Chapter 5: Findings and Discussion
In all types of organizations, including cross culture project team in all organizations, the concepts of job motivation is crucial since it plays significant roles in impacting the productivity of organization within which they operate. This study was aimed at finding factors that influence project team members motivation and how this affects the project performance within the finance industry in a multinational and multicultural setting. It was also to address factors that motivate project team members at the commencement of projects thus exploring how project managers alter them to influence the team member needs and priorities. It is the duty of project managers in cross culture project team to improve the productivity of their teams to high levels that are attainable through employee motivation. Thus, the concept of motivation needs to be accorded considerable attention. The responsibility of project managers in the financial industry based organizations is to ensure that project team employees are capable of performing their duties to the expectations of the group (Dwivedula and Christophe 160). This implies that the employees must be motivated to perform beyond the expectation of project managers. Despite that, several theories have been developed to explain job motivations are still to be concluded upon on their effectiveness in cross-cultural project teams environment in the financial industry in China and Hong Kong. The concepts are still complicated and hard to understand or apply in real business organizations since it has been noted that employees especially those in cross culture project teams in the finance industry are never motivated to the same level. This is due to several factors that come to play such as language differences, culture, values systems and social factors all of which affect how project team members perform in their organizations.
Employee satisfaction and performance are functions of both employee ability and motivation. Therefore, employee motivation and product is the determinant of the levels of and motivation that extrapolates to organizational productivity. The aim of this study was to conduct a valid survey that is qualitative in nature through surveys to determine the factors that influence satisfaction of project team members in cross culture project teams and especially in the financial sector so as to come up with conclusions and recommendations that can be applied by all organizations in the financial industry to improve performance of cross culture project teams in China and Hong Kong. The study also utilized observational methods when conducting the field research. Also, the study employed secondary materials when making conclusions and references about an observed phenomenon during the study.
This chapter has an objective of presenting the findings from the survey carried out by the researcher on factors that influence motivation among employees in cross culture project teams. From the study, it became apparent that project team workers perception of job satisfaction and motivation is multi-dimensional. This because it was found out that most several factors interact to cause project team members motivation of de-motivation in cross-cultural project teams such as training, cultural background of the team members, prevailing culture in financial industry firms and job features. This can be studied from the perspective of the Human resource personnel project managers and industry expert. The managers interviewed in the financial sector during this study indicated that several factors such as; the extent of informal and formal communication, stimulating work environment, job security and challenging work environment are essential characteristics of work environments in cross culture project teams that play a significant role in influencing the satisfaction of project team members (Yee Andy CL Yeung and TC Edwin 110). These characteristics and their implications are further examined in detail from sections below. Other factors that were identified as determinants of levels of job satisfaction and thus employee productivity include recognition and appreciation of project team members, rewarding employees, the assistance of employees with their personal needs and offering project team members with proper remuneration. When these factors of communication, work environment, job features and security and work environment are handled well by project managers, who work in cross culture project teams in the financial industry, they have a potential to motivate employees. This eventually leads to a highly satisfied and performing workforce who complete projects within budget limits, timelines and achieve the required quality standard levels. The satisfaction will be reflected in the performance of the team. From the survey, this section will discuss these factors in the light of the reviewed literature.
Employee empowerment
In project management, employee empowerment management are described as both the formal and informal procedures aimed at encouraging project team members to be diligent in taking more responsibilities. This concept mainly arises from the substantive issues that include intrinsic motivation, participative decision-making, job design, social learning and self-management. Employee empowerment is used to support the loading of the variables related to job design enrichment. These variables include high levels of knowledge, experience variety, and career advancement. Social learning factor describes an opportunity provided for an employee to learn while they are on the job. Intrinsic opportunity is the sense of employees feeling capable of succeeding. These factors according to Spreitzer suggest that employees feel satisfied when they are empowered through meaningful job opportunities that relate to their skills and have the freedom they require in carrying out their jobs (Spreitzer 490). It is justified by the fact that when the surveyed firms where project managers were noted to be concerned with the abilities of their project team members through training, offering free holidays and material goods there was less voluntary turnover and the project team members were willing to help the organization progress thus performing well.
Projects require their job scenario requires innovation, flexibility, creativity and intellectual analysis if they are to be completed efficiently with the project environment requiring strategies to navigate the uncertainties regarding project deliverables and project quality. This is also enhanced by the fact that project teams often operate in ambiguous standards and uncertain outcomes that they must cope up with. Project teams use methods in conducting their jobs that are highly dependent on the professional's style choice, and thus control of the project direction is mainly restricted to the operational level of the project. This, according to the surveys, can negatively affect the job satisfaction of project teams that are operating in organizations in the financial industry. As a senior project manager working with FG Company in China that has the mandate of providing investment advisory services to clients who lack investment experience, he noted that every employee wants to feel recognized for their contribution to the company performance. This created the need to be given credit where its due to them instead of always focusing on showing the project manager all praise even when they have not done it all by themselves but through the assistance of the project team members. Other managers alluded that establishing high expectations from the team members in a commercial project must be accompanied by coaching and training of the project team members so as to encourage skills development and so that they understand their roles and responsibilities in the team. Multicultural financial firms are particularly interesting to deal with deal with due to technology gaps resulting from the regions in Hong Kong or China that employees originate from which have not developed evenly. Hong Kong is well advanced in technology while some regions in mainland China still lag relatively behind in the use of technology in the financial industry. By empowering the project team members, they will have a personal relation with the project and thus they will be motivated to carry on the project to the end. This has the implication that the Project Manager in conjunction with the HR department must be involved in the recruitment so that they can identify specific skills that they require to complete a project and if these skills are lacking, find ways to impact them on project team members by providing training. Project managers are better placed in training the project team members since they understand the subject area well, can incorporate innovative ideas in the training specific to the areas they are training their members and have the technical set skills needed to be passed to new employees.
Organizational climate
Organizational climate is defined as the set of shared attitudes and perceptions by employees regarding practices, policies, and procedures of what an organization expects supports and rewards. It reflects a large extent the descriptive beliefs individuals hold concerning the characteristics of their project teams which are subjective in nature. Organizational climate from the survey was recognized as an important factor that shapes the behaviors and the attitude of the employees in cross culture project teams in the finance industry (Turkyilmaz et al. 680). Of importance to note is that the perceptions and attitudes primarily germinate from individuals, but they soon turn to become shared opinions since project team members working on the same project are bound by similar technology, goals, strategies and other influences. The individual beliefs are shaped by the cultural setting that the project team has been nurtured in. This, however, was found to be persistent until some form of incentive was offered to project team so as to change their negative attitudes, language, and values that they hold and plays an important role in hindering their effectiveness in integrating and working with other project team members. These incentives would include frequent training on various aspects of an organization such as codes of conduct in customer service, time management, and employee relationships code that are influenced by the cultural background of the project team members but which may be in conflict with project team code of conduct at work.
As an important factor, organizational climate from the survey was found to be heavily reliant on the information that employees obtain on their performance when they are on the job. Project team members have been established as having a high value and sense of responsibility but their expectations are hinged on their proclivity for work environments that are autonomic and where they obtain frequent feedback based on their performance. Feedback information from performance perceptions is a symbol of recognition taken as a non-financial reward by the project managers. In a project environment where employees have the autonomy to air out their grievances and get feed based on their performance lead to employee satisfaction with their pay and reward system. Thus project team goals, objectives, group culture, and strategies were identified as adding credence to employee's work via feedback from the job performance as well as fostering positive equity performance in pay and recognition. When the cross-cultural project team internal working climate such as its goals and objectives being in harmony with the cultures of the project team members it was found out that employee turnover was greatly reduced indicating employees were motivated to stay and work for their organizations in the financial sector. This was positively identified by the Glory Sky Group Ltd (GS) Head of Business Planning and First Asia Merchants Bullion.
Communication
In cross-cultural project teams, communication was found to a significant factor whose influence was underscored from the works of Druker who stated that the effectiveness of employees depends on to a large extent on the ability of project team members to reach project managers and other team members through written and spoken word when they are working on a project (Drunker 35). The necessity to communicate when performing a project stems from two primary reasons namely; project teams and their managers must continually interact with project stakeholders and clients so as to understand the requirements of the project. There is also a demonstrated need to keep project stakeholders appraised on the performance of the project during its lifecycle. Even at the end of the project, communication facilitates the transfer of deliverables to clients so as to release project resources. Also, communication in the financial industry was also needed for social contact, emotional support and companionship so as to facilitate leveraging of the cognitive abilities that lie within the project team. The surveyed organizations identified that they suffered from language barriers and difference from project members who were from different parts of Main Land China and Hong Kong where the Nationals use two different languages in communication. It was found out that this greatly hindered the progress of the progress projects due to communication breakdowns as projects progressed. When project team members were trained on a common language to use during project life cycle, general motivation and efficiency were realized with the financial performance of the company under survey found to be slightly higher. Regular face to face meetings mixed with emails and phone calls were in fact found to be more effective in leading to better communications within multi-cultural project team members with Chinese communication style most effective since its easier and is less detailed but filled with trust. Companies that adopted this style were more effective.
Job security
This also emerged as an important factor that influences job satisfaction and motivation on project team members. Job security is often described as the perceived permanence of the project teams when working in an organization. Today, organizations are undergoing major changes that include reducing their headcount and thus employees must feel that their value in the organization is still needed and is appreciated despite the economic changes that demonstrate the need to lay off some employees (Chen 275). When project managers convince project team members that they will be unaffected from the ongoing restructuring and lowered company performance arising from weakened global economic slowdown, they then redouble their efforts hoping that they have an individual immunity from the effects.
When all these factors are taken within the context of a project team in the financial industry, it reflects the nature of project management and projects that are complex. Projects are initiated and deployed so as to provide specialized solutions to clients using a variety of resources that are limited and which must be utilized despite their scarcity to improve meet the needs of the client on time, within budget and still achieve quality standards. For this reason, the human factor is an important variable that when worked on well ensures that the project achieves its intended its objectives. Unlike the traditional firms that only relied on upward career development, cross culture project teams must take into consideration new forms of project rewards and recognition that will be critical in nurturing and retaining talents. This implies that cross culture project teams must develop project team competencies through learning opportunities as well as job assignments that closely relate to the technical and interpersonal need of employees. An interesting factor that was noted is that project teams in financial industry based organization require higher esteem among employees that is reflected by the need for projects to be done within budgets, time and customer satisfaction. This is typically different from the requirements in traditional work environments. This may affect the performance of employees and to effectively manage employees in such realities, the equity theory of motivation must emphasize equal recognition and rewards that will motivate employees.
Another important difference between traditional work environments and project based work environment in the financial industry is that projects more often are managed using stages and milestones. The time needed to complete, the scope of the project, quality of project deliverables, budget and other factors are usually predetermined for each stage of the project. This gives projects better opportunities to report feedback that is immediate on the operations of the project that is continuous in nature, unlike the traditional work environment where there were less frequent evaluations. Overall, the study findings resonate with motivational theories that were elaborated in the literature review chapter which has shown that project-based structures in organizations have led to a creation of new work environments that are associated with complexities. Also, the temporal nature of projects and the increasing globalization and hence multiculturalism creates financial organization will complex social and cultural behaviors that have a likelihood of straining the HR department, project managers, and project managers and they must reinvent themselves to hand well these new realities.
These realities have several implications for the project managers in the 21st century as they in some as will be discussed in the recommendation section of the conclusion chapter. This study was aimed at finding factors that influence satisfaction of project team members in cross culture project teams and especially in the financial sector and from the survey they include, job security, the extent of communication, organizational climate and employee empowerment that can be manipulated to achieve project team effectiveness and efficiency thus leading to better financial performance of firms
Chapter 6: Conclusion
Contemporary business organizations have lately been embracing project-based organizational structures. On one hand, cross culture project teams are known to be complex as compared to traditional business groups mainly due to their temporariness. This characteristic has the implication that project-based organization has time, team, task and transition which affect the organization of projects. This project was aimed at conducting a valid survey that is qualitative in nature through surveys to determine factors that influence satisfaction of project team members in cross culture project teams and especially in the financial sector so as to come up with conclusions and recommendations that can be applied by all agencies in the financial industry to improve performance of cross culture project teams. This study appreciated that ensuring that project team members are satisfied is a key challenge that project managers are faced with for any organization. As such project managers play a significant role in efficiently managing and engaging employees so as to contribute to better performance of the project teams. This chapter has an objective of summarizing, the important findings in the study, giving practical recommendations to the project managers in cross culture project teams, implications for further future research and making a conclusion.
Overall summaries
Employee motivation within the working environment is one of the key challenges that face managers in their organization. Overall, the performance of organizations mainly depends on the abilities of a leader to provide leadership capabilities in their duties. Job satisfaction and motivation concepts are two main factors that determine the performance levels in an organization both in the traditional and in project-based agencies in the financial industry. The attitudes of project team members influence their input in the organization. Project –based organizations must, therefore, stick to factors that will enhance job satisfaction. The factors that have been identified in this study which play important in influencing job satisfaction in cross culture project teams include favorable working environment, recognition of employees' efforts, increased employee engagement, rewarding employees in a fair manner, developing project team members technical and personal growth skills and frequently measuring job satisfaction levels within an organization. Regarding rewards, the adopted policy must be capable of demonstrating that organizational employees do not miss prices and rewards that it offers to its hardworking employees. With staff assured that the reward system reflects their performance and commitment, they will be motivated to work hard thus enhancing their levels of input. Also, this will improve the performance and productivity of project teams in the organization.
Factors aimed at strengthening job satisfaction in the project-based organization are geared at not only making employees spend their time on their jobs but to enable the give quality services in their jobs. Job satisfaction in an organization contributes to the satisfaction of the employees and thus they will be motivated to give their best skills and energies to the project. The survey conducted in this study, points out the fact that most of the organizations had put in place different strategies intended to impress project team members in some way, and some of the indications given by the surveyed executives indicate that the significant efforts they used to motivate employees included, having motivational leaders installed as team leaders to motivate the project team members. They have created avenues where project team members can speak to each other so as to ensure that they can understand difficulties and misunderstanding that may arise during project life cycle. Further, some organizations had a way of growing organizational cultures based on attitudes and values that are founded on transparency, trust and respect for each member. This approach was found to be effective in increasing the employee motivation ratings. In general, the study found out that employee motivation is increased when HR departments and project managers provide necessary feedbacks that aid their performance, providing necessary mechanical resources to employees, when organizations take employee engagement activities thus creating motivation as well as cross-cultural diversity. The project teams must also provide performance-based incentives, making employee training more practical, reducing communication gaps between project managers and project team members and ensuring that there is a better work-life balance among project team members that positively affect employee job motivation.
Recommendations
This study recommends the following to project managers within cross culture project teams within the financial industry to increase the motivation of project team members who are from different cultural backgrounds;
Project managers are also obliged to give project team members more liberty when carrying out their responsibility so long as this does not compromise the quality of the services and standards that project team members follow. The team members need to be given opportunities in making decisions concerning the progress of the project. More freedom to make decisions in a multicultural environment gives the project members to consult with their colleagues and peers on how they can quickly achieve the project objectiveness without having to go through the bureaucracies which may demotivate project members especially if they fear their bosses who are from a different cultural background.
The project managers also have the responsibility of creating and encouraging the free flow of messages across the project team through both formal and informal communication channels. Communication with a project team plays a critical role in passing down the feedback and requirements of the project to the project team and stakeholders. It also serves to reduce levels of conflicts in organizations that may arise due to misunderstandings. Interfacing between project members and project managers who are from different cultural backgrounds have the implications that free flow of information is adopted in the organizations by creating trust among employees through frequent formal and informal meetings and exchange of information through the modern technologies. Doing so ensures that employees will be motivated to work with their colleagues in the present project and achieve it within the required time framework, budget and having achieved project standards.
The project managers’ leadership characteristics and style must reflect the need to motivate employees as they conduct their duties within the organization. Project managers need to serve as the personals who are role models within the organizations, inspire the team members and initiate discipline within the project team in their project team and organizations (Srivastava, Bartol, and Locke 1240). They need not be bipartisan by supporting project team members from either Hong Kong or mainland China but ensure that he can help harmonize and balance between the extremes of both cultural backgrounds of the employees and therefore achieve a harmonious business environment, so project team members to look forward to working in and help their organizations to achieve their financial objectives and those of the customers.
The findings indicate that there is a need for increased involvement of HR departments in cross-cultural project-based organizations to ensure that such organizations achieve greater success. The HR department is required to play a significant role in performance management role, hiring role, compensation management, engagement role and training and developing the project team members. By giving the HR department significant roles in hiring and managing project team members, essential training and needs of the project team members can be identified resolved faster and efficiently thus reducing the rate of turnover in financial industry based organization which are multicultural in nature. Reduced turnover rates lead to stable organizations that can meet the needs of the customers effectively and efficiently.
Research contribution
The results of this research confirm Herzberg studies on his original two-factor theory that had claimed that employee satisfaction and motivation for organizations are largely caused by true motivators while dissatisfaction is caused by hygiene factors. According to Herzberg, achievements, work, and recognition are the strongest motivators of people in their jobs and organizations. These results had been backed by other studies that had been carried before by other researchers. On one hand, when employees in cross culture project teams feel disinterested, discouraged, unhappy or discouraged since they do not see their hand in completed jobs, unfair reward and recognition system, inadequate supervision, and unhelpful number of people who they work with, they tend to be dissatisfied, feel unmotivated and thus their performance to a large extent lowers. One can predict that satisfied employees will perform well in cross culture project teams thus achieving the goals of their teams as well as theirown goals. This research thus contributes to the growing list of studies that support the two-factor theory that was developed by Herzberg in all industries of the economy as well as in different organizations.
Further future research works
It has been identified that employee satisfaction and motivation are important and have been eminently elaborated in this study. All organizations, especially those having project teams as part of their operational, organizational structure need job satisfaction and motivation so as to enhance employee performance as well as organizational productivity. Scholars, therefore, should consider future research findings that determine the nature of job motivation and satisfaction as this could further be used by stakeholders in understanding the significance of the two concepts. It should also be noted that employee needs and expectations are dependent on other factors such as the position of the project team member, and therefore future scholars should carry studies to ascertain the motivational factors among employees of different ranks in organizations. These studies should seek to help individual stakeholders in the organization on how specific needs and expectations of employees in various positions are affected affect job satisfaction and motivation in project –based organizations that operate in the financial industry.
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