Organizational Structures and Strategies Flashcards
Approaches to Staffing
- Ethnocentric approach
- Polycentric approach
- Geocentric approach
Ethnocentric approach
Monoculture, home country orientation
- Employees from home country
- Project management techniques of home country
- Usually: no consideration of foreign specifics
- Home country remains main market
Ethnocentric approach: Advantages
+ Dealing with familiar instruments
+ Uniform company policy
+ Easy communication between head office and foreign branches
+ International experience of parent company employees
Ethnocentric approach: Disadvantages
− Potential for conflict: culturally different views and attitudes
− Possible preferential treatment of employees from the parent company
− High costs due to posting
Polycentric approach
Multiculture, Host Country Orientation
- Host country: focus of corporate efforts
- Goal: highest possible integration into foreign market
- High autonomy of foreign organization
- If necessary, development of own host country image
Polycentric approach: Advantages
+ Low personnel costs
+ Language, market and cultural experience of employees
+ Easy communication between head office and foreign branches
+ International experience of parent company employees
Polycentric approach: Disadvantages
− Communication problems between foreign branch and head office
− Business conflicts of interest
− Often low know-how transfer
Geocentric approach
Mixed culture, world market orientation
- Goal: World market position
- Alignment of company’s activities with global market
- Globalized corporate decisions
Geocentric approach: Advantages
+ Utilization of a worldwide employee potential
+ high know-how transfer
Geocentric approach: Disadvantages
− High costs due to postings
− Mostly very complex communication structures
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
Engineering services
- Consulting and planning in developing, emerging and industrialized countries
- Services export
T+B*-foreign expansion
- At the corporate level
- Building in industrialized countries
- Own efficient construction industry
- Provision of services of all kinds by national subsidiaries and associated companies
- All kinds of projects
- Deployment of fewer executives
*Subsidiaries and associated companies
“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
Project participants
= Stakeholder
A person, group of people or organization
1. That is actively involved in the project/is influenced by the course or outcome of the project,
and
2. which, if applicable, can influence the course of the project or the project result
internal/external stakeholders
DIN 69901-5:2009
- Project stakeholders:
All project participants, stakeholders and interested parties whose
interests are directly or indirectly affected by course/outcome of project - Stakeholder analysis:
analysis of project stakeholders in terms of their influence on the project and their attitude (positive or negative) towards the project
PRINCE2 2009
Stakeholder:
Individuals, groups, or organizations that can influence, are influenced by, or feel influenced by an endeavor (program, project, activity, or risk)
