Cross Culture Work; Practices of collaboration in the Panama Canal Expansion Program

In the execution of a mega project, collaboration is inevitable. Requiring a combination of
skills, knowledge and resources, projects often attract numerous participants each carrying
their own cultural background. Consequently, a great variety of cultural differences and
similarities, as well as distinctive practices and differing values and interests for participation,
emerge when firms and people come together in a project organization. Cross Culture
Work offers profound insight into the ‘people’ side of project management. In light of the
Panama Canal Expansion Program Karen Smits describes how project participants deal
with the cultural complexity in their everyday life. She illustrates the lived experiences of
project participants and portrays the practices of collaboration that emerge in the project
organization. These vivid accounts and observations emphasize the importance of a cultural
perspective in the management of projects and stress the need for explicit attention to crosscultural collaboration.