Advantages and Disadvantages of Working in International Teams - Coursework Example

Working in International Teams 1. Introduction Globalization is the cause of the many changes taking place in teamwork today. Many international organizations are involved in projects spanning several nationalities, various time zones, and wide geographical distances. Working in international teams is teamwork that includes people from different nationalities and cultures. With globalization, people around the world are becoming more and more interdependent, and with the day, many organizations are diversifying and entering the global market. People from different cultures and nationalities behave differently and have antagonistic beliefs and practices. Therefore, international teams face unique challenges and therefore, their successful management is in itself a challenge. Multicultural teams form a critical part of the modern business environment. Any member willing to work in international teams must possess cross-cultural knowledge. This report will discuss various issues related to working in international teams concerning Belbin and Tuchman’s Theories. It also provides recommendations on the process to overcome multicultural challenges facing international teams. 2. International Teams Due to the rapid improvements taking place in the global scene, a team should not only have different skills but different cultures as well. Cultural diversity in teams is now a source of competitive advantage (Higgs, 1996). a) Advantages and Disadvantages of International Teams In the modern world, working in international teams cannot be avoided. Therefore, people must desire to reap the benefits of such arrangements but also learn how to deal with the problems that come with them (Cox, 1991). International teams have been found to be the ideal vehicles of overcoming many challenges facing organizations. For example, they help to transcend cultural, national and organizational boundaries (Jeanne, Behvar & Kern, 2006). They are important in providing flexibility and integrating skills and capabilities scattered across the globe. Where there are virtual teams, they provide links across geographical boundaries. International teams are catalysts for new organizational forms, and so they change the conceptions people hold about organizational boundaries (Mor Borak, 2005). International teams can promote higher levels of innovation and creativity than single cultural groups. Developing an intercultural strategy is hard because it requires various tactics to manage cultural diversity and convert the differences into a competitive advantage (Frank, 2007; Earley, & Gibson, 2002). Studies reveal that due to the diversity present, multicultural teams may quickly reach a better solution for solving complex issues. An international team can obtain synergies due to the varied cultural approaches such as human, technical and commercial approaches used in problem solving (Herriot & Pemberton, 1995). Organizations ought to understand how to deal with diversity and be in a position to operate efficiently (Oertig, & Buergi, 2006). International teams are not only gaining a competitive advantage from their multicultural identity, but they also have the capacity to develop skills that are adaptable to the local culture and make it possible for their firms to adapt to new markets (Shapiro, Von Glinow & Cheng, 2005). International teams also have their disadvantages. Working in international teams may create a situation whereby the members of the team start depending on certain dominant cultural groups or people (Maier, 2005). Some members may feel that a certain individual from a particular cultural group is dominating a meeting or seems to know more than others. Such dominant people or groups may prevent others from taking part in the affairs of the team because they need all the time to make their contributions (Shepherd, 2008). Working in international teams may also result in team members struggling to avoid anxiety and in the process not achieving their goals (Howland, 2001). Working with people of diverse cultures can create stress. International team members fight the fear of paralysis which also ends up promoting the same disease and tend to avoid conflicts. In the process, they eventually accept unwanted compromises. For example, teams may fail to tackle a major issue because they think it may undermine their teamwork (Vakola & Wilson, 2004). There is also the problem of under- or overplaying language difficulties. Diversity in culture can become a reason for massive conflicts in among team members. The language, which is the primary tool of communication, is always the first to cause misunderstandings. Work patterns and behaviours may also be sources of more conflict and therefore result into misconstrued objectives (Oertig, & Buergi, 2006). People may feel uncomfortable when they operate in a language that is not their own. When a certain group in the team is well versed with the working language, but other groups are not, it is common for members to do much to deal with language difficulties even if they acknowledge the existence of those problems (Mor Borak, 2005). Certain members may conceal their incompetencies or insecurities in the fact that they are not fluent in the working language of the team. Some cultural subgroups may develop a habit of communicating in their language in team meetings and thereby create the lack of trust and joint involvement. b) Belbin and Tuchman’s Theories The Belbin team role theory suggests the use of the personalities and talents of the members of the team for improving the performance of the team. Team performance can be enhanced by understanding how to maximize the use of psychological diversity within the team. It is never easy to achieve total cooperation within a team (Chong, 2005). Every team member may strive for cooperation, but problems will always come at a certain point. Team members have different styles, personalities, temperaments, and attitudes. According to Belbin’s theory, there are team rules among members of any team. Team roles are the easily recognizable behaviours in members of a team. Every team role can be used as a strategy for handling work and colleagues. Team roles are the best tools for using the various styles to their optimum potential. Team roles complement one another, and therefore, an international team must have different functions to achieve optimum performance (Chong, 2005). Belbin’s theory applies to certain situations. For example, in my team, there are members who have better leadership and organization skills than others. These skills display through their desire to lead and organize others in the team even without being called upon to do it. Other members are good listeners and have unequalled analytical skills. Their role in the team is to listen to the views of others, analyze them and produce well thought out ideas which add significant value to the discourse. In other cases, team roles tend to work against the progress of the team. In an organization I once worked for, I realized that teams were difficult to progress because some members were so argumentative and difficult to convince. Others were too domineering, and they always wanted to dominate the conversation, a behaviour that became exceedingly annoying to the rest of the members. Bruce Tuchman’s 1965 model is among the best known theories of team development. The focus of the theory is on how a team works on a project from the inception of the team all the way to project completion. Later own, Tuckman added another phase called adjourning and transforming which represent the completion of the project (Hurt & Trombley, 2007). The theory can be applied to tackle the challenges experienced in building international teams because the phases concern the finishing of any activity the team has worked on. A particular useful aspect of team building tasks contained in a short span of time is that team members can observe their behaviour in a particular time frame. Tuckman identifies various stages of team development including forming, storming, forming and performing (Hurt & Trombley, 2007). These stages are relevant to the development of teams, but not in all circumstances. For example, in an organization I once worked, I realized that assignments given to be accomplished in teams were completed within a very short time due to time limitations. Although team members were from different cultural backgrounds, they did not have a chance to go through the various stages proposed by Tuchman to complete projects. C. Working across Cultures A national culture is a collection of rules that determine which thoughts and actions a particular team will have (Cox, 1991). It concerns religion, morals, politics and language among others. Organizations around the world have discovered that the success of international projects requires the mastery of many challenges within a very sophisticated setting (Alexei & Milter, 2004; Halverson, & Tirmizi, 2008). Setting up international teams becomes complex because of the unique political and legal environments existing in different countries. In addition, there are issues touching on security, and economic concerns. With such issues, the issue of cultural diversity is magnified. Diversity in culture is the strong factor, and when coupled with other factors, it can cripple the activities of an international team (Porter, 1995). For a team to successfully overcome the challenges emanating from cultural differences there is need for members to start examining the values, assumptions, and beliefs of their cultures before analyzing other cultures (Guirdham, 1999). They then understand the role that geography, religion and even history play in impacting the values, assumptions, and beliefs which in turn determine which behavior a group will adopt. Team members develop a model that helps them to understand the dimensions of their native cultures (Ochieng, & Price, 2009). After this step, they are now ready to examine at what points their cultures converge or diverge from other cultures present in the team. Every member should focus on learning, recognizing and respecting the differences. Team members can then solve the cultural issues that arise from the clashes caused by differences in culture. Various international teams may employ different methods of approaching the cultural issue (Norman & Drewery, 2006). At the beginning stages of international team formation, the team may create for itself a safe hybrid culture especially when the team is high heterogeneous or adopt a dominant culture when it is moderately heterogeneous (Sangeeta, 2008). A safe hybrid culture is one in which the group does not view cultural differences as an important issue. In cases where a dominant subculture rules, the agenda and the frame of problems are defined and solved is typically set by one cultural group (Iles, & Hayers, 1997). One can easily tell the firm’s national origins and the wishes of the members of the company that a particular cultural identity should be kept alive. 3. Recommendation and Conclusion The world has become “a global village” and therefore, working in international teams is inevitable. Working in international teams has both the good and the bad side of it. As much as international teams may solve particular problems facing ordinary teams, they also present challenges due to their multicultural nature. Team members with different cultural backgrounds may complement one another due to their diversity and therefore add value to the team. This is in line with Belbin’s theory. On the other hand conflicts and disagreements may arise which may derail the activities of the team. This paper recommends that members of international teams should go through training so that they can get exposed to the cultures of other team members. Such exposure can help reduce the friction and conflicts that often arise in groups due to cultural differences (Heimer & Vince, 1998). International teams should put in place strategies for frequent and regular communication. There should be regular meetings in which team members get regular updates. Team leaders and members should promote and support the implementation of diversity initiatives. Team leaders should attend training classes on diversity (Heimer & Vince, 1998). They should also find opportunities for assigning the members of the international team projects where they have to share duties so that they can learn from one another and know each other. To make use of the diversity of the team, members ought to experiment with different ways of doing things. Through that, they can ensure that the team nurtures learning, innovation, and creativity. 4. Bibliography Alexei V.M. & Milter, G.R 2004. The value of intercultural competence for performance of multicultural teams. Team Performance Management, 10(5/6), 104‐111. Hurt, A.C. & Trombley, M.S. 2007. The Punctuated-Tuckman: Towards a New Group Development Model. Texas A&M University. Jeanne, B., Behvar, K. & Kern, M.C. 2006. Managing Multicultural Teams in Harvard Business Review, 84‐91. Frank, J.B 2007. The Global Business Leader. New York: Palgrave Macmillian. Chong, E. 2005. Role balance and team development: A study of team role characteristics under- lying high and low performing teams. Working Paper Series 1(4), Victoria University of Wellington. Cox, T. 1991. Effects of ethnic group differences on cooperative and competitive behavior on a group task. Academy of Management Journal, 34 (4), 827-847. Cox, T. 1991. Managing cultural diversity: Implications for Organizational competitiveness. Academy of Management Executives, 5 (3), 45-58. Earley, P. C. & Gibson, CB 2002. Multinational Work Teams: A New Perspective. Mahwah, NJ: LEA Publishers Guirdham, M. 1999. Communicating across Cultures. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Sangeeta, G. 2008. Mine the Potential of Multicultural Teams: Mesh cultural differences to enhance productivity. HR Magazine: October, 79‐84. Halverson, B. C. & S. Tirmizi, A. 2008. Effective Multicultural Teams: Theory and Practice. New York: Springer. Heimer, C. & Vince, R. 1998. Sustainable learning and change in international teams: from imperceptible behaviour to rigorous practice. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 2(1), 36‐43. Herriot, P. & Pemberton, C. 1995. Competitive Advantage through Diversity: Organizational Learning from Difference. London: SAGE Publications. Higgs, M. 1996. Overcoming the problems of cultural differences to establish success for international management teams. Team Performance Management: An International Journal, 19(2), pp. 83-8. Howland, J.S. 2001. Challenges of working in a multicultural environment. Journal of Library Administration, 33, 105-123. Iles, P. & Hayers, K.P. 1997. Managing diversity in transnational project teams”, Journal of Managerial Psychology, 12(2), pp. 95-117. Maier, C. 2005. A conceptual framework for leading diversity. International Journal of Human Resources Development and Management, 5, 412-424. Mor Borak, M. 2005. Managing diversity: Toward a globally inclusive workplace. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Norman W.S. & Drewery, G.P. 2006. Forming cohesion in culturally heterogeneous teams. Cross Cultural Management: An International Journal, 13(1), pp.43‐53. Ochieng, E.G. & Price, A.D. 2009. Framework for managing multicultural project teams. Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, 16(6), 527‐543. Oertig, M. & Buergi, T. 2006. The challenges of managing cross-cultural virtual project teams. Team Performance Management, 12(1/2), pp. 23-30. Porter, J.C. 1995. Facilitating cultural diversity. Journal of Management in Engineering, 11, 39-43. Shepherd, M. 2008. Managing Transnational Projects. In D. I. Cleland, & L. R. Ireland, Project Manager's Handbook: applying best practices across global industries (pp. 1- 39).McGraw-Hill. Shapiro, D. L., Von Glinow, M. & Cheng, J.L.C 2005. Managing Multinational Teams: Global Perspectives. Amsterdam: Elsevier JAI. Vakola, M. & Wilson, I.E. 2004. The challenge of virtual organisations: critical success factors in dealing with constant change. Team Performance Management, 10(5/6), pp. 112-20. Read More