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 or she has to consider. The manager needs to be aware of what influences the team, and cultural issues may have an negative impact of a given project if it is not dealt with timely and with correct approach. When talking about different cultures, one may not necessarily refer to national origins, but could also imply 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 diverse set of tools can be applied to understand and bridge between different cultures and one of them is MBI. This tool was invented by Maznevski, DiStefano.

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