Critical Success Factors for Managing Technology-Intensive Teams in the Global Enterprise

Abstract

:The challenges of managing culturally diverse and globally dispersed project teams are examined in a field study of technology-intensive product developments. The article aims to improve the understanding of team performance in multinational project environments with implications for leadership assessment and organizational development. The results suggest that multinational team performance involves a complex set of variables related to the organizational ambience, business process, managerial tools, and most importantly, to the people in the organization. Team leaders must effectively manage relations across the entire work process, including support functions, suppliers, sponsors, and partners. Emphasis on common values and goals helps in bridging cultural and organizational differences, and in unifying the multinational team. Personal interest, pride and satisfaction with the work, professional work challenge, accomplishments, recognition, and the skill sets of the team members were identified as the strongest drivers toward unifying culturally diverse project teams and their work processes, and building a true partnership among all the contributing organizations.