Question

Gloria Zhang is 29 years old and is a Project Manager in Refits & Refurbishments, a local company based in Singapore. The company specialises in leasing and renovating office and shop space to corporate and retail clients.

One of her clients is DSB Banking, a German Bank, which is opening its first office and branch in Singapore in three months. The bank’s main activities are in the areas of Foreign Exchange and Money Market Trading and the provision of Investment Services and advice to high net-worth clients. DSB has agreed to lease two floors in a new prestigious office tower. Gloria has been assigned to help the bank renovate the space.

Gloria had her first meeting with the client yesterday from 2pm to 3pm. The meeting was arranged a week ago and the client specifically mentioned that they were busy and could afford only one hour for the meeting.

Gloria noted the client’s request but was busy the whole week and did not give much thought to the meeting. The client was expecting her to send them an agenda which she did not do.

Nonetheless, three representatives from DSB Banking, attended the meeting:

• Mr. Klaus Schmidt, 45 years old, a German who would be the CEO for the Singapore Operations
• Mr. Kenneth Wong, 40 years old, Senior Manager of Client Liaison Services in Germany
• Mr Raymond Li, 33 years old, Senior Manager of Procurement in Germany

This is Gloria’s first big project for a large international bank. She was nervous before the meeting and the introductions were awkward. Gloria just said “Hello” to them and did not shake their hands. Mr Klaus went up to Gloria, shook her hand and gave her a warm hug. Gloria shrugged at this gesture because she was not used to it.

They took a seat and Mr Klaus asked for the plan for the meeting. Gloria told him there was no specific plan. She said she would start with a presentation of the plans and ideas that her department had for the DSB renovation, in terms of layout, furniture, decor, associated costings and the timeline proposed for the project. Mr Klaus nodded his head and Gloria started her presentation.

Gloria’s presentation did not go well. During the presentation, Gloria kept reading from her slides and stumbled many times during the presentation. She did not maintain eye contact with the audience.   Halfway through the presentation, her laptop crashed. She quickly got her colleague to set up another laptop for her. She searched frantically for her USB stick and remembered that she had left it at home in the rush. She suggested that her client take a five-minute break while she got things sorted out. Her colleague helped her load an earlier draft version of the presentation, which included a different decor which had been rejected by the client before.

During the presentation, the client showed a lot of negative nonverbal communication which Gloria did not notice as she was so preoccupied with getting her act together. Both Kenneth and Mr. Schmidt were shaking their heads, frowning, and looking at each other in a puzzled way and their watches from time to time, Raymond had his arms crossed, was leaning back in his chair, and yawned at least three times.   They were all silently saying, ‘what is going on here!’

Added to these issues associated with negative nonverbal communication, Gloria’s mobile phone, which had a cheesy pop tune as its ring tone, rang halfway through the second part of the presentation, and the air conditioning in the room was turned on too high making the room very uncomfortable. Two members of the office team had a short-heated argument right outside the door to the meeting room that was clearly audible inside the room and a major distraction.

Before Gloria could finish her presentation, her colleague walked into the meeting room to ask her to sign an invoice for another client. Kenneth started tapping his foot on the ground. He told Gloria that they had another meeting to attend and asked her to move on to the project costing, the proposed timeline and to show them the draft contract. The draft version of the presentation which Gloria was using did not have the costings and proposed timeline. Gloria had also not prepared the draft contract. As soon as Gloria signalled that she had finished and asked if anyone had any questions, Kenneth stood up and said angrily, ‘Sorry Gloria but Mr. Schmidt and I need to rush off to another meeting’. They left the room almost instantly.

Gloria sat down in one of the empty chairs, hunched over the boardroom table, put her face in her open palms and sobbed ‘what a disaster, what have I done’.

Q1. Globalisation and multiculturalism mean that we are likely to work with and for people from different cultures. Working with people from different cultures requires knowledge of intercultural communication. Using any ONE of the three models we discussed in our intercultural communication lecture, explain what is happening in this scenario. Provide at least FOUR suggestions to break the cultural deadlock here so that both parties could continue to work on the project.

Answer 1

Answer :-

Each project needs to end and that is the thing that project finishing is about in the last period of the project life cycle. The general purpose of the project is to convey what you guaranteed. By conveying all that you said you would, you ensure that all partners are fulfilled and all acknowledgment rules have been met. When that occurs, your project can end.

Project consummation is frequently the most dismissed period of the project life cycle. When the project is finished, it's anything but difficult to get things together, toss a few documents in a cabinet, and begin moving directly into the commencement period of the following project. Hang on. You're not done at this point.

The key exercises in project fulfillment are gathering project records; spreading data to formalize acknowledgment of the product, administration, or project; and performing project closure. As the project chief, you should audit project records to verify they are state-of-the-art.

For instance, maybe some degree change demands were actualized that changed a portion of the qualities of the final product. The project data you are gathering during this stage ought to mirror the qualities and details of the final product. Remember to refresh your asset assignments too. Some team individuals will have traveled every which way through the span of the project. You have to twofold watch that all the assets and their jobs and obligations are noted.

When the project results are reported, you'll demand formal acknowledgment from the partners or client. They're keen on knowing whether the product or administration of the project meets the goals the project set out to achieve. On the off chance that your documentation is forward-thinking, you'll have the project results close by to impart to them.

• Contract Closure :-

Contracts find some conclusion similarly as projects find some conclusion. Contract closure is worried about finishing and settling the particulars of the contracts let for the project. It underpins the project finishing process in light of the fact that the contract closure process decides whether the work portrayed in the contracts was finished precisely and acceptably. Remember that not all projects are performed under contract so not all projects require the contract closure process. Clearly, this procedure applies just to those stages, expectations, or parts of the project that were performed under contract.

Contract closure refreshes the project records, itemizing the final aftereffects of the work on the project. Con­tracts may have explicit terms or conditions for fruition. You ought to know about these terms or conditions so project culmination isn't held up in light of the fact that you missed a significant detail. In the event that you are controlling the contract yourself, make certain to inquire as to whether there are any unique conditions that you ought to know about with the goal that your project team doesn't accidentally postpone contract project closure.

In the event that the product or administration meets the project's desires and is adequate, formal composed notification to the merchant is required, showing that the contract is finished. This is the proper acknowledgment and closure of the contract. It's your duty as the project administrator to archive the conventional acknowledgment of the contract. Commonly the arrangements for formalizing acknowledgment and shutting the contract are illuminated in the contract itself.

• Releasing the Project Team :-

Releasing project team individuals isn't an official procedure. In any case, it ought to be noticed that at the finish of the project, you will discharge your project team individuals, and they will return to their utilitarian chiefs or get alloted to another project. You will need to keep their directors, or other project chiefs, educated as you draw nearer to project consummation, with the goal that they have the opportunity to sufficiently anticipate the arrival of their workers. Tell them a couple of months early what the calendar resembles and how soon they can anticipate utilizing their workers on new projects. This enables different administrators to begin arranging exercises and booking movement dates.

• Final Payments:-

The final installment is typically in excess of a straightforward level of the work that remaining parts to be finished. Finishing the project may include fixing the most troublesome issues that are excessively costly to comprehend, so the final installment ought to be sufficiently huge to spur the merchant to give the project a high need so the project can be finished on schedule.

On the off chance that the supplier has met all the contractual commitments, remembering fixing issues and making fixes as noted for a punch list, the project team approves the contract and submits it to the bookkeeping office for final installment. The supplier is informed that the last installment is final and finishes the contractual concurrence with the project.

• Post-Project Evaluations :-

Before the team is broken down and starts to concentrate on the following project, a survey is led to catch the exercises that can be gained from this project, regularly assembled an exercises learned conference or archive. The team investigates what worked out in a good way and catches the procedures to comprehend why they worked out positively. The team inquires as to whether the procedure is transferable to different projects. The team additionally investigates what turned out poorly and what individuals gained from the experience. The procedure isn't to discover fault, however to learn.

Quality management is a procedure of ceaseless improvement that incorporates gaining from past projects and making changes to improve the following project. This procedure is recorded as proof that quality management rehearses are being used.

A few organizations have formal procedures for changing work procedures and coordinating the exercises gained from the project so different projects can profit. A few organizations are less formal in the approach and anticipate that people should gain from the experience and take the experience to their next project and offer what they realized with others in a casual manner. Whatever kind of approach is utilized, the accompanying components ought to be assessed and the outcomes summed up in reports for outside and interior use.