1. Which of the four barriers for multicultural teams (or groups) have you experienced in the past? What strategies or interventions were used in response to these barriers? After considering the interventions suggested by Brett, Behfar, and Kern (2006), explain how you might change the strategy if you encounter the barrier(s) in the future and if so, why? If you have not personally experienced any of these barriers during your education or work history, research an example of a barrier from literature, explain the intervention used in that example, and your suggestions for overcoming the barrier in the future.
The world consists of many different cultures and nationalities. International business is thriving and companies need to be
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Other cultures tend to use an indirect form of communication where their true response is embedded in the presentation of the message. Accents and fluency problems also cause barriers as it is hard to understand someone with a thick accent or to speak with someone who has little knowledge and working use of a foreign language that another team member might use. The group member might have an idea of how to say something in their head but can’t find the words in another language to share the idea (Brett, Behfar, and Kern, 2006).
Some individuals on the team might also want to be treated according to their status in the organization. “A challenge inherent in multicultural teammates is that by design, teams have a rather flat structure. Team members from some cultures, are uncomfortable on flat teams” (Brett, Behfar, and Kern, 2006, p. 124). It is important to recognize the hierarchy structure of the country and how their citizens handle conflict before conducting business with them. Lastly, different cultures have conflicting norms when it comes to decision making. Some cultures like to make decisions quickly while others want to think about the decision and analyze it before coming to a conclusion as far as action to take (Brett, Behfar, and Kern, 2006).
There are four strategies, according to Brett,
Different social, professional and cultural contexts may affect relationships and the way people communicate due to of a lack of understanding or knowledge of one another’s background and culture. This could be through their race, religion, ethnicity or where they come from. Each one of these can have similar or very different ways to communicate. For example
International business meshes across multiple domains most notably market entry strategies and sociocultural variances. Factoring in those two critical aspects and giving them the right amount of attention is the separating line between success and failure. Terralumen, Blue Ridge, and Delta are all successful companies; However, by not observing the basic requirements of
In a culturally diverse team communication is difficult because they may have different linguistic backgrounds, accents which makes it difficult for the conversation within the company. Lack of language proficiency of different people will cause lack of team work and less interactions with each other. In addition, individuals will take time to come to a single opinion because diverse nationals have differing opinions regarding the task. Reacting to authority also varies because most of the western people prefer to convey their message in a direct way, while it may not be so obvious in non-western people.Hence, there are lot of conflicts in people from different cultural
Summary: Since inevitable change of diversification is taking place in the workforce due to the globalization, therefore, understanding of culture and diversity is of great importance for manager to manage a multicultural team where people has different values, beliefs and conventions. To find out how important culture and diversity are to team management in international business, this article emphasized on the important effects of culture and diversity to multicultural team and the solutions to deal with cultural barriers for manager when effectively managing a team. By comparing different types of cultural issues, results suggested that understanding culture and diversity can enhance effective-decision
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
Multicultural team often creates frustrating management situation. To solve conflicts caused by cultural differences in a multicultural team, identifying cultural problems and having different strategies for solution is important.
In linguistically diverse group, language sometimes can become a barrier for mutual understanding, thus influencing the overall communication in a bad way. In addition, imposing your own set of values on other cultures stops you to provide constructive feedbacks. That is why people become more self-aware when they jump out
Members of the multicultural team must remember four items for success. The first is different cultures interpret the same situation differently and the will deal with them differently also. Understand everyone will not have the same understanding of the situation as you do. Second, “Make sure everyone knows what the team’s goals are and how the team had decided to achieve them. Everyone must also know their roles, responsibilities, and the conditions when flexibility is warranted or encouraged.” (Smith and Lindgren, 2007). Third, an understanding must be met on how the information will be handled in the team and how to communicate it. What is polite and what is rude to all. Lastly, keep an open mind. Different cultures have different behavioral rules, thus having an impact on their decision making, risk perception, communication and social interactions.
Business operation in the international arena highly depends on the cultures observed and, how well the business incorporates those cultures in its operations. Considerations of the cultures observed in the locality where operations are to be started and the company's culture is needful. Compatibility between these aspects acts as the prospect factor for success. The
When cultures are not respected or appreciated it will effect negotiations and operations. The mix of the cultures within the departments collaborating on project teams and managing can take its toll if the organization has not been cross-trained on cultural differences. The cultural differences on conflict resolution, teamwork, and problem solving can be profound. For example, in the Japanese culture the board room is not used to have discussions. Instead the boardroom and meetings are meant for progress reports. Unlike the Western culture where we use meetings to have discussions, debate, and sometimes physically display our views when we disagree with someone. It is examples like these that can take a place in the business that will set the company back or destroy it before it can even begin. While personality cannot be changed our cultural response can be. It is a learned set of beliefs, values, assumptions, and can be constantly evolving with the right training.
The issues of communication are aggravated when communication process takes place in different cultures. This is not because of the fundamental problem of translation, or because of the difficulties for the non-native speakers of grasping distinctions when discussing an issue in a foreign language. Language reflects a culture since it is a social instrument. The more the differences between two communicators, the more likely that the context of information will be altered or lost during this transmission. If a certain culture comprises of attached values nd shared concepts, then the culture is the basis for effective communication, which enables the correct interpretation of the encoded message. Therefore, if similar words have different meanings for the mediation participants, the two
When dealing with multicultural teams, discrimination towards foreign culture is normal for managers who do not understand what multicultural would contribute to the organization.
Global business is especially complex due to the the globalization of markets. There are significant cultural differences between countries and regions, sometimes there are even multiple cultures in a single country. However, businesses must learn new innovative ways to transcend distance and culture because if they do not their corporations will never grow. Expanding to foreign countries can provide a business with millions of new customers. In order to increase business, businesses must globalize. Luckily enough, this is becoming easier since trade barriers are starting to dissolve and communication to most parts of the world today are basically instantaneous. There are many ways a company can decide to expand internationally. One of
International business involves business activities that crosses borders ADDIN EN.CITE Brooks2004145(Brooks et al., 2004)1451456Brooks, I.Weatherston, J.Wilkinson, G.The international business environment2004New JerseyFinancial Times Prentice Hall9780273682479http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=rxzkqOPM9KUCBrooks20041451451456Brooks, I.Weatherston, J.Wilkinson, G.The international business environment2004New JerseyFinancial Times Prentice Hall9780273682479http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=rxzkqOPM9KUC( HYPERLINK l "_ENREF_2" o "Brooks, 2004 #145" Brooks et al., 2004). International business does not exclude small companies neither does it only occur when a company set up operational base ADDIN EN.CITE Shenkar2004144(Shenkar, 2004)14414417Shenkar, OdedOne More Time: International Business in a Global EconomyJournal of International Business StudiesJournal of International Business Studies161-1713522004Palgrave Macmillan Journals00472506http://www.jstor.org/stable/3875249( HYPERLINK l "_ENREF_7" o "Shenkar, 2004 #144" Shenkar, 2004). The key consideration for
Cross- cultural communication usually happens when person from one culture sends a message to one person from different culture. The greater difference in participants’ culture background, the greater difference in comprehension‘s way it will shows. It is easy to understand that why does such phenomenon happens, because in a particular circumstance, we