The use of culturally diverse business teams is an increasingly common situation in today’s world; especially as the world continues to become a global village. Leveraging on the cultural diverse backgrounds and experiences of members of such teams can be a source of improved performance which can ultimately reflect a competitive advantage in the business market. As Symons and Stenzel (2007) aptly state, “culturally diverse teams are more likely to engage in innovative `out-of-the-box' thinking, given their different life experiences in diverse social environments.” Another pointer to suggest that multicultural teams tend to be a source of competitive advantage in business is found in the paper by Di Stefano and Maznevski (2000) where they state that “multicultural teams have an enormous wealth of material with which to create innovative approaches to complex organizational challenges.” They furthermore state that “today’s business cannot flourish without the creative value afforded by high performing global teams.” There are several factors that are important if a culturally diverse business team is to flourish and realize its vast potential. Di Stefano and Maznevski (2000) claim that there are three imperative steps to achieving multicultural team success; namely, mapping the team; where the team members need to clearly understand their cultural differences in how they work and view success. This is often led by the team leader. Next, the team must bridge, that is, to communicate with one another, bearing in mind their cultural differences. Finally, the team must integrate, meaning that they bring together these differences and leverage on them to succeed. Symons and Stenzel (2007) also tell us that for a multicultural team ... ... middle of paper ... ...&AN=25012463&site=ehost-live . Accessed: 21st March, 2012 Lee, M.R. (2009) ‘E-ethical leadership for virtual project teams’, International Journal of Project Management, 27 (5), pp.456-463. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijproman.2008.05.012 http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.liv.ac.uk/10.1016/j.ijproman.2008.05.012. Accessed: 21st March, 2012. Brett, J., Behfar, K. & Kern, M. (2006) ‘Managing multicultural teams’, Harvard Business Review, 84 (11), pp.84-91, Business Source Premier [online]. http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liv.ac.uk/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&AN=22671287&site=ehost-live. Accessed: 21st March, 2012. Di Stefano, J.J. & Maznevski, M.L. (2000) ‘Creating value with diverse teams in global management’, Organizational Dynamics, Vol. 29, No. 1, pp. 45 – 63, http://www.genderdiversity.cgiar.org/publications/creatingvaluewithdiverseteams.pdf. Accessed: 23rd March, 2012.
Hyun, Jane. “Leadership Principles for Capitalizing on Culturally Diverse Teams: The Bamboo Ceiling Revisited.” Leader to Leader. 16 Mar. 2012: 14-19. Web. 2 Apr. 2014 < http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ltl.20017/abstract >
Keogh, Jack. "International Teams: Beyond Cultural Difference." www.jackkeogh.com. Keogh and Associate Consulting, LLC, n.d. Web. 6 May 2012. http://www.jackkeogh.com/Multicultural team article by JK.pdf
Diversity in the workplace is very important in today’s global workforce because workers in the economy all over the world are currently made up of many different ethnicities, varied cultures, beliefs, and backgrounds. People that are involved in management such as managers, and supervisors could greatly benefit from being accustomed to diversity in the workplace because their job entails dealing with a multicultural work environment on a daily basis. Knowing how to handle diversity in the workforce and having the necessary skills for supervisors would be beneficial not only to them but also to the success of the company and economy because a strong, diversified workforce will create a more “creative, innovative, and productive workforce.” (Kerby, 2012).
Kossek, E.E, Lobel, S.A & Brown, J. (2005) ‘Human Resource Strategies to Manage Workforce Diversity: Examining the Business Case’. Available at: http://books.google.com.ng/books?hl=en&lr=&id=zUYHDw_detEC&oi=fnd&pg=PA53&dq=HR+strategies+in+designing+multicultural+teams&ots=GQEMrnrt3N&sig=jXJCo2ifZdrMBa4rC-8ruKFJClw&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false Accessed: 27th March, 2012.
It was very interesting the multicultural teams concept in the lecture and seminar. Even I came across with multicultural team but I haven’t recognize our culture difference and never realized that differences in culture causes division and conflicts between member of team. Culture is primarily formed in the environment of individual childhood home and this point out those individuals brings their preferences culture to the team. This has consequence on how individuals view each other’s, leaders, decision making and communication. (Guilherme,
The purpose of creating teams is to solve a problem or issue through the use of diverse ideas and solutions. There are many times in life, whether at work or at school that one will encounter a diverse mix of personalities. Workplace diversity is everywhere, from the small corner business to the fortune 500 company, and is one of the most important challenges facing companies today. This mix of diverse personalities, gender, race, experience, and culture is what makes a team successful. This is an example of a heterogeneous team. On the other hand, a team with the same make-up, or homogeneous, has limitations on creativity, viewpoints and ideas. This paper will look at cultural diversity and demographic characteristics, specifically age, gender, expertise/ experience and how each plays an integral part in the construction of a high performance team.
However, cultural differences can interfere with the successful completion of organizational goals in today’s multicultural global business community. The traditional strategies used by management to manage a culturally diverse workforce are proving inadequate and may not be able to solve the problem of cross cultural diversity in the era of globalization Why Culture Matters in International Business? Effective handling of the cross-cultural interface is a critical source of a firm’s competitive advantage. Managers need to develop not only empathy and tolerance toward cultural differences, but also acquire a sufficient degree of factual knowledge about the beliefs and values of their foreign counterparts.
Organizational leaders who educate and appreciate cultural diversity will create an organizational culture of tolerance and acceptance. Once leadership has begun this process, he or she can share the experience with others in the industry. Implementing various training programs to address cultural diversity is imperative for competing in diverse markets (Markraiova, Caganova & Cambal,
At times cultural diversity and large groups find it difficult to accomplish task submitted where as smaller teams work well. A team should be formed stormed and continuously normed about the goals for the team to be effective
In today’s competitive world it 's a very big challenge to create a successful team in an organization, but after adding people with the multi-cultural backgrounds it becomes the quite challenging for most of the organizations and managers to handle the team efficiently. The need of multi-cultural team in any organization is increasing day by day as when the managers bring together these people with the different diversities, the outcome can be innovative, satisfactory and more concentrated results can be achieved. Nowadays the organizations have become more diverse and hence working in a multi-cultural team has become a principle. Multicultural teams are the answer to today 's complicated and ruthless worldwide environment. If a diverse team
Recent years, organisation are much more relay on diversity teams to developing products, making decisions and also gain the business success (When and how), therefore diversity team are becoming a very important element for the organisations. In USA, diversity usually refer to demographic characteristics such as age, gender, and ethnicity, however, diversity is not only refer to demographics, it also means the diversity in psychological characteristics like skills, personality, abilities, and education backgrounds (book diversity). Although team diversity leads to some benefits like the positive organisational cooperation, share the knowledge and experience, it can also leads some problems to the organisation, such as the tension between members
First of all, it is very essential to have employees from different backgrounds because they will start to accept the fact that there are different points of view, and also they will learn how to manage to work, all together, as a group without quarreling; in other words cultural diversity will enhance group functioning. Furthermore, multiculturalism makes an organization not only focus on a single market but also open to other various markets. In fact, a study has been conducted, and it perfectly proves the pros that cultural diversity has on companies. Simply, it shows how the presence of different cultures causes the majority of the employees to learn new skills, which affects the general performance of the organization. Also, it shows how this type of diversity leads to gaining access to and legitimacy with diverse markets and clients, making organizations more profitable. Another point proved by the study is that ethnic inclusiveness promotes justice among all employees because all workers have equal chances in hiring and promotion (Ely & Thomas, 2001). All in all, the research’s conclusions, the firm’s development and the employees’ opinions supported that fact that cultural diversity is one of the factors that affected the organizations
In today’s globalized world, multicultural teams accomplish a significant proportion of organizational work. Multicultural teams are formed because they improve organizational effectiveness in the global business environment. As such, multicultural teams offer huge potential to organizations. The most critical and practical challenge multicultural teams face is managing conflicts across members’ national cultural boundaries. Other cultural challenges in multicultural teams include dealing with coordination and control issues, maintaining communication richness, and developing and maintaining team cohesiveness. For multicultural teams to be effective, members must learn to address the challenges that arise from team members’ differing nationalities and cultural backgrounds.
Butler and Zander [M2] formulate a model for multicultural team effectiveness based on Composition, Communication, Conflict, and Creativity. Their model is useful but does not fully take into account past experience and is based on current activities that are used by the team members, rather than past experience from intercultural orientation. Although they do say that the cultural background of team members can positively impact the team 's