Multicultural Project Planning - Post War Conditions In Iraq
The pre-war and post-war years in Iraq have been devastating to the residents as they were traumatized by the dictatorial rule of Saddam Hussein and the foreign military intervention that resulted in the country. Years after the war, the Iraqis were relieved of Saddam Hussein, but their living conditions continue to be harsher. This is typified with most people still lacking clean water for drinking, market places have been destroyed and looted while the transport system has been crippled with bridges and roads having been demolished. The power stations have been destroyed especially during the Gulf war as exemplified by the bombing of the Basra power station which has led to the cutting of power in many parts of the country. The Iraqi people continue to live with shattered dreams and hopes as they had believed that when the control of the State by Saddam ended it would bring better living conditions, opportunities and freedoms. Given the aftermath of the war, Iraq needs to be rebuilt in so that the country’s infrastructure and system may be restored. In view of this, the Humanitarian Organization will be taking part in the rebuilding process in Iraq. However, before the organization expands its efforts in Iraq, the first step in the project is to do a multicultural project planning. This will involve examining the different cultures of Iraqis including their beliefs, attitudes and values (Lott, 2010). The aim of this paper is to review topics that will help the organization gain a better understanding of Iraq before the project commences, ethnocentric challenges and then suggest research questions that the researchers should ask during the project.
Topics of interest
Multicultural Project planning can be referred as a planning procedure that considers the cultures of the people in which the project is to be undertaken. The project may take care of the variations in customs and conduct of the project followers. Multicultural projects have participants form the same country but they have different cultures, outlooks and conducts (Rothman, 2001). The cultural dissimilarities of the participants are what make project managers to identify the most appropriate plan for the project that will make the project to run successfully and smoothly. Globally, humanitarian organizations are formed with the motivation of helping people rebuild their lives and provide people assistance to people who are living in harsh conditions. Before humanitarian organizations lend their helping hand in restoring Iraq which has been torn by war, the following topics needs to be discussed.
The first topic to be discussed and understood is about the actual facts about the war in Iraq. These facts include specific ways in which the war affected the citizens of Iraq and who were the primary victims and casualties of the war. This understanding will help the organization to design the project program in such a way that it touches the heart of what it needs to do to assist Iraq State in its rebuilding efforts. To do this, the organization needs to learn the details of the war form the existing records and oral history which will include the causes of the war and the observable effects it had on the Iraq citizens. Knowing these details will aid the project manager to determine the existing structures in Iraq that needs to be changed so that no future war will ever occur. It will also help the project manager gain deep understanding of the extent of the actual damage that occurred during the war and the current living conditions of the Iraqis. This investigation should also include the demographic understanding of the groups of people who were affected by the war and how they were affected.
The second topic of investigation will be the behaviors and emotions of the Iraq people who were affected by the War in Iraq. This topic of investigation will include the psychological and social impact of the war on the citizens of Iraq. This will also be a look at how these people have adjusted to the post war trauma situations. This investigation will also go further at looking at the ethnic background of the people who were affected in by the war. The data to be collected during this investigation is the culture, religion and language of the people who were affected by the War in Iraq. This investigation is important to the organization in that such data will help it in designing programs that fit for cultural background, and emotions of the people. These projects will be centered at healing the trauma that they experienced during the war.
Finally, the last topic of interest is the examination of the necessary ways that the humanitarian organization should help in renovating the country. Before the project starts, the project manager needs to investigate the current welfare systems that are in existence in Iraq and how the organization can integrate itself in the program without duplicating efforts while responding to the necessities of the people. The primary objectives of the organization are to aid in renovating the country and improving the welfare of the nation. This will be fully realized when the project manager fully understands the kind of assistance that the Iraq people requires.
Ethnocentric issues
It is expected that one of the planning procedure for the project team is the understanding of the existing ethnocentric issues of the communities they will be working in. Ethnocentric refers to how people and their cultures are evaluated according to the standards that have been set by the culture. The ethnocentric issues that may arise when this multicultural project is being carried out have the potential to impact the outcome of the whole project. These issues include the possibility of biasness in viewing essential elements in the project while the project is being planned for given that persons with varied cultural backgrounds have their preferred language and priorities. This creates obstacles that make it difficult to fully comprehend how things are done and viewed in other cultures. The second ethnocentric issue that may grow up during the project planning is the social struggle that results when the project manager is trying to interrelate and learn information from other people (Jamieson, 2012). This may eventually lead to prejudiced views instead of focusing on the most important expectations of the project such as what the organization offers. In particular, the project manager may find it difficult to understand the food preferences of the project team members given their religious beliefs. The ethnocentric issues mainly arise due to language differences that make it hard to understand some phrases during communication. This could also be brought by the fact that people are normally adamant to share their experiences after the war has ended. This has the potential of causing conflicts in the project planning and definitely lead to negative outcome of the project planning process.
Research questions
It is imperative that the researchers in multicultural project planning team be fairly knowledgeable of the possible kinds of questions that they will use during the project. The project manager will be asking questions regarding the language and the culture of the Iraq communities hence they need to be aware of the Iraqis are able answer about their own organizations. Iraq has different languages that are used including Sumerian, Aramaic and Kurdish (Abdi et al, 2008). This may require translations in order to get information from the Iraqi People in an effort to help in rebuilding process. Therefore, translators during the research process should be a priority during the planning process so that the researcher can fully understand the necessities that concern the Iraqis. The primary areas of focus that the researcher should focus their efforts in finding answers include the conditions of the drinking water, sanitation, access to health care services, power and communication services. The areas of research should primarily focus on the basic needs of the people including security and safety (Barnett & Webber, 2003). They should also focus on the possible expenses that can be incurred during the provision of these services that will benefit the Iraqis in rebuilding their nation.
Conclusion
The multicultural project requires due diligence when they are being planned. This is because the elements that play a part in the whole success of the project are closely related to the dissimilar cultures of the participants of the project. The topics of concerned as discussed above points to the direction that the project will follow, while the ethnocentric issues have a potential to affect how the overall outcome of the project will be. Therefor project managers need to understand the underlying cultural differences and the key research questions and information to make multicultural projects smooth and successful.
References
Abdi, K., Mulderig, M., Rouhbakhshan, A. A., Ashirov, A., & Alexander, C. (2008).
Books. Anthropology Of The Middle East, 3(1), 105-114.
Barnett, J., Eggleston, B., & Webber, M. (2003). Peace and development in post-war iraq.
Middle East Policy, 10(3), 22-32. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/203661949?accountid=458
Jamieson, L. (2012). Intimacy as a concept: Explaining social change in the context of globalisation or another form of ethnocentricism?. The Clarion, 1(1).
Lott Jr, J. R. (2010). More guns, less crime. University of Chicago Press Economics Books.
Rothman, Johanna. (2001). Managing Multicultural Projects with Complementary Practices. Retrieved from http://www.jrothman.com/2001/04/managing-multicultural-projects-with-complementary-practices/
