Is it all about culture? A study on frustration with respect to the work situation in dispersed, global IT projects at a merged, multinational company

This article reports on the difficulties, peculiar to dispersed global projects, which may be a source of frustration to project members. Our study was carried out within a multinational pharmaceutical company, which following a merger reorganized its IT organization into global organisation. Members of the Swedish part of its IT organization reported severe problems after the reorganization, and called for an investigation. The reported problems were global projects struggling with cultural differences and, as a consequence, overconsuming their allotted resources. However, previous research regarding merged organizations has found, that complaints about cultural differences might be a mask for other problems. Our findings do include cultural differences being an obstacle to project performance. However, we identified project complexity and geographical distance as two additional, important factors explaining frustration and low performance in the global, dispersed projects. Thus, our study supports the earlier theory that practitioners overload the concept cultural differences, ignoring that global projects typically involve more stakeholders, and that it is more challenging to create the trust among the dispersed team members necessary to create a high-performing team. Global projects can be expected to reach a climate of high-performing team later than a local project, leaving its members to performing less during a longer time. Consequently, and putting other advantages aside, if management fail to develop a successful global team strategy, such projects can be expected to be more costly to the company, and more frustrating to team members being used to quickly reaching a high-performing state. Such a strategy would need to include ways of motivating project members to actively build trustful relations

Cassia cinnamon does not change the insulin sensitivity or the liver enzymes in subjects with impaired glucose tolerance

BACKGROUND: Published studies have reported conflicting results regarding the effects of cinnamon on glucose, lipids and insulin. To gain further insight into the metabolic effects of Cinnamomum cassia we performed randomized, double-blinded placebo-controlled study using euglycaemic-hyperinsulinaemic clamp. METHODS: Twenty-one subjects with impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) were included in the study (10 or 11 subjects in each group). The study groups were matched for age, gender and body mass index (BMI). Waist-to-hip ratio, BMI, blood pressure, fasting blood glucose, insulin, triglycerides, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein, high-density lipoprotein , HbA1c, ASAT, ALAT, bilirubin, ALP, GT and PK were measured before and after the intake of capsules equivalent to 6 g cinnamon twice a day for 12 weeks. The changes in insulin resistance were measured by euglycaemic-hyperinsulinaemic clamp. The Wilcoxon signed rank sum test, the Mann-Whitney U test and Pearson’s chi-squared test were used to analyse the data. Values of p < 0.05 were considered to indicate statistically significant differences. RESULTS: At enrolment, the groups were similar in terms of age, gender and BMI. Of the 21 randomized patients with IGT, 17 completed the study (8 controls vs. 9 treated). The ingestion of 6 g cinnamon twice a day for 12 weeks had no significant effect on insulin sensitivity, HbA1c, fasting glucose or BMI. No significant changes were seen in lipids or liver enzymes. CONCLUSIONS: This study showed that ingestion of 6 g C. cassia twice a day for 12 weeks did not change the insulin sensitivity or liver enzymes in subjects with IGT

Ceylon cinnamon does not affect postprandial plasma glucose or insulin in subjects with impaired glucose tolerance.

Previous studies on healthy subjects have shown that the intake of 6 g Cinnamomum cassia reduces postprandial glucose and that the intake of 3 g C. cassia reduces insulin response, without affecting postprandial glucose concentrations. Coumarin, which may damage the liver, is present in C. cassia, but not in Cinnamomum zeylanicum. The aim of the present study was to study the effect of C. zeylanicum on postprandial concentrations of plasma glucose, insulin, glycaemic index (GI) and insulinaemic index (GII) in subjects with impaired glucose tolerance (IGT). A total of ten subjects with IGT were assessed in a crossover trial. A standard 75 g oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) was administered together with placebo or C. zeylanicum capsules. Finger-prick capillary blood samples were taken for glucose measurements and venous blood for insulin measurements, before and at 15, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, 150 and 180 min after the start of the OGTT. The ingestion of 6 g C. zeylanicum had no significant effect on glucose level, insulin response, GI or GII. Ingestion of C. zeylanicum does not affect postprandial plasma glucose or insulin levels in human subjects. The Federal Institute for Risk Assessment in Europe has suggested the replacement of C. cassia by C. zeylanicum or the use of aqueous extracts of C. cassia to lower coumarin exposure. However, the positive effects seen with C. cassia in subjects with poor glycaemic control would then be lost

Challenges for increasing component commonality in platforms

Abstract Many companies have adopted a platform strategy to handle the trade-off between variety and standardized components in their work of developing products. Previous research has shown that a platform strategy can achieve a lot of benefits, such as shortened development cycles, reduced needs for testing, and economy of scale in producing larger numbers of reduced sets of components. However, the literature is limited in describing challenges related to platform implementation. This paper reports on a study performed within a multinational firm in the automotive industry, which is pursuing a higher commonality among its platforms. Our findings include descriptions of eight challenges to an implementation of a platform strategy. One such challenge is that a high commonality does not only risk brand distortion when marketing the product; it may also cause brand distortion on the component level in after-sales. Another challenge is that for commonality, development does not always start from scratch; a project manager pursuing increased commonality might need to involve other projects, but the commonalization might affect components already in production and aftersales. Thus, there is need for methods to make cost-benefit analyses covering the life-cycle on the component level of the platforms in development, production, and after-sales

Working but Threatening? On the Trade-Off Between Efficiency and Legitimacy in the Design of Knowledge Transfer Methods in Project Management

This text reports on a knowledge-broker implementation in the R&D function of a large firm. Results show that the knowledge-broker method created and diffused knowledge and that project managers appreciated it. At the same time, line managers were not that appreciative, and the method was eventually abandoned.We discuss the difficulty for knowledge sharing methods to be both efficient and legitimate, meaning that some methods would be okay by management, but they would not be efficient. Others would work, but management would be uncomfortable sponsoring them. We discuss whether this is caused by a divide between line management and the project organization. Then, we discuss how a different leadership style would influence the sharing of knowledge

Making the Non-discussable Discussable

The school of project management has produced many aids that support the implementation phase of projects, but support for the design phase is still lacking. This article is an exploratory study of an application of a new method of supporting projects during the indistinct design phase. The method assumes that a ‘can-do’ attitude of project managers make them tend to manipulate any formal review system during times of great uncertainty, and deals with this through deploying confidential reviews aiming at a model of reasoning proposed by Argyris and Sch\uf6n (1978). Findings of this study confirms that project managers are aware of the power system in which their projects operate and that they are unwilling to share important but embarrassing information, such as their own lack of knowledge, to control systems and power holders. The implications of this management of impressions for knowledge sharing are discussed

Trade-offs between efficiency and legitimacy when implementing a large change program at the middle management level

In his Harvard Business Review article of 1972, Hugo Uyterhoeven discussed an important difference between top managers and middle managers. While both categories needs to make sure that directives of change are implemented, middle managers have a two-fold task, as they also need to figure out how to actually implement the change. HBR has reprinted Uyterhoeven’s article twice as an ’HBR classic’. Our study aims to investigate Uyterhoeven’s claim of a difference in logic between top and middle management when implementing change. We would expect such a difference to more likely occur when performing change that would be difficult to implement and that would exhaust top managements ability to control the details. Therefore, we have investigated a case of change encompassing a multinational company and that would require organizational learning about its own processes.Our findings show that while differences of logic occurred between top and middle management, differences of logic also occurred at the middle management level between different parts of the organization. These differences were analysed according to the dimensions of organizational legitimacy and organizational efficiency. We discuss the trade-off between the efficiency of an organizational change, and its legitimacy. We argue that an analysis of this trade-off should be included in the stakeholder analysis made by the change agents

Trade-offs between efficiency and legitimacy when implementing a large change program at the middle management level

In his Harvard Business Review article of 1972, Hugo Uyterhoeven discussed an important difference between top managers and middle managers. While both categories needs to make sure that directives of change are implemented, middle managers have a two-fold task, as they also need to figure out how to actually implement the change. HBR has reprinted Uyterhoeven’s article twice as an ’HBR classic’. Our study aims to investigate Uyterhoeven’s claim of a difference in logic between top and middle management when implementing change. We would expect such a difference to more likely occur when performing change that would be difficult to implement and that would exhaust top managements ability to control the details. Therefore, we have investigated a case of change encompassing a multinational company and that would require organizational learning about its own processes.Our findings show that while differences of logic occurred between top and middle management, differences of logic also occurred at the middle management level between different parts of the organization. These differences were analysed according to the dimensions of organizational legitimacy and organizational efficiency. We discuss the trade-off between the efficiency of an organizational change, and its legitimacy. We argue that an analysis of this trade-off should be included in the stakeholder analysis made by the change agents

Working but Threatening? On the Trade-Off Between Efficiency and Legitimacy in the Design of Knowledge Transfer Methods in Project Management

This text reports on a knowledge-broker implementation in the R&D function of a large firm. Results show that the knowledge-broker method created and diffused knowledge and that project managers appreciated it. At the same time, line managers were not that appreciative, and the method was eventually abandoned.We discuss the difficulty for knowledge sharing methods to be both efficient and legitimate, meaning that some methods would be okay by management, but they would not be efficient. Others would work, but management would be uncomfortable sponsoring them. We discuss whether this is caused by a divide between line management and the project organization. Then, we discuss how a different leadership style would influence the sharing of knowledge

Exploring the Shadows of Project Management

The project has become a preferred way of organizing work. Two major reasons for this trend are demands for increased market responsiveness and the empowering of workgroups in order to improve employee commitment. The implementation of project work has greatly been influenced by the project management school, with its roots in military-industrial projects during the Cold War period and the construction industry. The project management school focuses on single projects and puts an emphasis on the planning and execution of a systemic breakdown of the project task. The mechanistic single-project focus of the project management school is complemented by the increased standardization of the multi-project environment. Acknowledging that both rationalistic planning methods and standards are important tools for making a project-based organization efficient, this thesis recognizes that the project is also an ad-hoc organizational form, suited to dealing with uncertain tasks, while the bureaucracy is the organizational form best suited to repetitive tasks. A number of mainly Scandinavian researchers criticize the project management school for overemphasizing the technological characteristics while neglecting the informal characteristics of projects. This thesis aims to revisit the informal perspective of projects in order to improve management in multi-project environments. Findings drawn from data collected at Swedish organizations indicate that the covertly informal behaviour of project managers makes instrumental contributions to project success. This covert behaviour within the shadow system is an important mechanism for dealing with shortcomings in the formal system of the organizations. These findings served as a basis for two different interventions at a Swedish pharmaceutical company which aimed to set up formally legitimized arenas for creating learning within the shadow system. The results show that shadow systems, contradictory to earlier theory, can be subjected to influences in ways which strengthen their constructive qualities. Such influences presuppose that the formal system of the organizations refrains from attempts to regulate and control by making the informal legitimate. Informal management tools can be used to improve project results as well as provide management with general feedback on the actual operations of the projects and on the formal system of the organization