4.2.3 Cultural Differences in Systems Engineering: What They Are, What They Aren't, and How to Measure Them

Abstract

AbstractDespite frequent use of the term culture in contemporary engineering practice, there is currently no reliable way of understanding what constitutes true shared beliefs and meanings that impact how groups of Systems Engineers spread across multiple departments and countries work together. This paper develops a framework to address that gap and measure cultural variation in Systems Engineering contexts. Drawing from the field of cultural anthropology, we demonstrate methods to empirically measure cultural consensus and divergence related to fostering collaboration, understanding business success or failure, and identifying characteristics of effective cross‐functional teams. The discussion identifies substantive content of what real organizational cultures are, where they are different, and where they overlap. That quantified content feeds culture as a rigorous element of organizational strategy into global alignment and process excellence or six sigma initiatives targeted at changing team behavior. The result is a framework for conducting rigorous, empirical investigations to truly understand the human dimensions that are critical to effective Systems Engineering practice. We discuss areas this approach applies to global process alignment and team effectiveness.