Managing multicultural teams

Abstract

When a manager is working with a diverse team there will be some cultural beliefs, values and assumptions in which he has to consider. Working with a multicultural team has chance of empowering creativity and innovation. Although a multicultural team has some benefits compared to monocultural ones they will only be effective, if they solve any given problems of internal integration. Having a team of different cultures, may not necessarily be of national origins, but also implies the different spheres of organizational cultures e.g. financial department, HR, R&D, marketing etc. One of the biggest issues a manager can encounter when working with a multicultural team is neglecting the cultural differences of the team members. Two team members, who have different national backgrounds may not have the same social relationship nor time perception; one may have a high emphasis on punctuality and specific deadlines whereas another may have a less strict perception of what is timely. It is therefore not only important that the manager is aware of the multicultural differences but the team members should also understand the cultural differences.

A different set of tools can be applied to understand and bridge between different cultures and one of them is MBI.

References

Cultural frameworks

One team member may perceive time as monochronic and therefore has a high emphasize on punctuality, whereas his team member view time