Multicultural Team Creates Frustrating Management Situation

I would like to pursue managing a multicultural team. I would like to do this because I feel like managing a multicultural team will teach me a lot about my own communication skills and break down barriers that I have about other cultures. I feel it will also help me with my challenges as a manager. I know it would be very challenging, however, I’m willing to take a chance. I want to address differences to overcome differences.

The positive impact of cultural diversity on group behavior can contribute creativity to a high-performance team. Membership diversity offers a rich pool of information, talent, and varied perspectives that can help improve team problem solving and increase creativity (Hunt, J., Osborn, R., Schermerhorn, J., 2005). Cultural diversity contributes various group input and group dynamics to the team. These two factors are essential in the high performance of a team. Cultural diversity can develop a high-performance team by allowing the diverse potentials of a team to operate. The negative impact of cultural diversity on group behavior can develop numerous of conflicts between team members. Conflicting interaction can limit or decrease the effectiveness and efficiency of productivity. There should be an awareness of the diverse culture values in order to prevent these conflicts.

Another challenge this team is facing is an unclear leadership and direction which is causing interruptions in the decision making process. The misalignment between Jack’s and Ellen’s instructions causes inconsistencies and insecurities in the team. The Korean consultants are not sure which orders to follow and due to the cultural familiarity with Jack and the high power distance in the Korean work culture, they are ignoring Ellen’s instructions. The decision making process is further slowed down by major cultural difference in regards how and how quickly project related decisions are made. The American culture is known for quick decision-making whereas the Korean culture has a very high uncertainty-avoidance. This risk avoidant culture is driving Jack’s decision to conduct further market research even if that is outside of the scope of the companies deliverables. Since Korea is a collectivist society in which group decisions are valued, his unilateral decision in regards to the market research suggests that he does not view Ellen as part of the group.

The culture of team is weak, as there are no established norms and values or ground rules. As such, there was a discrepancy in the development of the team during the norming stage, as discussed previously. The team also engaged in a cultural clash in terms of industry areas, country/ethnic differences, and subcultures. The MGI founders related to a creative and artistic industry, while the students were business focused. The cultural differences manifested themselves in terms of language and expectations. And finally, within the subgroups were individual subcultures, which lead to a difference in values, roles, purposes, and goals especially when disagreements between these subcultures occurred (Hofstede, 1998). Multicultural teams can be more

252). The major issues that are faced with differing cultures within the workplace are communication issues. Speed and efficiency is lost when total understanding of the firm’s objectives is not communicated appropriately. Different cultures communicate in different ways and it is vitally important for a leader to clearly communicate to all involved within a firm.

According to behavioral theories of communication and decision-making the rational solution to a problem is not always the best answer. Therefore, when diversity creates controversy, which inhibits the development of an organization, the organization is forced to adopt other useful tactics that would result in positive outcomes. This document will focus on several aspects of cross-cultural conflicts; A)

Multicultural teams have become more common in our organizations, and contemporary international management literature has identified that the management of multicultural teams is an

Many corporate are now conducting training on cross-cultural communication for their workforce. In the US, opinions of cultural experts are invited before taking a judicial decision. In short, every person or organization can make small steps to minimize this

Diversity in culture and demographic characteristics can be a negative impact or be one of the team's greatest strengths, depending on how the team as a whole functions and applies these different “routes to success”. A group can become a high performing team by understanding how cultural and demographic differences influence group behavior. The groups must realize that they can benefit from their diversity to their advantage and into a high performance team.

Japanese advisers were perceived as focusing on the creation of consensus in teams, often leading to slow decision making while North American workers were seen as rushing into projects without enough planning. Japanese “does not invite others to be involved in

The lack of understanding in cultural differences for the three North American consultants had caused occasional disputes with the Korean consultants, and in many instances led the North American consultants into confusion.

In the case “Managing a Global Team: Greg James at Sun Microsystems, Inc. Tsedal Neeley states that lack of inappropriate communication, leadership and decision-making is root of the crisis of HS Holdings. Overall, cultural diversity is based on the idea that cultural identities should not be discarded or ignored but rather maintained and valued. In view of this, diverse cultural differences can result in organizational problems. Firstly, identify your techniques to manage his global team and recognize the root of problems. Secondly, identify you should be responsible for the crisis of HS Holdings because of miscommunication and improper leadership. Thirdly, defining the important role of open work environment and diversity play in the case in order to focus on improvement of this two. Fourthly, finding out short-term development and long-term development for James to match solving organizational problem. At the end, summing all findings in a conclusion . Mentioning Greg, he is an unquestionable technical elites. After he earned a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering from Stanford University, he chose to work for the Sun Inc. Within four years, he had risen in the Data Protection and Recovery Department. Five years later, he achieved the Sun outstanding Manager award. (Neeley and Delong 5) Now, James works on a global team management position where he is struggling with team management. Within the team there was a lot of stress being built up

Cultural Quotient is the organizational psychology and management theory, and it is all about the continuous learning and aptitude to develop personally through this learning. The differences in the intercultural do remains in the momentous challenge stage in all multinational organizations. Hence to face the challenge there is a need of a new domain of astuteness which immense relevance to the era of escalating globalization and the workplace diverse. For every manager who deals with the employee’s diverse team, competitors, customers and government this cultural quotient acts as an important tool for the successive outcomes (Earley & Ang, 2003). Moreover it will guide the manager in effective management of cross

This makes it easier for them to understand words spoken than between members of cross cultural teams where first languages and accents may differ. For example, I work with a multicultural team and I often find it difficult to understand my Turkish colleagues when they try to speak English. Many times I ask questions so that I can get the message they are trying to pass across. It however becomes frustrating sometimes because a lot of important information often gets lost in the discussion because I can’t understand properly. This has caused delay in meeting business targets in the past.

Kelly’s company put her in an unrealistic situation of requiring an answer within two days of extending her the position abroad. Kelly’s company should not have assumed because she had great success in business relationships in London and Germany, which have similar cultures to the United States, it would have implied she would have been just as successful in Japan. The company lacked in preparing her in the customs and cultural ways of the Japanese, instead only considering the financial compensation as enough motivating factor. The company should have provided training of Japanese for the family, assisted in Joe’s networking in Tokyo to locate a job and should have been readily available for Kelly’s family with any questions and provide timely follow-up. Kelly lacked in doing her due diligence into the Japanese culture and fully understand what it would take to move her family abroad. A little research on her part into Japanese culture, customs and etiquette would have provided her with forethought on how to handle herself in Japanese