A theoretical overview on challenges and solutions for global project management

Abstract

Globally competing companies must see the project management as a sustainable competitive advantage and a tool for strategic competence in order to be successful, and all aspects of the project management must be designed accordingly. While carrying main characteristics of the local projects, unlike the classic project management, project managers that work with global teams are faced with more diverse and complex challenges: The cultural diversity of the project team, project stakeholders who live in different time zones, unclear requirements caused by different native languages, and host country-specific political, economic and legal environment, etc. In this study, by conducting an extensive literature review, the environmental factors in the global projects and the impact of organizational structure on the success of the project is synthesized, the controversial and lacking parts in the literature are indicated. On this basis, the global project management methodologies in academic literature that are developed to be compatible with the dynamics of the global projects are examined; the weak and strong aspects are emphasized and based on this a model is developed. With this study it is aimed to introduce a broad theoretical framework for the new academic researches and applications in the field of global project management.