Abstract
Diversity and cultural-based behaviors are known to have a major impact for projects to succeed. To learn more about challenges and success factors, a qualitative study using semistructured interviews inquired experts around the globe about their experiences in cross-cultural information and communication technology (ICT) teams. The study confirmed the importance and complexity of diversity aspects to international ICT projects from a practitioners’ perspective. In particular, the participating experts found social aspects such as communication, experience, trust, or involvement to have significant influence whether projects succeed or fail. Moreover, a high variety of different approaches and techniques used for managing diversity in practice were examined, and no standard method was identified. Hence, the study exposed a clear need for a comprehensive, yet flexible and adaptive framework for managing diversity in complex ICT environments.
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Acknowledgements
This work was inspired by research and experience within the project “iCom” (Constructive International Communication in the Context of ICT) and was supported by the European Union’s program “European Territorial Co-Operation Austria-Czech Republic 2007-2013” under the EFRE grant M00171.
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Böhm, C. (2016). Practical Insights on Managing Diversity in International ICT Projects. In: Sushil, ., Bhal, K., Singh, S. (eds) Managing Flexibility. Flexible Systems Management. Springer, New Delhi. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-2380-1_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-2380-1_7
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