Key Challenges in Cross Cultural Management

Introduction

The topic of cross-cultural management is becoming increasingly popular. As more and more organizations expand globally, people from culturally diverse backgrounds have recognized the need to work together effectively by learning to be culturally sensitive. Although it appears that managing virtual teams is more complex than managing traditionally aligned teams, success of virtual teams in software fields would suggest otherwise.

This paper focuses on the interactions of people in virtual teams trying to understand its challenges as well as its advantages. It also highlights the importance of managing virtual teams in view of its advantages. Whereas it appears that cross cultural issues in teams arise primarily due to miscommunication, successfully performing virtual teams cite communication as their key enabler. By looking deeply into the success factors behind virtual teams, we try to derive key learnings in the area of cross cultural management.
Content

In the recent past, strategic business plans have failed due to cultural mismatches. Until recently, systematic attention has rarely been directed towards cross cultural dimensions risk-assessment of outsourcing arrangements. Nowadays, increasingly, organizations are addressing the fact that cultural risk assessment was neglected in the past in favour of financial and legal factors. Therefore, today, companies willing to enter the world of opportunities in Chinese markets first adapt their organizational culture and functioning style to suit the Chinese culture, values, and consumers.

Communication, in addition to cultural sensitivity, is one of the key challenges faced by cross-cultural teams. However, virtual teams functioning in the area of outsourced services and software product development have been quite successful due to certain unique advantages. Surely, then, there is a lot to learn in the area of cross cultural management by observing professionals managing successful