International differences in project planning and organizational project planning support in Sweden, Japan, Israel, and Malaysia

• Main Authors: Amy, Chin Mei Yen, Pulatov, Bakhtier
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Umeå universitet, Handelshögskolan vid Umeå universitet 2008
• Subjects: National culture; project management; project planning; organizational project support
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-1498

The study of the cultures has been a primary focus of sociology, psychology and anthropology since their inception. Increasing globalization has brought the attention of academics and practitioners to the study of national cultures and their differences into the management area. Likewise, the parallel trend towards running some business through projects has brought broader perspectives such as national cultures into the project management field. Recent academic literature demonstrated that national culture has a major impact on management practices. However, the element of national culture is elusively described in the project management field. No extensive tests were found on the comparison of the project planning among countries, which could help to establish relationship between national cultures and project planning capabilities. Using GLOBE study to capture national cultures and Project Management Planning Quality (PMPQ) model to capture project planning approach and organizational planning support, this paper addresses this gap by comparing national culture, project planning and organizational project planning support across four different countries: Malaysia, Japan, Sweden and Israel. The findings of this thesis are that there are both similarities and differences in project planning between different countries. In organizational project planning support practices, two clusters were identified. It attempts to answer questions about the relevance of culture to project planning and concludes with implications to project managers.