(Southern African Institute for Industrial Engineering, 2022-10-03) Javani, Blessing; Thabe, Mogolodi; Dewa, Mendon; Hattingh, Teresa
With high incidences of IT project failure in South Africa and globally. The paper aims to raise
awareness of the impacts that cultural differences can have on IT project success, if not
appropriately incorporated in project risk planning for practitioners and academics. Data was
collected through semi-structured interviews on 15 IT project managers. The research
demonstrates that most IT project managers do not regard cultural differences as a risk to
project success, and do not regard the impacts that cultural differences of project
stakeholders could have on a project as necessary for inclusion in project risk planning. The
paper suggests that IT project managers and project team members should be culturally aware
and sensitive and that one of the ways to address the impacts of cultural differences in IT
projects is to promote trust, collectivism with a team identity in multicultural project settings
thereby enhancing project success.
