Respond to the following discussion with at least 50 words:
Managing multicultural teams can be challenging because of the potential for different expectations goes up as you have people coming from different cultural background. Dealing with multicultural, a diverse group may require the skills to lead teams well in general. However, there are some particular issues that international managers might face when they are working on a global project;
1. Having different views about hierarchy- because you are working with different cultures, it is not possible that your members may have attitudes about the status that lead to different expectations of how the team members should treat Example, teams members from a low-power-distance a culture like the Netherlands may want to treat everyone equal, while a team members from higher-power-distance like Belgium they think that is it vital to defer people with more status.
2. Fluency problems- culture is linked to a team member’s primary language. The team member who is not fluent in their the primary language used by the other team will have trouble getting their points and knowledge across. These will result in being incompetence, frustrations, and preclude the team from valuable expertise from all its members.
3. Decision-making norms that conflict- multicultural teams have different views about how much analysis needs to finish before decisions are made (McFarlin, 207). As a result, the member becomes impatient as they want to make a decision quickly, while other member wants to gather more time and gather information.
I believe it is essential that an international manager should carefully assess the problem confronting a specific multicultural team and consider their background. Adaptation plays a vital role in solving problems in multicultural teams. Engaged with your counterpart, work together collaboratively to identify the problem and fix the problem, in this way, this tends to work best with perspective who can recognize as well as acknowledge the cultural differences while being motivated. As mentioned in the video, the international manager should ready in confrontation. State your problem in intentive terms and don’t be definitive. Engaged your counterpart in defining the problem and defining the solution. Try not to take it personally, Try not to be defensive, Try not to withdraw but instead engaged with other party and understand what the problem is.
References:
McFarlin, Dean & Sweeney, Paul. (2018). Managing Diversity in Multicultural Teams and International Partnership: International Organizational Behavior (197-211). Routledge: New York.
Secrets of Cross-Cultural Cultural Communication (7/31/2015). Kellogg School of Management.