Western Project Management in Chinese Enterprise Essay Example

The Western project management (PM) approach differs from the traditional vertical management method. For an organization to adopt this approach, it requires the use of PM techniques and tools as well as the development of shared cultural values among its members to support PM adoption (Kendra & Taplin, 2004). The study of culture can be done at the levels of artifacts, values/beliefs, and underlying assumptions.

In this study, the PM culture refers to the values and beliefs that encourage the use of the PM approach, while the Chinese culture refers to the traditional values and beliefs popular in China that heavily influence the culture of Chinese enterprises. The main cultural barriers hindering the adoption of the PM approach in Chinese enterprises can be summarized in the following four points:

• The Doctrine of the Mean that stresses to avoid con
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  flict by pushing disagreement under the surface, requires people to be less direct and less open, and encourages people to use compromising and smoothing strategies for dealing with conflict. * The strong hierarchy that requires large power distance between superior and subordinator.

• The family consciousness that stresses long-term relationships, singularity of group, the central role of jiaozhang, and guanxi-oriented evaluation of other people.
• The boss orientation that stresses to make the boss happy and evaluate people by their hierarchical position.

Empirical evidence exists regarding the cultural barriers in Chinese enterprises mentioned above.

• The DOM doesn’t constitute a major cultural barrier to the use of the PM approach. It is generally consistent with the PM’