Managing Intercultural Teams

Global Work Environments Use Global Teams

Mar 25, 2009 Nancy Longatan

Team leadership for various project-focused tasks is an important skill for business in today's global business environment.

The complex work of modern knowledge intensive industries requires input from a variety of professions and skill sets, more than a lone worker can be expected to master. And since global business is growing rapidly, managers can expect to work with teams whose members represent multiple cultural dimensions of interpersonal communication, work, and structures.

In such a situation, opportunities for misunderstanding and miscommunication abound, but the opportunity for magnifying the productivity of the group into deeper and more robust results is also great. What resources can a manager bring to the orchestrating of work in an intercultural team?

Culture Dimensions of Team Leadership

North American and Western Europe exemplify cultures in which individuals expect to compete, putting forth their own ideas forcefully in the expectation that others can be persuaded to go along with the one whose idea is most powerfully expressed. Such an approach to work in a group can be expected to generate a great deal of “noise”: conflict, debate and friction. Successful groups working within this paradigm will channel their competition into improving the work itself, but the obvious danger is that conflicts in interpersonal communication can lead to emotional overtones interfering with the task at hand.

In contrast, many Asian cultures value a low-key, courteous working environment, where individual differences are kept to a minimum so that the various dimensions of the problem or task can be discussed without challenging the cohesiveness of the group. Working in this way, groups may be able to discuss ideas in more depth, free of the need to “push” one or another approach. However, the danger here is that frictions may be buried or ignored for the sake of harmony, only to erupt later in another area or relationship.

Learning to Use the Strengths of Multicultural Diversity

It should be clear that the management of an intercultural team with a variety of values and work styles will be a complex task. A team leader must be alert to the group’s working process and the development of relationships and interpersonal communication as well as ready to guide the group in learning to take account of and benefit from the strengths offered by the varying cultural dimensions of the members.

This group process and learning focused form of management may fly in the face of an organizational culture that demands quick results. True team work takes time, even in a monocultural situation, and more so in the multicultural working environment of today's global business. Group members must be encouraged to make explicit their own approach to team work, and to clarify not only the contribution they are making, but also the way a contribution is being made. Time invested on these processes early in the life of an intercultural team can pay off in hugely increased productivity later.

International, Intercultural Teams are a Fact of Life

Intercultural teams are a fact of life for businesses and work places of all kinds. Although multicultural diversity can be seen as a liability if it is not managed well, it can be a powerful asset if approached thoughtfully and respectfully. The world’s cultures have developed in differing environments and specialize in resolving different types of problems. The more cultural knowledge a manager can access, the wider the range of solutions that can be generated for accomplishment of the team’s tasks. No culture lacks useful insights, and all can offer important strengths to global business outcomes.

The copyright of the article Managing Intercultural Teams in Business Management is owned by Nancy Longatan. Permission to republish Managing Intercultural Teams in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Cultural Knowledge for Global Business

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