Management Challenges of Multicultural Teams

I have outside the U.S. for much of my career, worked and learned what some of the challenges in managing a diverse and multicultural workforce. The following three challenges are becoming more common as more companies operate internationally and how the domestic workplace is increasingly diverse.

Cultural arrogance, or the belief that individual cultural orientation is the best thing is common in many people. These people defend their way of doingAnd other things to criticize, the different approaches to their cultural orientation. But to bend other individuals in a position to respond to their approach in a way that the cultural orientation of the group. Interestingly Alder found that the companies feel that they could train this ability, rather than renting is not (p. 33). I think the opposite is the case. The majority of companies have the challenge to the success of managers working with different groups coming from the condition that they will be able to adapt, orWorse still, the majority assumes that culture is superior than the minority, therefore, not stress this enough, business flexibility. I have seen many managers fail because they are not flexible in adapting to the needs (culture) of the local organization.

The second challenge is to communicate a clear understanding. Many managers are great communicators in their homeland, not in other cultures, because they underestimate the complexity of a clear understanding of the variousCultures. Words are either mistranslated or used different cultural filters that people produce different results or even the sound or the manners of the presenter can lead to different interpretations. An example would be an American to give a "thumbs up" for agreement, while in parts of India would be considered an obscene gesture. Take extra care and time to make sure the audience understood before one can think of to reach agreement.

FinallyUnderstanding of cultural differences around expectations can be a challenge. For example, many Americans tell me the Spanish did not work hard. After all, the Spanish start their day at 9 or 10, they take a long lunch, happy, and often have late dinner and drinks. Meanwhile, Spaniards say I find it frustrating to lunch or dinner meetings with the Americans because they do not want to spend enough time trying to get to know each other and socializing. For Americans to be a "working lunch"estimated to be as efficient use of time.

For the Spaniards, who believe that the relationship needs to be consolidated before serious work can begin, long lunches and late dinners, the ability to build trust and provide the knowledge about each other. Therefore, an American manager in Spain might be surprised that not enough work, because of all the conviviality always done instead. Meanwhile, a Spanish can not understand managers in the U.S., as the preferred group work to beover lunch, because they have a sandwich and a drink at the next meeting, rather than the time to establish the relationship. In both cases, either to an American or a Spaniard have difficulty managing a group from another culture without a clear understanding of this cultural work expectations.

References:

Alder, NJ (1983). Cross Cultural Management: Problems to be overcome. International Journal of Management and Organization. 13 (1-2), pp.7-45.

Last Updated (Friday, 01 December 2006)

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