International Project Management Ellen moore living and working in korea

Ellen Moore: Living and Working in KoreaAdvanced Project ManagementYasser Roberto Qarashia Castillo

Presentation Outline

Korean Business Culture

Firm’s goals

Central Issue

Constraints to the problem

Available alternatives

Implementation plan

Welcome to Korea

Capital Seoul Largest city Seoul Official languagesKorean President Lee Myung-

bak Prime Minister Kim Hwang-

sik Area Total 38,691 sq mi

(109th country in size)

2012 population est. 50,004,441 (25th largest country)

GDP (2012 est.) $1.622 trillion (12th highest)

Per capita income$32,431 (25th highest)

Source: CIA World Factbook, 2012

Korean Business Culture Korean business managers value questioning and deep

interest in their business by their service provider.

Strict organizational hierarchy is followed.

Strict supervisor-subordinate relationship.

Valid and invalid client requests are accepted without

negotiating with the client.

High loyalty to work.

Precise business rituals such as exchange of business cards,

or calling the other person by complete name and title.

Korean Business Culture Strong hierarchy prevents direct and frequent client-service

provider interaction.

Clients are considered to have higher rank in society than service provider. This results in unnecessary interference from clients.

Korean service providers don’t like to disturb their clients by asking business related issues. This can result in wrong implementation of solution.

Koreans don’t know how to say NO to clients.

Coaching Korean professionals is difficult as they would always answer in affirmative if they are asked whether they understand the matter or not.

Work Teams in Korea Team based organizational culture.

High emphasis on team building.

Team bonding both inside (e.g. lunch) and outside work environment (e.g. dining out).

Sharing drinks is a team forming activity (Bruce 385).

Challenges colleagues is a common norm in social activities and meetings.

Group Norms Face saving is given priority.

Face saving doesn’t mean avoiding negative feedback.

Demonstrating leadership by manager is important.

Leadership is demonstrated by the display of disappointment

in front of all team members, in case of below standard work.

Leadership is also demonstrated by not complementing the

team member for satisfactory work.

Frequent complements are signs of a weak leader.

Women in Korea Delineation between the roles of males and females. Males

are supposed to cater the public sphere and women are restricted to private life of home.

Social status and work equality for Korean women is improving. Means more professional women.

Women are generally paid lower than men for the same job and are given menial positions.

So, Women are not very common in Korean business community, especially in a position of power.

Women are accepted in business culture if they are qualified and have required skills to complete the designated work.

Women usually not invited to social dinners.

WSI in Korea

Western System Inc. (WSI) is a North American company that

entered in a joint venture with Koran Conglomerate Inc. (KCI) to

form Joint Venture Inc. (JVI) in Korea.

WSI is an IT company and Senior Consulting Group (SCG) is part

of WSI.

WSI has won the largest consulting project in Korea and this

project will be implemented within 7-10 years.

WSI unexpectedly got the project as the existing government

contractor has been working with government for a long time.

Central Issue Central Issue is a combination of two factors.

1. Organizational hierarchy of the project has two leaders, which can lead to miscommunication, thus contradiction in their decisions.

2. Lack of experience of the Korean assigned consultant and his team (background, or knowledge).

Other factors to consider

This tussle is resulting in delays with

deliverables of SI, which is hindering the progress of the entire project and they are lagging behind the

project deadlines by 1 month.

Ellen Moore is of the opinion that Korean consultants, such

as Jack Kim, lack the experience and knowledge to complete the assigned project

in time.

Korean consultants think that the American consultant, Ellen, is not

qualified. Also, she had no previous experience of handling

Government Agency and is unaware of Korean Culture.

Firm’s Goals

SCG consultants will assist the Korean consultants from JVI for 7 months for successful System Design and Implementation to fulfill their contract with Korean Government.

SCG also wants to educate the Korean consultants about System Implementation (SI) in order to effectively carry out the government project for JVI.

Constraints to the Problem

Lack of direct communication between American and Korean consultants due to language barrier.

Korean culture is conservative towards women in position, it is male-oriented society.

Differences between the culture and management

styles of Korean and American consultants.

Interference from client and the acceptance of out of scope work by Korean

consultants.

Tug of War between Ellen and Kim

Ellen’s issues Kim control the SI Team all the time and ignores Ellen’s

instructions.

In Kim’s presence, Ellen can’t properly coach the SI team.

Kim’s standalone decision for marketing research project.

During the dinner Kim spoken with other colleagues in Korean and tried to exclude Ellen from discussion, as usual.

Tug of War between Ellen and Kim

Kim’s issues Sharing hierarchy with Ellen is confusing.

Ellen wants to take control of his team.

He is closer to Korean consultants and has long term interest in working with them, so, they should not follow Ellen who is in Korea only for 7 months.

Available Alternatives

Take Ellen Moore out of the project.

Take Jack Kim out of the project.

Interest-based conflict resolution between

Ellen and Jack

Alternative 1: Take Ellen Moore out of the project

Pros Conflict will be resolved

Cons No experienced SI consultant will be left on the team

Jack will accept out of scope work, further delaying the project deliverables and JVI might end up losing the new and strategic client

No transfer of knowledge to Korean consultants

Alternative 2: Take Jack Kim out of the project

Pros Conflict will be resolved

Project will not accept out of scope work

Project deadlines will be followed without interruption resulting in delivery of agreed work

Cons No face-saving for Jack

Ellen doesn’t have experience in dealing with Korean clients and team members

No knowledgeable and experienced person will be left on SI team after ending of SCG contract in 7 months. May lead to project failure at later stages

Alternative 3: Interest-based Conflict Resolution between Ellen and Jack

ProsConflict will be resolved

Expertise of both Ellen and Kim will be retained

Project delivery on time

Adequate transfer of SI knowledge to Korean consultants

Cons Conflict may arise again in future

Best Alte

rnativ

e

Implementation Plan

Elle and Jack should make project decisions in conjunction.

Only one person should be acting as senior consultant.

It is recommended to make Jack Kim an assistant to Ellen for 7 months.

After the completion of SCG contract, Jack can be promoted in place of Ellen.

Project Hierarchy

Adrew Kilpatrick Principal

System Consulting Group (SCG)

Korean Consultants

Joint Venture Inc.(JVI)

Scott Adams

Senior Consultant

Systems Consulting Group

Ellen Moore

Senior Consultant

System Consulting Group (SCG)

Jack Kim

Consultant

Joint Venture Inc.(JIV)

Project Hierarchy

Adrew Kilpatrick Principal

System Consulting Group (SCG)

Korean Consultants

Joint Venture Inc.(JVI)

Scott Adams

Senior Consultant

Systems Consulting Group

Jack Kim

Consultant

Joint Venture Inc.(JIV)

Implementation Plan

Interest-Based Relational Approach recommends (Lewicki et

al. 235):

Good relationships should be made the first priority and this is

inline with Korean Culture and will help Ellen and Andrew to be

courteous and professional to their Korean counterparts.

People and problems should be treated separately. Project related

problems e.g. project scope should be identified separately than

interpersonal issues e.g. personality conflicts.

Efforts and interests should be focused on firm’s goals.

Facts should be set-out (e.g. project deadlines) in order to attain

measurable and objective approach towards decision making.

What questions do you have?

Thank You

References Bruce Tuckman. "Developmental sequence in small groups".

Psychological Bulletin 63. 6 (1965): 384–399.

CIA, 2012. CIA - The World Factbook. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ks.html. [Accessed 25 December 2012].

Lewicki, R.J., Weiss, S.E., & Lewin, D. “Models of conflict, negotiation, and third party intervention: A review and synthesis.” Journal of Organizational Behavior 13.2 (1992): 209-252.