Multicultural Teams
CROSS- CULTURAL MANAGEMENT
CHALLENGES OF MULTICULTURAL TEAMS
The increasing number of multinational companies, the expand global market place and the diversity of the customers across cultures require new points of view. More and more companies use multicultural teams to develop new products or business solutions. Multicultural teams are task oriented groups of people from different cultures. Well managed multicultural teams thanks to the different point of views of their team members can superior national teams in the number of possible alternatives and solutions. But diversity is a “double- edged sword”: means positive dynamics and problems caused by cultural clashes. Managing these teams became a main subject of human resource management studies.
Advantages of diversity
Same- culture teams are homogeneous. Team members have the same point of view. People raised up in the same culture have certain beliefs, value things the same way. On the other hand multinational teams can offer multiple points of view. The participants have different backgrounds and experiences. They come from countries with diverse political and legal systems, social structures and religions. People from different cultures have different perceptions. They see the world differently and that is why they find diverse details important. Because of the different basic values they evaluate things differently. Members from different cultures sense and tolerate risk and uncertainty differently. The participants of the work have diverse information sources, extra- team connections. The diversity of the workforce can improve the team performance through the variety of alternative perspectives and knowledge.
Multinational teams can be more creative and innovative than the national teams. They can define the problems better and can create a wider scale of ideas and better solutions to a problem. Multinational companies operating on the global market place have to count with the
CHALLENGES OF MULTICULTURAL TEAMS
The increasing number of multinational companies, the expand global market place and the diversity of the customers across cultures require new points of view. More and more companies use multicultural teams to develop new products or business solutions. Multicultural teams are task oriented groups of people from different cultures. Well managed multicultural teams thanks to the different point of views of their team members can superior national teams in the number of possible alternatives and solutions. But diversity is a “double- edged sword”: means positive dynamics and problems caused by cultural clashes. Managing these teams became a main subject of human resource management studies.
Advantages of diversity
Same- culture teams are homogeneous. Team members have the same point of view. People raised up in the same culture have certain beliefs, value things the same way. On the other hand multinational teams can offer multiple points of view. The participants have different backgrounds and experiences. They come from countries with diverse political and legal systems, social structures and religions. People from different cultures have different perceptions. They see the world differently and that is why they find diverse details important. Because of the different basic values they evaluate things differently. Members from different cultures sense and tolerate risk and uncertainty differently. The participants of the work have diverse information sources, extra- team connections. The diversity of the workforce can improve the team performance through the variety of alternative perspectives and knowledge.
Multinational teams can be more creative and innovative than the national teams. They can define the problems better and can create a wider scale of ideas and better solutions to a problem. Multinational companies operating on the global market place have to count with the
References: Behfar, K., Kern, M., Brett, J. (2006a): Managing challenges in multicultural teams, in: Chen, Y.-R. (Ed.) National Cultures and Groups. Research on Managing Groups and teams Vol.9 pp. 233-262. Brett, J., Behfar, K. Kern, M. (2006b): Managing multicultural teams, Harvard Business Review; Nov2006, Vol.84, pp.84-91 Cramton, C. D. (2002): Finding common ground in dispersed collaboration, Organizational Dynamics Vol.30, pp.356-367.