Poor his first assignment in Thailand, Nils was assigned to a restoration project of the resort where had been ravaged by catastrophic tsunami. His time estimation for project accomplishment reported back to headquarter and soon turned out as an unachievable target when he found out that there is not enough resources to accomplish the project. The reason of this was not only because some migrant workers had fled away to not being deported, but also many This declined even his double wages Offer mainly due to some sort Of beliefs that the region and the sort are haunted by ghosts. ) What options are available to Nils? At this situation, some available options to Nils are suggested as below: Plan the project with a few resources available right now and report back to headquarter considering the facts and obstacles regarding to lack of resource availability. This will cause the project to take longer than what he assumed at the first point. * Ask from the headquarter construction firm to provide him a number of workers either from the main office or countries around to enable the project to be finished in predefined time frame.
However, administrative staff coordination may cause the project excessive cost, * In international projects accomplishment, culture plays a vital role which relates to shared values, beliefs and norms that bind people together. As in this case it can be perceived by the people stories, their deep-seated belief that the ghosts haunted the region. Considering being authorized by the headquarter, one option available to Nils is to try to change their deep-seated beliefs by setting up rescue campaign, for instance, and add more workers to his team. Using threat, tsunami, as an opportunity and change the project scope and deliverables. For instance, He can negotiate with the customer to refurbish some part of resort till the estimated time he reported and in this period try to convince more workers to work for him. Or even postpone the project to different time. It is remarkable that some Of these options can be applied simultaneously. 2) What would you do and Why? Any kind of international project has some sort of issues such as environmental factors affecting projects and challenges of working in foreign cultures.
Although Nils was experienced in construction projects in Australia and New Guiana, without considering environmental affecting factors, he rushed out in time estimation and evaluated the project as not complex as what he had thought of. Based on his surface and simplex assumption, he then reported back to headquarter that the project would be finished in couple of months. From my point view, more precise study on environment is required to accomplish an international project than a domestic one.
What a project manager need is a proper understanding tooth host country’s culture. It were Nils, first tot all would deal with the countries culture through their values and beliefs. This is very important for the project manager to obtain proper flexibility in order to handle the project. Nils didn’t show this tendency otherwise he would have been informed sooner regarding the This belief of the ghost. Then would apply other factors including economic, political, security, infrastructure, and geography of the host country, Thailand, on my estimation beforehand.
It is remarkable that the country had been ravaged by disastrous tsunami and the tuition was tough. From my point of view, depends on how large the project was the risk management could play an importance role. Therefore, since at least there were number of treatable people, I would organize a team, no matter how big it is, and Start to gather information to report back to headquarter containing different aspects of the project such as scope, time, cost resource and obstacles accompanied with it.
Since the project was required some sort of support, especially in case of workmen, after having enough investigation and submitting roper report, I would negotiate with main office and line manager for assigning some more resources to overcome the problem according to alternatives suggested before as: Plan the project with a few resources available right now * Ask from the headquarter construction firm to provide a number of workers either trot the main office or countries and areas around Try to change people deep-seated beliefs why setting up rescue campaign and trainings, tort instance. K using threat, tsunami, as an opportunity and change the project scope and deliverables. * Or even postpone the project to later appropriate time.