Teaching supply chain management through global projects with global project teams

Production and Operations Management, Spring 2000 by Kopczak, Laura Rock, Fransoo, Jan C

Although using the Enneagram (Baron and Wagele 1994) certainly helps to make some personality differences clear at the start of the project, merely being aware of the differences and knowing some theory regarding how to deal with differences does not prevent significant problems from occurring. The Enneagram characterizes personality types into categories such as Controller, Optimist, Observer, Peacemaker, etc. As the projects progress, students observe their behavior and the behavior of others and notice the conflicts that arise because of differences in approaches relating to personality types. One extreme case we had was a project team with two Controllers. They had difficulty making progress until they dealt with the conflict that naturally arose between the Controllers and between the Controllers and the rest of the team members. Some teams have a different problem-no team leader emerges. By observing behavior, students learn two lessons: first, that individual personality types transcend culture, and second, that personality differences must be dealt with to make the team work effectively and encourage all members to contribute.

Students also read one of three books on working across cultures (Lewis 1998; O'Hara and Johansen 1994; Tronpenaars and Hapden-Turner 1998). On the U.S. side, they then write a short paper on their observations of how the group interacted, tying their observations to concepts discussed in the book, and differentiating between personality differences and cultural differences.

One of the main cultural differences in work style that we have noticed during the last few years is that although the American students tend to be deadline-oriented, the Dutch students tend to plan out the project and strive to make steady progress. Further, work hours tend to be more flexible for U.S. students than they are for the Dutch students. While deadline-driven "all-nighters" are uncommon among Dutch students, U.S. students may work continuously during multiple days and nights to drive a project to completion. This characteristic is probably very much related to their attitudes toward deadlines. The difference in work styles is exacerbated by the fact that the U.S. students have more structure in their schedules-- related to midterms, finals, and requirements to attend class-than do the Dutch students. The fairly direct and conflict-inducing communication patterns of both the U.S. and Dutch cultures highlight these cultural differences during many of the projects.

5. How to Start a Global Projects Course

For anyone considering starting a similar course, we would like to offer the following recommendations about finding a partner, recruiting projects, running the kick-off, overseeing the projects, and managing the workload for the professors.

In finding an overseas partner university, it is important that the programs match well in terms of size (number of students who will take the course), technical background of the students (some overlap, some complementarity), and philosophy with regards to the value of interacting with industry. It is helpful if both sides have experience running domestic projects, and if both sides are able to recruit projects. In addition, this course can be part of a broader relationship with the overseas partner university, and of a broader relationship with companies. In our case, this has been one of the key success factors for the course. Stanford and Eindhoven have developed a broad relationship, with a linking of our industry affiliates groups (SCM "Forums"), regular exchange of faculty, and coauthorship of research papers. Most projects are recruited from companies that are members of our Forums.