Cultural difference and IT project success : a fallacy or reality on the South African ICT sector

Abstract

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.