Overview

A project manager at a small IT company in Poland was spoken with for this anonymous case model. He is of Polish background, with his upbringing being Polish too. Although open to work with other cultures, he has faced multiple obstacles in his current partnership with an Italian software developing company, whose goal is to unify their software for integration in Poland. 

The interview questions were created to gauge information on which cultural limitations have hindered this project, which behaviors were found to be inhibitive and prohibitive, and what could have possibly been done different to create a better outcome. Some of these questions included: Which cultural limitations were you faced with in the workplace? In these international communications, was a translator/interpreter present? Was the main communication issue the language barrier? Were there any behaviors you encountered that you found inhibitive/prohibitive? What steps can you take to address the issue brought on by the misunderstandings?

To develop a better understanding for intercultural communication and successful global partnerships, all of these questions were addressed in the interview. This case model aims to accurately depict the dilemma faced by the Polish company, analyze and understand the cultural barriers to communication, and offer a few best practice solutions. As the primary organization in this case, the Polish IT company, is rather small, it can be believed that this is one of the company’s first international partnerships, as well as intercultural dilemma.

Although each cultural limitation is unique to each situation, Italian business culture is known to be more flexible, sociable and relaxed compared to the Polish formal, reserved and direct business culture (Hofstede insights, 2021). This can already serve as a potential barrier to communication, as things may not be perceived the same way by both parties.

The goal of the project lies within the Italian company’s goal of standardizing their software among partner countries and developing a unified system to standardize every transaction. In other countries, this process went smoothly and they were able to unify with the respective countries’ own software systems. However, due to Polish laws being quite complex, and different to the other partner countries, the transition required more effort. To assist them with this unification, the Italian company hired a software development company, where our interviewee works, to assist them in unifying their Polish branch. 

Hofstede Dimensions

The Hofstede dimensions give us insight about the possible causes of the problem. This will give us explanations why certain behaviors are more or less common in different cultures (Nickerson, 2022). This also could be the explanation of how the Polish company and the Italian company act to each other.

Power distance

In Poland there is a higher power distance compared to the Italians. Which means that the employees expect that they get told what to do. On the other hand, the Italians have more autonomy (Hofstede insights, 2021). So, the following can happen. Because of the higher power distance in Poland, they need more reassurance. The culture of the Italians is more like ‘we will work it out’. They can assume that the Polish employees think the same as the Italians. In that way there can be a misunderstanding in communication because the Polish people like it and expect it if they are told what to do.

The project managers also talked about when the Italian bosses went to Poland. They have a lot of new information for the project. So there are new issues that need to be resolved. Due to the quiet high power distance the bosses could have more knowledge and information then the employees. Because the boss is higher in the hierarchical order. And if the boss is there once a month with a lot of new information, that can delay the project.

Individualism

This is about the degree of independence that each person feels in a society. So basically if you score high on individualism you think more in the ‘I’ therm. A low score means that you think more in the ‘we’ term (Hofstede insights, 2021). Both countries score high in Individualism. Also the interview makes it clear. The project manager said that the Polish employees and the Italian company didn’t know what their benefits were. For them it was only more hard work. It seems they don’t know that they are all in this together (‘we’ term). For example the Polish employees who say:’ For ME it is only more hard work, so what is in it for me’.

Uncertainty avoidance

Uncertainty avoidance is about how people feel threatened by ambiguous or unknown situations. Poland scores very high on this dimension compared to Italy. That means that uncertainty will mostly be avoided by the Polish (Hofstede insights, 2021).

In the interview the project manager talked about a deadline, which in his opinion was impossible to reach. He didn’t talk about how the Italians felt about the deadline. So the problem here could be that the Polish people want certainty that they are able to finish the project in time. In that way they can give themselves a lot of pressure. The Italians on the other hand are more relaxed about and will just see the outcome. So, now you have a party who is quite stressed about the deadline, communicating to a party which is maybe too relaxed. This could also be the cause of the communication.

Outcome

The interviewee disclosed that he faces many challenges on a regular basis which has forced the Project Managers into pushing back the project deadlines, and has resulted in heavier workloads that weren’t accounted for during the planning stages. One limiting factor that he encountered is that many urgent tasks take too long to attend due to the fact that the teams are working in separate countries, and they only communicate through email and video calls. This has found to be very time consuming because some information is only shared in Italian with no interpreter that could mediate between the two teams.

Using English as the main language for the project, a compromise between the Italian and Polish team, has also proved to be a challenge. With our interviewee sharing that he is the only person in his company with a decent level of English, he is required to be present at almost all meetings, even those that would regularly not require him. Being a project manager, our interviewee shared that he felt his presence at financial meetings to be quite inhibitive, and even prohibitive, as he felt it was not his duty to be in charge of negotiating finances, while also leading the project. Again, as the Polish have strong power distance as well as uncertainty avoidance, this position might have been very prohibitive for our interviewee. 

Furthermore, the interviewee shared that the Italian company had lacked clarity when stating the benefits of the project to a particular group of stakeholders whose work is essential to the Polish branch, resulting in misaligned expectations, and uneven levels of motivation amongst the parties involved. Likewise, he pointed out that the Italian team could have done a more thorough research and analysis of Financial Polish Laws, as this would have made it easier for both Polish and Italians to overcome what they felt was inhibitive about the way each other do business. 

Possible Solutions

Use voice translator
The interview claims that there is a serious language issue between the parties causing a bunch of misunderstandings. It is vital for two parties to have a mutual speaking language in order to cooperate with each other and achieve the highest productivity. In that case, workers from the IT department are more likely to be able to communicate in English, however, the Italian side had difficulties with it as fewer than half of the department can’t use this language to work.

Using a voice translator during meetings is the most effective way to understand each other because it works faster than other alternatives and can get every context compared with the human translator. The only way to achieve highest efficiency is to understand each other clearly and stick to the requirements of the head without misunderstanding in the expressions 

Organize basic meeting-presentation of the project goals and rules
Some employees from both sides face the lack of motivation and unwillingness to work because not everyone is aware of the main goals of the project and benefits towards their life from this project. Also a reward system should be implemented so that workers will be inspired instead of being forced.

The role of the head is significant as he is supposed to explain difficult info about the project in simple terms for everyone to understand the material and define their role in the company.

Create talking points before the meeting is set
Our interlocutor mentioned that he felt after every project meeting that this time was wasted. The biggest fault of this, as mentioned above, was language. Apart from the translator, a solution for this could be a plan of a discussion. Before every project meeting, participants should create main subjects and problems to discuss. Then it could be easier for everyone to find out at which point of the conversions they are at a specific moment.

Awareness of possible differences in work culture and laws
One of the biggest problems, in this case, was a lack of awareness on the Italian side of cultural differences. In Poland laws and rules are unlike Italian and because of that culture of working is different. Italian workers were acting similarly, like in cooperation with their natives. Unfortunately, it was wrong, because, from a Polish perspective, it has been problematic and annoying. Polish workers tried to do something and Italians were just saying, we will make it. So Italians should show their interest in the culture and try to understand that somewhere work can look differently.  

Authors

Joanna Daher Lui Kon Jean (Joanna Daher)
Student: University of Applied Sciences International Business
Block 2, Semester 1, 2023

Jim Koper
Student: University of Applied Sciences Business and Economics
Block 2, Semester 1, 2023

José Daniel Sainz González (José Daniel Sainz)
Student: Bachelor’s in Marketing Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education in Sina-loa  
Block 3, Semester 6, 2023

Bogdan Bychnyk
Student: Koźmiński University, Warsaw, Bachelor in Financial Management
Semester 1, 2023

Tymoteusz Wójcik
Student: University, Warsaw, Bachelor in Financial Management
Semester 1, 2023