Building Successful Team Through Understanding Cultural Differences

‘Building successful teams through understanding of cultural differences’

Author: Tatyana Bystrushkina

Outline

I. Multinational companies ought to operate successfully without conflicts provided there is genuine understanding of cross-cultural communication by management and members of the teams.

II. Roots of conflicts in multinational teams

A. Different perceptions

B. Cultural shock (VADYBA /MANAGEMNT.Nr.3-4)

C. Available trainings for teams

III. Cross-Cultural Communication ( The Lewis Model)

A. Cultural types by Richard Lewis

B. Understanding cultural types

IV. Conclusion

Today, in the era of globalization, companies no longer belong to certain nation and are called multinationals, primarily because they unite teams represented by numerous nations from all over the world. Multinational teams proved to be more successful in implementing posted aims due to diversified approach to the task fulfillment. But this cultural diversity may lead to conflicts due to misunderstanding among members of the team and thus failure in attaining common goals and total disaster inside the team. Is it possible to prevent conflicts and build strong team with common goals? In this paper, I will prove that multinational companies ought to operate successfully without conflicts provided there is genuine understanding of cross-cultural communication by management and members of the teams.

Conflicts in multinational teams often occur because different cultures perceive verbal, non-verbal means of communication, space, values, attitude in different ways. This may lead to cultural shock. According to VADYBA/MANAGEMNT. 2006 m.Nr.3-4 (12-13) “Cultural shock …. is a feeling of disorientation connected with the fact that people are exposed to the necessity to communicate and cooperate with someone who perceives the situation differently and does things in different way’. This can be seen at working level of organization in daily...