2 - Organizational Structures and Strategies Flashcards
Definition Expatriated
Employees from Germany or ther industrialized countries
Characteristics of Expatriates
- Above-average experience
- High qualified professionally
- Ready to adapt
- Adaptable
- Reliable
- Foreign language skills
- Resilient and healthy
- Strengthened character
Application process and selection of suitable locals
- Employment contract and other formalities
- Training on site of necessary
Third country nationals selection
- Planning of departure and formalities (visa etc.)
- On-site training if necessary
Approaches of staffing
- Ethnocentric approach
- Polycentric approach
- Geocentric approach
Ethnocentric approach
Monoculture, home country orientation
- Employees from the home country
- Project management techniqes of the home country
- Usually no consideration of foreign specifics
- Home country remains main market
Advantages / Disadvantages ethnocentric approach
Pro:
- familiar instruments
- uniform company policy
- easy communication head office - foreign branches
- International experience employees
Contra:
- cultural conflicts
- preferential treatment of employees from parent company
- High costs
Polycentric approach
Multiculture, Host country orientation
- Host country as focus of corporate efforts
- Goal: Integration in foreign market
- High autonomy foreign organization
- Development of own host country image
Advantages / Disadvantages polycentric approach
Pro:
- Low personnel costs
- Language, market, cultural experience employees
Contra:
- Communication problems head office - foreign branches
- business conflicts of interest
- Low know-how transfer
Geocentric approach
Mixed culture, world market orientation
- Goal: world market position
- Alignment of companies activities with global market
- Globalized corporate decisions
Advantages / Disadvantages geocentric approach
Pro:
- Utilization of worldwide employee potential
- High know-how-transfer
Contra:
- High costs due to postings
- Complex communication structures
Forms of organizations in international projects
- Influence organization
- Matrix organization
- Autonomous organization
Influence organization
- Project manager as mediator between specialist departments
- Project manager has no direct authority to issue directives/decisions
- Close cooperation with management
- Rather in small projects
Matrix organization
- Superimposition of two equivalent lines of instruction
- Each employee reports to the department head and project manager
- Frequently, when all organizational areas of the company are affected
Autonomous organization
- Exclusive responsibility of the pm
- All authority to issue directives and make decisions lies with the pm
- Employees outsourced from various business units
- High flexibility of the pm
- Very widespread in the international project business
Fields of activity of the german foreign construction
- “Traditional / Direct” Foreign construction
- T+B-foreign expansion
- Engineering services
“Traditional / Direct” Foreign construction
- At project level
- Construction in developing and emerging countries with no efficient construction industry of their own
- Export of construction and design services
- Infrastructure projects
- Financed by international aid
- Posting of many employees
T+B-foreign expansion
- At the corporate level
- Building in industrialized countries
- Own efficient construction industry
- Provision of services of all kinds by national subsidaries and associated companies
- All kinds of projects
- Deployment of fewer executives
Engineering services
- Consulting and planning in developing, emerging and industrialized countries
- Services export
Project participants (Stakeholder)
A person, group of people or organization
- that is actively involved in the project or is influenced by the course or outcome of the project, and
- which, i.a., can influence the course of the project or project result
Differentiations of stakeholder
- Internal stakeholder
- External stakeholder
Stakeholder analysis
Analysis of the project stakeholders in terms of their influence on the project and their attitude (positive or negative) towards the project
Examples for stakeholder in construction
- Client
- Architect / Consulting engineer
- Building contractor
- Public authorities
