The Puerto Rico Education Project (PREP) is a specific project based on information technologies which was developed by the Puerto Rico Department of Education and the U.S. company (USCO) in order to design and implement necessary computer systems for providing the effective evaluation of the educational programs in the country.
The peculiarities of the project required the location of the U.S. staff in Puerto Rico in order to work out and install the programs effectively. That is why 25 employees were sent to work in Puerto Rico for the period of three years.
In spite of the USCO company’s experience in developing successful programs earlier, the implementation of IT systems in Puerto Rico can be considered as ineffective because of a range of challenges which the company experienced in the country.
There are several aspects which should be determined for the company in order to avoid the difficulties with the further off-site assignments. The first aspect is the ignorance of the national and cultural peculiarities and differences in working with the local people (Baltzan, Phillips, & Detlor, 2011).
The managers of USCO considered the project as the on-site one and did not focus on the cultural peculiarities in dealing with human resources. Moreover, the employees did not know Spanish which complicated their communication with the local population.
Thus, it is necessary to implement the language and cultural trainings of the employees before their moving to the country in order to provide their effective adaptation.
Moreover, the company did not pay attention to the fact that employees and their families would live in the country during three years. That is why the conditions of their living should be appropriate.
To avoid the fact of decreasing the employees’ productivity because of the inappropriate living conditions, it is necessary to concentrate on the employees’ everyday comfort. Moreover, it is significant to address the personnel’s needs in time and have the person who will be responsible for solving the employees’ problems which are not connected with the working process.
The next group of problems is connected with the inadequate controlling the working process. The detailed structure of the process was not developed according to the requirements of the situation. It is necessary to provide clear goals and benefits of the project for both parts of the contract in order to organize the work effectively (Baltzan, Phillips, & Detlor, 2011).
Moreover, it is important to develop the perspectives and analyze possible advantages and disadvantages, risks and threats of the project. Thus, Puerto Rico Department of Education was not involved enough in the negotiation process, and the end goals of the project were not clearly determined for the employees.
Furthermore, the best results are always provided by those employees who are well-qualified and interested in the effects of their work (Baltzan, Phillips, & Detlor, 2011). Thus, the employees’ selection for the project was based on inappropriate principles.
It is necessary to involve the experienced specialists of the higher class in the work in off-site projects and provide the effective management. Gary Johnson can be considered as a good specialist, but in another sphere which is not connected with education. The employees should be chosen according to their skills, but not in relation to any other factors.
The project was not planned effectively. That is why the programmers were brought to Puerto Rico earlier then it was required. This situation broke the process and was disadvantageous for employees.
To provide the effective work of the U.S. employees in Puerto Rico, it was significant to pay attention to the cultural peculiarities of the country, to develop the detailed plan of the organization of the work, set definite goals, and involve enthusiastic managers for working with the personnel.
References
Baltzan, P., Phillips, A., & Detlor, B. (2011). Business driven information systems. Canada: McGraw-Hill Ryerson.