conducted on “Adobe” and “The Authentic Food

Company” as both of the firms had similar answers in stating that large scale projects

benefit largely from electronic communication than another type of communication.

The aim for the model is to give the project managers a better environment for

decision-making, as that’s the toughest and the most crucial part of their job. The

model states that by making communication transparent, it helps project managers

build trust within their teams, which makes for better decision-making.

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In the study, as 89% of project managers from “Adobe” and “The Authentic Food

Company” agree that electronic communication is the most effective way of gaining

project success, Johnson, J.D et al (1994) claims in the literature that face-to-face

communication is most effective. The author in the literature states that face-to-face

communication is a procedure, which cannot be ignored in comparison to non-verbal

communication such as a written letter or report, which aren’t as effective as there is

a tendency to ignore them. The literature by Johnson, J.D et al (1994) mainly

compares non-verbal communication to face-to-face rather than a comparison

between electronic communication, which doesn’t make the comparison in the

dissertation study as much effective as it should be. However, the literature doesn’t

distinguish between the sizes of the projects like Alshawi, M. (2003) and Diallo A. &

Thuillier D. (2005) do by stating that electronic communication is at its most effective

in large-scale projects, which is backed up by project managers in “Adobe” and “The

Authentic Food Company”.

On the other hand, it could be said that the literature by Johnson, J.D et al (1994) is

in the early 90’s where electronic communication wasn’t given as much attention as

it is now due to technological development and market completion. Hence, the

interviews with “Adobe” and “The Authentic Food Company” proving the attention

given to electronic communication nowadays, in order to keep competitive and lead

to project success.

The research as whole focuses on communication project management as a whole

and in order to explain each success factor in relation to each type of project, the

research needs to look at the communication topic as a whole. This resulted in

communication journals being dug out from 1970’s and project management

journals being analyzed over a period of 12 years. This paper then gives the reader

an idea of the importance of communication and its influence in project

management. The research builds a strong map for communication process in

project management via the uses of journals from both topics.

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5.2 Implications

The focus of the study is to understand the importance of communication and its

influence on project management practice; the study highlights various types of

communication and explains the importance of each communication on

organisational and construction projects. The research study illustrates effective

methods of communication, which are bespoke to project success.

The implications of the findings will act as standards for building a relationship

between project success and communication, which will then build project

management concepts for delivering specific data on communication in project

management. All of the communication concepts and framework need to transform

or adapt to newly formed project management concepts in order to create project

success and have a major influence in project success. An illustration for this would

be to identify communication strategies at each stages of the project management

life cycle because as the project develops, it requires a much stronger vision,

strategy and mission explained by Jugdev, K., & Müller, R. (2005). Firms that adopt

these assets are the ones that keep themselves sustained and developed, which

allows them to keep a competitive edge.

The theories need to be developed throughout time, as project management is

about expectations and expectations change throughout time, the importance and

influence of communication on project management must be developed as James B.

(1998) believes that project managers must communicate face-to-face, however, the

author must develop their belief according to the development of technology as

Alshawi, M. (2003) claims his belief that project managers need to use electronic

communication more in order gain project success as nowadays that give them a

competitive edge.

Project management success is based exclusively on the product life cycle, which is

very ambiguous and complex as it varies over time explained by Baccarini, D. (1999)

and in terms of respecting that project managers need to utilise the importance of

60


communication in a positive manner and the influence of electronic communication.

This in the long run will allow project managers to use electronic communication as

an asset to gain competitive advantage, which will give them a greater chance of

project success.

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6.0 Conclusion

The final chapter of the dissertation study draws upon the conclusion of the entire

research. The conclusion will refer back to the aims and objectives of the study in the

perspective of project management communication and its importance on the

subject, as well as its influence on project management practice. The chapter will

then look at the limitations of the study and conclusively make recommendations for

any further opportunities or improvements; those could be done if the study had

been conducted again.

6.1 Conclusion

The study acknowledged the importance of communication and its influence on

project management by displaying various models and concepts gained by adopting

the grounded theory methodology. Data was collected by assessing approximately

280 journals, which had links with communication data and primarily with project

management. The journals assessed were not all the chosen journals to be analysed

as explained in data analysis that only 156 journals were chosen to be critically

analysed, from which 22 journals chosen were communication management

journals. As communication as a whole subject was being studied, there was no time

frame set towards it, so journals from 1970’s to 2010’s were analysed. The project

management journals analysed were 59 from a time span of 1994 – 2014, however

the chosen project management journals those data got inputted into the study

were only 12 from a time span of 1998 – 2010.

It’s very important to understand the role of communication in project management

and how much attention should be given to communication in order to achieve

project success. Project managers must appreciate the vast influence that

communication has on project management and the difficulties that can arise in the

project life cycle from not giving enough attention to effective communication. As

this will assist them in achieving successful projects at a much higher rate in

comparison to their previous projects.

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The purpose of this research study was to investigate literature in communication

with interlinks with project management. This particular aim was achieved by

analysing journals of communication management and building models and concepts

such as “The conceptual model of function communication” in fig. 1.1 and “The

conceptual model of function communication” model in fig. 1.2. This allowed the

study to analyze various styles of communication produced by many authors. One of

the other aims of the study was to analyze communication strategies in

organizational projects and construction projects. The manner in which this objective

was tackled was by firstly looking at organizational literature by Tushman, M. (1979),

who presented data on how communication should be prepared for effective

projects in organization. Furthermore, 3 case studies were analyzed on construction

projects from around the globe to acquire data on communication methods in

construction projects, as well as gaining literature from Deng et al. (2001) on the

importance that should be given communication in construction projects as most of

them are large-scale projects. The next goal of the research study was evaluate

different types of communications and distinguish as to which one is most effective

in project management. To achieve this particular aim, interviews were conducted in

major organisations such as Adobe and The Authentic Food Company and to

coincide with that project management literature was also researched, which drew

upon fig. 1.3 illustrating that communication framework is the most effective form of

flowing effective information and data in project management.

As project management is growing vastly, there are many changes occurring in the

way project management is looked at. Projects are now growing on a global scale

and with projects gaining team members from all around the globe, communication

is more important than ever before. Throughout this thesis study, communication

has emerged as a vital factor in the success of a project by models and concepts

highlighting its importance in project management. Subsequently, the literature and

data analyses helps define key concepts of communication in project management

and illustrates the importance of communication and its influence in project

management, which illustrates the attention which should be given to

communication especially on large-scale projects in order to achieve project success.

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6.2 Limitations

The limitations to this particular research are that communication doesn’t have a

literate definition in terms of management. The phrases and key words used to

define communication is the basic and general definition of communication by

Catalin, D. (2008), however, after analyzing various journals of communication,

management and project management, the closest the study came was to the

communication process model by Shannon and Weaver (1964) of information

transmitter. The definition is very subjective, as it dialogs about general

communication and still doesn’t explain communication theory in comparison to

topics like culture from (Hofstede, 1994) and leadership.

Another limitation with the study is that one of focus areas of the dissertation was

analysing construction projects, however, due to the study not able to gain enough

insight into an actual construction firm and relying on just three case studies for

data. As most of the case studies reviewed in goggle scholar and business source

premier had restricted data due to confidentiality, it was difficult to gain much more

in depth analyses; hence the data being a bit weak on the construction project side.

One of another weaknesses with the study can be that out of the 156 journals used

to analyse, some of the journals were neither communication management journals

nor project management journals. Those journals just included bits of

data/information about communication linking with projects and not so much

project management. This in the long run can be classed as a weakness as it doesn’t

quite give the inputted data strong back up especially for further comparisons.

Altogether, the vast majority of the research has adopted data from the

international journal of project management and communication journals, which

quantifies that the data is trust worthy and very analytical.

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6.3 Recommendation for Future Research

This research study was an exploratory study and a part of an exploratory is to as

much in depth as possible, however, as mentioned beforehand that the research

lacked in depth analysis in the research of construction projects. If the research were

to take further steps in the dissertation, then there would be much greater analysis

conducted on construction projects and a construction firm would also be

interviewed with permission.

Further scope to develop this dissertation research will be through the uses of case

studies. The use of many more case studies will enable the research to gain much

more insight into real life projects and give the study a chance of building a

comparative analysis between communication literature and its use in real life

organisational and construction projects. To conclude, if the study was to carry on

further research then there will be a model built of a comparative study between

communication theories and communication case studies to discover any correlation

between communication literature and its influence and use in real life projects, in

both organisational and construction.

65


Acknowledgements

I would like to begin by thanking the Pushpraj Sharma, Project manager at Adobe in

India and his team members for sharing the information with me that they did,

which assisted me in conducting my research. Similarly, I would like to thank “The

Authentic Food Company” for granting me the permission to conduct interviews with

their three project managers and I would most likely thank those three project

managers in Aaron Donnelly, Paul Harnetly and Sean Floyd for sharing the

information that they did in assisting me to complete my dissertation.

I would really like to appreciate the help of my family in my mother, father and

brother who constantly gave me positive feedbacks and believed in my ability to

complete this dissertation on time. I would also like to thank my friends, who helped

me when I didn’t understand certain aspects of the dissertation and finally I would

like to thank Ruth McQuater in helping me as much as she could, even though she

was away due to medical reasons.

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Appendix

Appendix 1 – Questionnaire

The set of questions that have been shown in this document are the questions those

will be used to gain data from interviewing the selected firms for this research in

“Adobe” and “The Authentic Food Company”. The questionnaire is an open style

questionnaire as there will be interviews conducted to various project managers and

an open style questionnaire allows the interviewee to give as much information as

they can, which can help gather as much data as possible. The questions chosen to

be asked are questions those are going to give the study a chance of answering the

dissertation question and the aims and objectives of the dissertation as well.

Questions are as presented:

1. How many projects are you dealing with on a daily basis?

2. Out of the projects that you are dealing with, of them, how many are online?

3. How important is communication for you in the projects that you are working

on? How would you rate it out of 10?

4. Which is that what type of communication do you use in you projects? Is it

verbal, non-verbal or electronic? Why?

Verbal

Electronic

Non-Verbal

5. How do you manage communication effectively? Are their any procedures or

strategies involved?

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6. How much communication is done between your clients in comparison to

your team?

7. How much communication is needed to make a project successful?

8. Which type of communication is the most important and influential to a

project success? Why?

Electronic

Verbal (face-to-face)

Non-Verbal

Overview

There are 2 closed style questions in the questionnaire; however, the interviewee’s

will be asked to expand on their chosen answers in order for the study to gain as

much data as possible. There will be some extra questions asked along the way of

the interview, however, they will be questions those match the conversation and not

questions those have been already selected.

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Appendix 2 – Adobe India interview (Transcript)

As a part of this research, an interview was conducted with the project manager of

the Adobe branch in New Delhi as well as an interview was done with the project

team members in a focus group manner. The interview asked questions related to

the dissertation aims and objectives and so the questions were about the

importance of communication and its influence on the projects that are done or

conducted in adobe. As the research was only in one branch, the project manager

did say, “I speak for only this branch and my team and not the whole adobe

organisation”. Taking that into account, the research can’t make a statement for the

whole of the adobe firm, however it can relate to the project management side of

things as its interviewing an experienced project manager and an experienced team.

Project managers name – Pushpraj Sharma

Project team members – 5

Names of the project team members:

Team member 1 – Dev

Team member 2 – Tushar

Team member 3 – Karan

Team member 4 – Varun

Team member 5 – Priya

The interviews were conducted, as the author’s uncle is a project manager for adobe

India in New Delhi and after researching and asking around, the result came that

adobe conducts many projects on a daily basis. Due to the firm being a software

firm, it has many projects to work on, from which these six employees listed above

are responsible for in India (New Delhi). The team includes 4 males and one female,

not counting the project manager who is a male. The interview was conducted

during my trip to India, where the author took time to visit the firm, interact with the

employees and most importantly granted permission to interview them, which the

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author got a couple of weeks before arriving their. The receipt for the permission

granted to interview would be attached onto the dissertation as evidence into the

appendix.

The interview as it began…………………

Me: Hello everyone, my name is Vardaan Sharma and I am a student from

Manchester Metropolitan University and today I will be interviewing you all about

the importance of communication in project management and its influence on

project management, as a part of my dissertation study. I hope you are all ok with

that?

Pushpraj (PM): Hello Vardaan, I have spoken to my team and they are more than

happy to answer your questions and help you to do your research for your

dissertation.

Me: Ok great, lets begin! First of all, how many projects are you guys dealing with on

a daily basis?

Karan: We usually have 4-5 projects that we work on a day but keeping in mind

some of them are updates to projects, which don’t require as much work as an on-

going project.

Me: Ok. How many of those project are online or require you all to perform your

work online?

Dev: All of the projects that we are handling are done online, as we are dealing with

clients from Africa and China.

Me: Wow! I’m guessing that keeps you guys busy.

Pushpraj (PM): Hahaha it’s just a part of the job, but yeah we like to be busy.

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Me: Onto my third question, how important is communication to you all in the

project that you all do? How would you rate it out of 10?

Priya: It’s obvious that its very important, probably the most important factor in the

success and failure of our projects. In terms of rating it out of 10, easily a 10 or even

an 11.

Me: That’s great. Which type of communication do you use the most? Is it electronic,

non-verbal or verbal?

Varun: To be fair it’s a bit of all but mostly electronic. The reason being is that, we

communicate with various clients and project members through Skype and its

verbally, however, we also send out emails and faxes, which can be classed as non-

verbal communication but that’s only done to either confirm something or send a

receipt.

Me: So I’m guessing its mainly electronic communication?

Pushpraj (PM): Yeah I would agree with that.

Me: In terms of project management, how do you manage the use communication

effectively? Is there any procedures or strategies that you use?

Tushar: We have procedure called “Receipt Back” which is basically a paper

confirming the objectives that have been discussed with project members in china

and Africa, to confirm that everyone knows that they know what they are doing.

Me: What does this “Receipt Back” contain?

Pushpraj (PM): Its basically a document confirming each objective for each project

member and it also transcribes the discussion that took place about the project and

this is done so if there is any issues in the project in the future it allows us as project

71


managers to see what had gone wrong and who hasn’t performed their task or was

anything not properly conveyed. This basically goes to the project directors as an

archive of project millstones. And just so you know that HR who monitors all

discussions and communication does this procedure.

Me: Sounds like a very effective procedure. My next question is “How much do you

all as a team communicate with one another and your clients in Africa and China?”

Varun: We communicate a lot but we communicate more with our selves as a team

more than we do with the clients abroad, only because we as a team must

understand what we are doing and work together to achieve our project goals.

Whereas the team aboard is only for us to communicate with once a objective is

completed or we need assistance in completing it.

Me: Ok. My next question to you all is “how much communication is needed to make

a project a success?

Karan: It usually depends on the size of the project, if it’s a large project then we

usually communicate a lot but in major meetings only but if it’s a minor project then

communication is kept at a low level but done constantly as the candidates are more

than experienced here to handle the minor project without major assistance.

Me: Ok. My final question to you is that, which type of communication is the most

important and influential to a project success? Electronic, verbal or face-to-face?

Pushpraj (PM): It has to be electronic, I mean they are all important in their own

rights but you just have to look at the benefits that come with electronic

communication such as low cost, effective and efficient work and the

competitiveness that you most importantly need. Especially us as the market leader

in software developing.

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Me: Well that’s great. All of this information will surely help me a lot. I would just

like to thank you all for your time and thank you all for sharing the information that

you did.

Team: Glad we could help Vardaan, hope you do well in your dissertation research.

Pushpraj (PM): I hope that helps you Vardaan and glad we could contribute, if you

need any other information, please feel free to contact me and I will try and get you

that information if its possible to. Thank you, and hopefully speak to soon. Good luck

with your research study.

Me: Thank you all.

End of interview (focus group).

Overview

Altogether, the interview conducted already had 8 key questions prepared for the

interviewees, however, there were more questions asked along the way of the

interview as they were related to the conversation that was happening in the

interview. The key questions prepared in advance are also on an appendix document

and the same questions were asked to “The Authentic Food Company” firm, whose

transcript will be on another document.

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Appendix 3 – The Authentic Food Company Interview (Transcript)

As a part of this research an interview was conducted with three different project

managers in three different departments. The interviews were conducted with

project managers from the IT department, manufacturing (operation) department

and the purchasing department. This particular organisation is based in Manchester

and Stockport and the reason behind picking this particular firm for my study was

because this organisation has major projects in China, Thailand and Iceland. The

company itself is a frozen foods company, they supply frozen foods to retail stores in

the UK, France and Germany, which in technically makes them suppliers. The

interviews were conducted separately with each project manager at separate times

due to their availability and as the author’s father is the development chef for this

firm, the author was able to gain permission to interview these project managers. As

the interviews are being done with qualified and experienced project managers, it

relates to the dissertation and to target the aims and objectives of the study, the

questions were designed in that manner.

Name of Project Managers:

PM – 1) Aaron Donnelly (IT Project Manager)

PM – 2) Paul Harnetly (Operations Project Manager)

PM – 3) Sean Floyd (Purchasing Project Manager)

The interviews were conducted in August and the permission was granted to

conduct these interviews in late July. The confirmation letter of conducting the

interviews has been attached onto the appendix of this dissertation as a piece of

evidence for the interviews. As mentioned earlier that the interviews were

conducted separately between the three project managers due to their availability

and also as it would be better for the thesis data analysis if the interview has been

done separately, rather than in a focus group manner as there are only three project

managers. The three project managers are all male and aged between 40-55.

Interview 1 - Aaron Donnelly (IT Project Manager)

74


Me: Hi there Aaron, my name is Vardaan Sharma and I am a student from

Manchester Metropolitan University and today I will be interviewing you about the

importance of communication in project management and its influence on project

management, as a part of my dissertation study. I hope you are ok with that?

Aaron: Hi there Vardaan, yeah of course I am ok with that. As long as some of the

information remains confidential and only in use for your study, we should be ok.

Me: Yeah of course, it will only be used for my dissertation study and for my tutors

to look at for any marking.

Aaron: That’s great. Lets get firing.

Me: Great. My first question is, how many project do you or are you dealing with on

a daily basis?

Aaron: With the company being a frozen food supplier, there aren’t that many

projects for the IT department. So on a daily basis I would say that I have to deal with

2 or maybe 3 projects.

Me: Ok. How many of those project are online or require you to perform your work

online?

Aaron: For me as the IT project manager all of them are online as I am dealing with

clients in France and Germany.

Me: How important is communication in the projects that you are working on? How

would you rate it out of 10?

75


Aaron: oh its very important and with it being an IT project, it’s the most important

factor for me and my team, as we have to make Skype calls, emails and phone calls.

So yeah I would rate it 10 out of 10.

Me: That kind of answers my next question a bit, which is that what type of

communication do you use in you projects? is it verbal, non-verbal or electronic?

Aaron: It’s completely electronic, but we do communicate with clients verbally

through Skype and if we have to meet clients then it’s the sales and marketing team

that does that for us.

Me: In terms of project management, how do manage communication effectively?

Do you use any procedures or have any strategies?

Aaron: We don’t have a strategy, more of a procedure. We basically report each and

every Skype meeting to our directors, so they know exactly what’s been discussed

and what the IT team is up to.

Me: Seems effective. Well How much communication is done with your clients in

comparison to your team?

Aaron: The IT department has only got 4 members of staff, so it’s really something

you would call a big team. So we don’t really communicate a lot within our selves

because we are all working together anyway. So most of the communication is done

with our clients in the UK, France and Germany. The client communication is

basically done on a daily basis to keep up our information with our clients and the

team is only communicated with when any part of a project needs teamwork or any

team member requires any assistance.

Me: Ok that’s great. My next question is how much communication is needed to

make a project a success?

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Aaron: Communication is done plenty but if the project is large or the client wants to

make a large investment, then I guess a lot of communication is required and if the

client doesn’t want to make a large investment or the project is not at a larger scale,

then communication isn’t the focus of attention as the project is finished before you

even know it and not much attention to detail is given.

Me: Well my final questions to you is which type of communication is the most


Aaron: its most certainly has to be electronic and also as your are asking an IT

project manager, it has to be electronic communication. It allows us to save cost, get

work done at a much more efficient rate and it keeps us competitive.

Me: Well that’s great. All of this information will surely be helpful to me. I would just

like to thank you for your time and thank you all for sharing the information that you

did. I really appreciate your time.

Aaron: Absolutely no worries Vardaan, I hope that this information will come of help

to you to achieve the grade you need in your study. I wish you all the best of luck for

your research. Thank you.

Interview 2 – Paul Harnetly (Operations Project Manager)

Me: Hi there Paul, my name is Vardaan Sharma and I am a student from Manchester

Metropolitan University and today I will be interviewing you about the importance of

communication in project management and its influence on project management, as

a part of my dissertation study. I hope you are ok with that?

Paul: Hello Vardaan, of course I am ok with this interview, if it helps you in achieving

your dissertation research then more than happy to do it. Just one thing before we

begin, I hope the information will be kept confidential and only for research

purpose?

77


Me: Yeah of course Paul, I already mentioned that to the commercial director before

he granted me the permission to interview.

Paul: Ok great. Lets begin.

Me: Great. My first question is, how many project do you or are you dealing with on

a daily basis?

Paul: With me being the operations project manager, I deal with plenty of projects.

To put it into perspective, I basically deal with most of the projects that are on going

in this company.

Me: Could you tell me in terms of numbers?

Paul: Hmm…. It varies from day to day but on an average, I would say I’m dealing

with or I’m in charge of over 6 projects, which brings our international clients into

this as well.

Me: Ok. How many of those project are online or require you to perform your work

online?

Paul: I would say most of them are online but I do deal with projects that require me

to travel up and down the country and meet clients. So most of them are online as

we have international clients and it saves costs, however, some UK clients we deal

with physically.

Me: How important is communication in the projects that you are working on? How

would you rate it out of 10?

Paul: Most definitely a 10 and that goes for all projects because there a lot of times

when even a small bit of miscommunication can lead to a catastrophic event in a

78


project, so its hugely important. Also as I am working on large-scale projects, it vital

that communication gets a lot of importance.

Me: Ah ok. My next question is that in terms of communication, which type do you

use the most? Is it verbal, non-verbal or electronic?

Paul: To be fair you will think I’m being too vague but I use all the communications

that you have just mentioned and this is only because as I mentioned earlier that

with me being an operation project manager, I’m dealing with major projects daily.

So require me to use all types of communication types really. I hope that answers

your question?

Me: Yeah that’s great Paul. It’s much more than I needed to be fair. Well my next

question is that in terms of project management, how do manage communication

effectively? Do you use any procedures or have any strategies?

Paul: No strategies, just a plain and simple procedure really, which is that all the

information discussed must be reported to the CEO and the project managers those

work under me, must report to me, which I basically transcribe onto a document and

keep for further records.

Me: Ok. Well, How much communication is done with your clients in comparison to

your team?

Paul: Both are done at an equal level, maybe I communicate much more with the

companies client abroad because they need a daily check up on what’s happening

and if the project is running smoothly.

Me: Ok. My next question is how much communication is needed to make a project

a success?

79


Paul: Well plenty is the word that your looking for and if you are talking specifically

about me, then a lot because like I’ve mentioned earlier in the interview that I’m

dealing with large-scale projects here and for them to be successful, communication

must be efficient and hundred per cent perfect.

Me: Ok. My final question to you all is which type of communication is the most


Paul: That’s the easiest question you have asked so far. Hahahha! It would most

certainly be electronic communication as it’s the most cost effective route for project

managers to work on projects, especially projects that are overseas.

Me: Well that’s great. All of this information will surely be of help to me. I would like

to thank you for your time and thank you all for sharing the information that you did.

I really appreciate you giving me your time.

Paul: Not a worry Vardaan, I hope the information I have provided you with is

helpful to you and helps you get a good grade.

Me: I hope so.

Paul: Hahaha! Anyway I wish you all the best in your research study. Thank you.

Interview 3 – Sean Floyd (Purchasing Project Manager)

Me: Hi there Sean, my name is Vardaan Sharma and I am a student from Manchester

Metropolitan University and today I will be interviewing you about the importance of

communication in project management and its influence on project management, as

a part of my dissertation study. I hope you are ok with that?

Sean: Hey Vardaan, firstly welcome to our company and yeah I’m more than happy

to answer your questions for your dissertation study. Although has the management

80


mentioned to you that this is to be kept confidential and for yours and university’s

use only?

Me: Yeah, I’m completely aware of that Sean and I have spoken to the management

about keeping this for university’s use and mine only.

Sean: Ok that great Vardaan.

Me: Should I begin?

Sean: Yeah of course, I feel like I’m in job interview Hahaha!

Me: Hahaha! I promise it won’t be as intense. Well anyway my first question is, how

many project do you or are you dealing with on a daily basis?

Sean: I deal with only a few, I’d say around 2 projects. Nothing more than that

because my job is to look after the purchasing of goods and then most of the work

gets past onto the operations manager.

Me: I see. So how many of those project are online or require you to perform your

work online?

Sean: Not many to be fair. As the purchasing project manager, I have to physically

look at the goods myself, which requires meeting clients and speaking face-to-face.

The only online projects we have are purchasing goods from abroad, for which we

would have a Skype meetings and send emails but even then we would be required

to go and make a visit.

Me: Quite a bit of mixture then really?

Sean: Yeah, I guess you could say that.

81


Me: Ok. How important is communication in the projects that you are working on?

How would you rate it out of 10?

Sean: it’s a huge aspect as we have to try and get the best raw materials from the

suppliers at the best rate, so I guess communicating is what we are or supposed to

be best at.

Me: So I’m guessing a 10?

Sean: Without a shadow of a doubt.

Me: You kind have already answered it but my next question is that in terms of

communication, which type do you use the most? Is it Face-to-Face, non-verbal or

electronic?

Sean: A bit of each, but you would expect that in the business world nowadays but

mainly its face-to-face as we are required to look at each and every raw material and

analyse it to make sure its good for use.

Me: Ok. My next question is that in terms of project management, how do manage

communication effectively? Do you use any procedures or have any strategies?

Sean: No strategies, possibly a procedure that we do have to transcribe a lot of the

purchases that we make and send them to the operating manager to have a look and

keep as record. This just allows us to know which supplier we use more than others.

Me: it pretty much seems to be a universal procedure in the company doesn’t it?

Because after speaking with the IT project manager and operations project manager,

they all sort of said the same?

82


Sean: Yeah I mean it just allows us to know as employees what procedure we need

to use to be at our most effective and it sort of keeps all of the employees on the

same working page.

Me: Ah I see. Well my next question is how much communication is done with your

clients in comparison to your team?

Sean: I have to mostly communicate with my clients, which are the company

suppliers. I mean the only real time I communicate with my team is when we have

decision-making to do, which is very vital.

Me: Ah I see and how much communication is needed to make a project a success?

Sean: Obviously a lot and especially for my team and me as we need to

communicate a lot to our clients in terms of suppliers.

Me: My final question to you is that, which type of communication is the most


Sean: I think you would have to say that its electronic communication because the

way that technology is evolving and its very cost effective for business transactions

and projects to through.

Me: Well that’s great. All of this information will surely be of a lot of help to me. I

would like to thank you for your time and thank you all for sharing the information

that you did. I really appreciate you giving me your time.

Sean: Glad I could help Vardaan, I hope you do well on your dissertation and wish

you all the best for it.

(End of interviews)

83


Overview

Altogether, the interview conducted already had 8 key questions prepared for the

interviewees, however, there were more questions asked along the way of the

interview as they were related to the conversation that was happening in the

interview. The key questions prepared in advance are also on an appendix document

and the same questions were asked to “Adobe” firm, whose transcript will be on

another document.

84


Appendix – 4) Permission letter from Adobe (India)

85


Appendix – 5) Permission letter from “The Authentic Food Company”

86


Appendix – 6) Permission letter 2 from “The Authentic Food Company”

87


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