In the presented scenario, two interrelated challenges can be identified: how to achieve effectiveness and highperformance within a multicultural

team environment. Having worked for this company for 5 years, I assume that the Project Manager has enough experience to understand the dynamics of translating the characteristics of a high performance organization into a project team (University of Liverpool/Laureate Online Education, 2013). Moreover, his experience in working in different cultures and environments which represent a major complication, as noted by Meredith and Mantel (2007) should allow him to successfully drive this crossfunctional team throughout the project. As presented by Wong (2007), to run a successful team three elements are required: content (what), process (how) and behaviour (human interactions). Understanding that these factors are an interdependent system, hence team behaviour is influenced by content and its processes, it must be determined if team members are aligned with the content and processes that support the projects goals (University of Liverpool/Laureate Online Education, 2013, p.4). To this end, the Project Manager should ask three questions to understand the human factors involved in the new project: 1. Have you ever performed your activity on a similar project before? If so, how would you describe your experience was? 2. What are your personal goals for this project? 3. What are your expectations for this project? To prepare for a successful face-to-face meeting, and based on my professional experience managing multicultural teams in the Americas, the Project Manager should look forward to act as a facilitator, paying close attention to process and content issues that might arise. A key factor here is the nations culture: in the United States and several other Western industrialized nations, time is highly valued as a resource (Smith et al., 1993 cited in Meredith and Mantel, 2007, p.131), hence it is expected a distaste for delays and lateness on project meetings. What follows is a suggested checklist to prepare before the meeting:
Identify the hoped-for outcomes Determine who should facilitate specific topics Identify who should be there Determine the appropriate site, time, and setting Distribute the agenda Arrange for any necessary preparatory work, such as providing information on a problem to be solved (Halverson and Tirmizi, 2008, p.125)

It should be noted that in the United States, delegation is a preferred managerial style: workers report to supervisors who, in turn, report to middle and senior managers (Smith et al., 1993 cited in Meredith and Mantel, 2007, p.141). Therefore, only senior managers from the different areas of the project team (engineers, technics, and constructors) would be invited to the meeting. Finally, it is very important to differentiate the interests and goals of all of the stakeholders affected by the outcome of the project; hence, to effectively recognize stakeholder needs and establish strategies to influence these behaviors (University of Liverpool/Laureate Online Education, 2013), I would suggest to the Project Manager to meet not only with his project team, but also with all the other individuals and organisational units that would have overt or covert interests in the outcome of the project. Reference List Halverson, C. & Tirmizi, S. (2008) Effective Multicultural Teams: Theory and Practice. Springer [Online]. Available from: http://ezproxy.liv.ac.uk/login?url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6957-4 (Accessed: 6 April 2013). Meredith, J. R. & Mantel, S. J. Jr. (2009) Project Management: A Managerial Approach. 7 ed. Indianapolis: Wiley Publishing. University of Liverpool/Laureate Online Education (2013) Lecture Notes Week 1: People management for effective management of projects [Online]. Available from: University of Liverpool/Laureate Online Education VLE (Accessed: 6 April 2013).
th

Wong, Z. (2007) Human Factors in Project Management: Concepts, Tools, and Techniques for Inspiring Teamwork and Motivation. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.