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Essay: Project management faces the problem in shanghai vw case

23 July 202414 June 2012 by Essay Sauce

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Project Management

Shanghai VW Case

1. Summarize the issues of Mr. Patuschka .

Mr. Patuschka was very much afraid and thinking of his EE department. The main task in front of him was to remove the cultural issues in his team. He wanted to make his team very efficient. The main problem was of communication. He was very much worried of this phenomenon. This EE department was playing very important role in VW. It was handling very critical processes. The SOP department was dependent on EE department.

As regards of sales, the sales of cars in China were increasing but the market share of this company was falling down. This fact itself signifies a great problem within company. To answer market conditions, the projects of the company have to be very much scheduled properly. From current situation we could tell that the growth of the company was not in accordance with market growth. This has to answer quickly to ensure that VW are not lacking behind otherwise the consequences will be very severe. The company could face intense competition in the market.

There was clear problem of communication and in addition there was lack of self-initiative spirit. Thus, they were not able to think critically. There were cultural issues and that was the main concern of Mr. Patuschka to address for.

2. What are the characteristics of Chinese management according to the authors? Compare with the Project Management method you discovered during the class.

The main characteristics of Chinese management were lack of self-initiative, respecting authority of people, etc. Due to the communist government, Chinese people tend to follow the rules set by others without questioning them. This was the major phenomenon. Other effect of communist government is that, they respect hierarchical structure and they tend to obey and respect the people who have more power. They never say ‘no’ to anyone and it is considered as offensive in their culture. Sometimes they do lie in order to avoid saying no and the other person has to understand the meaning of this lies by picking the hints.

The personal and professional life is the one in China and they tend to build h3 relationship. If they don’t have h3 relationship with you then they tend to create that relationship before acting. This takes too much of time. You can tell any employee that you are doing wrong or some negative fact, it is considered as offensive and socially that employee will be ignored. They love to work in controlled environment. They are not confortable to work independently. In project management, however, this is not the case. The person has to be independent, critical thinker and the one who loves to take initiative and drive its team to results. They need to face positive and negative side. And top of all everyone has to be clear and precise. Smooth communication and flow of information and in timely manner is very important in project management.

3. Do you think that the German VW management method could be implemented easily in Shanghai VW?

Germans are very much planned. They tend to plan their stuff before doing. This is very much opposite than Chinese people, who believe in nothing in life can be planned. There are also lots of cultural differences. If we consider these facts then we have to say that it’s a bit difficult to implement German management method in China.

Other important thing is Chinese people never say No to anyone. They consider that it is very offensive and one can lose his face. And to avoid these kinds of situations they tend to give false answers and it is the duty of project manager to understand the hints of the Chinese staff and thus the meaning.

Chinese people because of their habit of working under control tend to follow without questioning it. They lack self-initiative and critical thinking. In German culture, however, this is not the case. Because of these cultural issues, Chinese do not work independently. And thus, it is very difficult to implement German VW culture in China. There is a little impact of western culture on Shanghai but still the Chinese roots will not allow planting the German culture easily.

4. What is the position of the Project Manager in SVW? Where are PMs located in the org chart of SVW?

In EE, project manager is responsible for each car line. If we consider the organizational chart, he is located a bit at the lower level in the hierarchy. I would say just above the assembly workers.

But there are several drawbacks because of his level and the position in the hierarchy. In China, there is lots of importance for the hierarchy and the power. Even if you are correct people will not listen to you, because your position is very low in hierarchy.

The case of project manager is the same. Every worker tends to obey his superiors and acted very in a fast manner but they tend to neglect the project manager. They were using the computerized project management systems but this is considered as an extra burden and people were using their traditional manual method. This was the main reason of them lacking behind as regards with the market changes.

5. Describe and comment the Traffic Light Chart. Is it an efficient means of communication? Why was it not successful in SVW?

Traffic Light Chart is used to communicate the delay in project and the status of the project. Shanghai VW is already using the computerized project management systems. But they were thinking those systems as an extra burden and were still using their traditional methods.

These methods were not at all efficient resulting delay in each and every project. This was the main reason they were not able to respond to the market needs.

There was great need to find some solutions for these cultural problems. They have to adopt these new technologies and make the changes in their systems otherwise they need to face severe consequences as intense competition and extensive price war.