Analysis of cultural factors related to project success in high tech manufacturing organisations

Previous studies have shown that knowledge transfer is highly influenced by an organizations culture. Indeed the long-term success of a company is based on how cultural values are shared between employees. Yet surprisingly, this research area is insufficiently explored in the literature and there is a dearth of empirical data in the domain. In an attempt to address this deficit our study adopts a holistic perspective and empirically examines a number of cultural factors related to inter-organizational knowledge transfer and project success. Relevant literature is synthesized and affinitized in an attempt to isolate key factors related to project success. From this analysis, a conceptual model comprising trust, leadership, motivation, rewards and communication is developed. In order to operationalize the model a comprehensive audit tool containing explicit statements is designed, tested and implemented. The findings from this analysis are presented in this paper. The contributions of this research are many. First the paper answers calls for detailed work in a neglected but important area in project management. Second, the finding of the study expands and deepens the academic debate in the area. Third, the findings of this research can help manufacturing project managers to identify, prioritize and manage factors that were found to facilitate project success in hi-tech manufacturing sectors.