Unveiling the role of culture for effective Project Management

The ambitious aim of discovering how different cultures affect the management and behaviour of members of temporary organizations and how their culture can have an effect on project performance still represents an under-examined topic. For this reason, our research aimed at investigating whether culture influences the management of projects and which cultural profiles positively influence rigor in application of standardized project management methodology. We conducted an explorative research to investigate the role of culture on the rigor in the management of projects, involving 35 Italian and British key respondents with experience in managing intercultural projects. Our results contribute to project management discipline by suggesting how to create a project team considering different cultural profiles and, consequently, taking into account individual attitude in managing specific project management knowledge areas. Furthermore, we suggest effective best practices on how to reduce cultural complexity and use multicultural contexts for achieve better project performances.