Global Communication and Collaboration

Speed, social change, historical inheritance and cultural gaps are key factors which have significant impact on global collaboration and global sourcing. The author explains how working in virtual teams in a global, multicultural environment requires a significant amount of organizational and behavioral change of people and organizations. Understanding cultural differences in working styles is important for successful global project management. Major theories of international management, company internationalization, cultural dimensions and distances will be discussed to develop cross-cultural competencies and conflict management styles for international project managers. They will understand modern theories and methods of international management and will be able to apply these to practical project management problems. They understand the benefits and challenges of international cooperation and know how to identify modes of cooperation that are relevant to the needs of international teams.

Klaus-Dieter Gronwald is lecturer and author with teaching experiences in Enterprise Systems, Global Sourcing, Cross Cultural Competencies and Essentials of Business Management at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts Switzerland, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland and City University of Seattle. He was head of SAP´s global university liaison program and senior executive at two India based global service providers, responsible for their European Enterprise Application Services Division with ten years experience in the development of new global sourcing strategies and advanced shared services models for IT- and engineering services in virtual teams with the focus on cross-cultural understanding. He graduated from Leibniz University of Hannover Germany with a Masters and Ph.D. in Physics.