Culture
An essential term we should clarify when discussing international teams is ‘Culture‘.
It is very difficult to define culture with few words. Even in dictionaries and lexicons the statements regarding the word culture differ. Furthermore there are multiple elements like geographical location, race, religion, etc. which have to be included to construct a definition of culture. Brooks Peterson writes in the book ‘Cultural Intelligence‘ that: „directions for defining culture seem limitless, and perfectly correct definitions of culture can be so varied that it’s no wonder people can be at a loss to articulate just what culture is…“ (Peterson, p. 17, 2004).
Despite this attitude Peterson tried to formulate an acceptable definition in saying: „Culture is the relatively stable set of inner values and beliefs generally held by groups of people in countries or regions and the noticeable impact that those values and beliefs have on the people`s outward behaviours and environment“ (Peterson, p. 17, 2004).
Out of the quotes mentioned before we can conclude that culture is very difficult to define. However, it has somethinge to do with values, beliefs and also behaviours. The author Simon Sinek tells us in one of his presentations: „If You Don’t Understand People, You Don’t Understand Business“ of the phenomenon that people who go on holiday far away from home tend to meet other people who originally come from the same home country. They immediately feel familiar with each other and often become friends. In Sineks opinion this happens because human beings are willing to collaborate with similarly wired people. The demand of human beings to find a like-minded person with a basic understanding of their values and beliefs is very strong. This is how the aforementioned phenomenon could be explained best.
To put it in a nutshell we createg the thesis that there is an enormous number of elements which have to be considered if we want to come up with definition of culture and as a result of that it brings us to the conclusion that the term culture should only be defined if it is mentioned in a given context. However there is a strong significance that people’s values and believes build the foundation of cultural thinking.
Cultural Differences and Cultural Diversity
Now that we have defined a thesis about the term culture we show seven categories mentioned by the authors Harris, T. Moran and V. Moran, which help us understand cultural diversity. They should illustrate the wide spectrum of factors to be considered when managing an international team (Harris, T. Moran & V. Moran, p. 5, 2004).
Sense of Self and Space: Cultures can interpret the comfort one has with self in a different way. Self-identity and acceptance can be manifested by humble bearing in one culture and by macho behaviour in another. For example Americans have a sense of space that requires more distance between individuals, while Latins and Vietnamese will stand closer together. Some other cultures are very structured and formal, while others are more flexible and informal. Each culture probates self in a unique way (Harris et al., p. 5, 2004).
Communication and Language: People are not able to communicate their innermost desires, considerations and feelings as fast and as free of misunderstanding in a language that is not their native language. Some nations have fifteen or more major spoken languages, and within one language group there are dialects, accents, slang, jargon, and other such variations. Furthermore often the meanings given by gestures differ by cultures. So not only the verbal part of one language differs to another one but also the nonverbal part (Harris et al., p. 5-6, 2004).
Dress and Appearance: Not only the language makes a difference between cultures also the garments and adornments as well as body decorations tend to be culturally distinctive. Each nation has its special style, for example the Japanese kimono, the African headdress, the Englishman’s bowler and umbrella, the Polynesian sarong, and the Native American headband. Some tribes smear their faces for battle, while some others, especially women, use cosmetics to manifest beauty (Harris et al., p. 6, 2004).
Food and Feeding Habits: Also the manner in which food is selected, prepared, presented, and eaten often differs by culture. Simply put, one man’s pet is another person’s delicacy. Hindus are not allowed to eat beef while Americans love it. In Muslim and Jewish culture it is forbidden to eat pork although Chinese and others eat it extensively (Harris et al., p. 6, 2004).
Time and Time Consciousness: Especially the sense of time differs by culture. Some are exact and others are relative. Usually, Germans are precise about the clock, while many Latins are more casual. There is also a difference in the sense of seasons of the year. Some areas of the world think in terms of winter, spring, summer, and fall while for some others the more meaningful designations may be rainy or dry seasons (Harris et al., p. 6, 2004).
Mental Process and Learning: Edward Hall, who is an anthropologist, maintains that the mind is internalized culture, and the mental process involves how people organize and process information. Life in a particular locale defines the rewards and punishment for learning or not learning certain information or in certain way, and this is confirmed and reinforced by the culture. It is known that Germans stress logic, while the Japanese and the Navajo reject the Western idea of logic. For a Hopi Indian logic is based on preserving the integrity of their social system and all the relationships connected with it. Some cultures prefer abstract thinking and conceptualization, while others favour rote memory and learning. To put it in a nutshell it seems universal that each culture has a reasoning process, but then each manifests the process in its own distinctive way (Harris et al., p. 8, 2004).
Work Habits and Practices: The last dimension of a group’s culture, which we want to mention, is its attitude toward work, the dominant types of work, the division of work, and the work habits or practices, such as promotions or incentives (Harris et al., p. 8-9, 2004).
These seven general classifications are a basic model for assessing a particular culture. It does not include every aspect of culture, nor is it the only way to analyse culture. It should only help to understand that there are many differences between cultures and that culture is a complex system of interrelated parts that must be understood holistically.
International vs. Single culture Management- the Differences
An important question for the distinction between international and single culture management is: Are there are any differences between the tasks of managing in a single cultural context and an international or a cross-cultural context? In the article: ”Leading International Teams: A New Discipline“ it is mentioned that leading international teams is not like leading any team with usual features plus cultural dimensions. Actually leading international teams means the following: „Intertwined cultural mindsets produce a new mixture of how teams should be managed.“ (Hofielen & Broome, p.1, 2000)
Thomas Jefferson cities in his famous book „Great American“ G. Took and D. Beemann, who formed the following definition of international management: “International management is a determination and completion of specific actions and transactions conducted in and/or with foreign countries in support of organization policy” (Jefferson, p. 5, 1997). In a more modern definition of Eberhard Duelfer and Bernd Joestingmeier the disparity between ordinary and international management is demonstrated well:
“International Management” comes into its own when the range of operations undertaken by a corporation or comparable institution extend beyond the national border in which it is registered, referred to here as the “country of origin”. Assuming that management activities are directed not only at the input of material resources but also include the co-ordination of human activities beyond national borders, international Management as such necessarily addresses goal-oriented communication with foreign interactional partners. (Duefler, Joestingmeier, p. 4, 2011)
To outline this quote it can be said that whenever there is a geographical border concerning a business activity we must talk of international management. This sounds very simple but should an international manager only consider a geographical diversity or is it also essential to consider diversity aspects concerning culture, males, ages, etc.?
The next chapter deals exactly with this question. There it should be clarified how great the relevance of cultural diversity actually is in a team.
Managing International Teams- The Discipline
The main part of this essay deals with the problems occuring when managing a team with international members or in an international area. It is split into two parts. First we concentrate on problems of cultural diversity in teams and in the second part we focus on the complexity of managing teams in an international area and enviroment.
Problems of an International Team
The seven categories which are described in chapter 2.4 should give us a general overview of the topic of cultural diversity. Nevertheless understanding an international team consisting of cross cultural team members is more than being aware of cultural differences. However these differences can cause imbalances like member exclusion, subgroups and other outcomes.
For that we now try to focus on the question: what are the considerable factors referring to cultural diversity, which have to be overcome so that successful teamwork is possible? In addition it should be discussed if there is a difference leading an international team in contrast to an ordinary team?
As related to the first question the article „Managing Multicultural Teams“ in the Harvard Business Review can be paraphrased where it is mentioned that cultural problems inside a team are difficult to realize and moreover difficult to analyse. As a matter of fact they are often only recognized after insurmountable personal ‘gaps‘ have already arisen. (Brett, Behfar & Mary C. Kern, p. 1, 2006)
Brett, Behfar and Kern filtered out four essential ‘cultural challenges’, which could occur when working in a multicultural team. Despite the fact there are plenty more, a multicultural team manager should know that explicit cultural problems could emerge because of: different communication styles, accents and fluency in speech when collaborating in a foreign language, the hierarchy style in a team, ways of solving conflicts as well as the style of making a decision.
Concerning the communication style it could be said that there are two different types: the first one is talking, asking and discussing in a direct way. Especially in western countries it is widely common to give your counterpart exact and brief information what you want, how things should be done and especially how to do things differently. Non-western cultures tend to circumscribe a problem because harmony in a team is one of the most important factors for them so that they can perform well.
A reason of conflict could also be the fact that articulating in a foreign language is very difficult.
It often leads to problems of misunderstandings ore even not gaining the ‘right status of competence‘ because of not finding the right words and not be able to speak fluently. (Brett et. al., p. 1-2, 2006)
Furthermore people become afraid of communicating freely and as a consequence of that the whole collaboration process takes more time and the working process is not as efficient. The authors Hofiele and Bromme believe that especially in terms of building team cohesion it is important to face the aforementioned challenges and not to underestimate them. (Hofiele et al., p. 1, 2000).
Another difference in various cultures is the understanding of hierarchy in a team. According to the Brett, Behfar and Kern a team generally is ‘flat structured‘, however in some cultures ‘higher status‘ team members are treaded in a different kind of way.
A good example is mentioned in their article, which narrates a story of a U.S. team member of a Korean-U.S. Team, which had problems to receive information from their Korean colleagues. For this reason they contacted the superiors of the Korean Members. The result of the US team members’ intention to solve the problem was that the differences in the team became worse because Korean superiors felt disappointed. Their attitude was that only the Korean team members should confront their own superiors with upcoming problems. Moreover the Korean team members felt in a way incorrectly treated by their US colleagues because they felt overlooked.
Connected to the aforementioned problem is the last challenge described in the article “managing multicultural teams”, in particular the way of making decisions. If we want to describe possible problems standing in connection with that it is useful to compare the ‘Western‘ style of making decisions with the Asian style. Brett, Behfar and Kern interviewed a manager working for a US Company who was negotiating to buy Korean products. He narrated the difficulty of the negotiation with the following words:
„On the first day, we agreed on three points, and on the second day, the U.S.-Spanish side wanted to start with point four. But the Korean side wanted to go back and rediscuss points one through three. My boss almost had an attack“.
In the US economy it is usual to make decisions in a short time while Asian businessmen are willing to analyse and understand the content of the whole agenda. (Brett et al., p. 3-4, 2006)
As we could see there is a high potential of upcoming problems when collaborating on an international team. Even though there are plenty more, we think that these are the major problems such a team has to face.
Now that we know the challenges of an international team we try to focus on the solutions for solving the problems and be well prepared for the challenges. The following chapter should figure this out and also point to the fact that some requirements for the solution strategies have to be given.
Solutions for International Teams
Although we know that multicultural teams have additional problems in comparison to the general problems of a team. Members out of various cultures could be a great benefit for the team performance. However team cohesion, motivation and efficiency are important factors, which build the foundation for successful teamwork.
In chapter 3.1 we discussed possible problems and challenges when working in a team of people with different cultural backgrounds. It was mentioned that there are far more potential reasons why international teams fail. This implies almost the same amount of strategies of how to solve these issues.
We want to concentrate on general requirements and strategies, which the team should use as well as specified strategies of a team leaders or team managers to guide and govern an international team. First of all a basic requirement like in every team is that everyone exactly knows the goal/s and the purpose of the team. Like in every team there has to be only one direction where all team members should go and everyone has to know why they go this way. (Early Gardner, p.5, 2005)
In the article „International teams: beyond cultural differences“ the purpose of a team’s existence is explicitly highlighted beneath the factor of a shared aim. (Keogh, p.2, 2006)
For us it seems to be plausible that people, who come together from different parts of the world, must know what they fight for and why they do this. In this connection a common goal could be seen as a common value.
Another important part of the strategy answers the question: How could each member use his awareness of culture diversity for contributing to the team’s success? Often people know that different religions, languages or behaviours could lead to certain kinds of problems. However they do not exactly know how to fix such a problem effectively.
If we want to answer this question we first have to understand our own culture by analysing our own values and beliefs. After teammates have got an idea of their own personality, convergences and divergences between other members should be worked out as a way to respect the different culture types (Keogh, p.3, 2006)
In the article „Managing multicultural teams“ this task is called ‘Adaption‘. It is seen as essential to „adapt practices or attitudes without making changes to the group’s membership or assignments. In addition the support the theory of Keogh that team members have to acknowledge their differences so that the team could develop strategies of how to live with them (Brett et al., p.5, 2006). It has to be said that this requires two important soft skills of each member: ‘emotional intelligence as well as ‘social competence‘.
Emotional Intelligence means: „to be aware of, understand, and manage both your own as well as other people’s emotion in order to adapt to life’s demand and pressures (Stein, p. 44, 2009).
In the article „International Teams: Beyond Cultural Differences“ emotional intelligence is seen as one ‘emerging factor‘ because people can work more effectively together. It is easier for them to understand and respect their counterpart, which is especially important if people with different values and beliefs come together (Keogh, p.3, 2006).
Concerning social competence Douglas Gresham could be quoted who said: “social competence represents an evaluative term based on judgements (given certain criteria) that a person has performed a task adequately“ (Gresham, p.146, 1986)
Because this definition appears a little bit abstract we claim that social competence is the ability to associate individual aims and mindsets with the goals and culture of the group.
A third important requirement for good teamwork is a functioning team culture. Although we know that every team needs a clear structure, rules and common values, we want to highlight this requirement as explicit important for international teams.
In the article International teams- beyond cultural differences the team culture is called ‘support system. This system should set the guidelines for all members. It has to do with how to convey disagreement, the communication style and furthermore the planning of the project (Keogh, p.3, 2006).
The authors Early and Gardner support the thesis of Keogh and highlight in their book „Managing multinational teams: global perspectives“ the ‘rule clarity for social interaction‘ as explicit important. There are big differences between cultures whether personal feelings are strongly expressed or controlled. As a reason of that teams should set rules of how to communicate to each other so that an agreeable working environment for all members is guaranteed (Early, Gardner, p. 8-9, 2005).
Now we have to ask how could this agreeable working environment or the before mentioned ‘support system‘ be monitored and who intervenes if something goes wrong?
In this case the team leader plays an important role. In our opinion a leader should guide and govern all the aforementioned activities. According to Hofelein and Broom a leadership team should be set up. Especially in international teams it is important that these leadership team contains more leaders out of various cultures because one person probably would be biased in his/her own cultural ways.
On this leadership team it should be adamant that ground rules in a team are agreed upon from the beginning. At the very beginning of their collaboration, teams often underestimate possible future problems. They communicate very carefully and politely with each other (Hofelein et al., p.2, 2000).
In stressful situations they might not keep their emotions under control and destroy a good relationship with the counterpart through their reaction.
In the article „managing multicultural teams“ a good example concerning setting norms is noted:
„...a multicultural software development team’s lingua franca was English, but some members, though they spoke grammatically correct English, had a very pronounced accent. In setting the ground rules for the team, the manager addressed the challenge directly, telling the members that they had been chosen for their task expertise, not their fluency in English, and that the team was going to have to work around language problems. (Brett, Behfar and Kern, p.6 , 2006)
It should show that a team leader should clarify certain ground rules as soon as possible. Otherwise this could lead to an inefficient method of work.
An interesting idea is stated by the author Dipak Kumar Bhattacharyya, who thinks that it is difficult to train people how they should cooperate because in the ‘heat of events‘ people move back to their basic behavioural modes (Bhattacharyya, p. 295, 2010).
From that point of view we can say that the team as well as the team leader both have to do their best because both parts are needed to set and preserve ground rules and team culture.
This implies that a leader or a leadership team should not act like a dictator. It is essential to guide the team members in decision making but however managerial intervention should be used effectively to sort out problems (Brett et al., p.6 , 2006).
Now to sum up we can say that in an international team the most important aims are: the development of common values, the respect of personal and cultural differences as well as dealing with this differences and finding a team culture that implies clear rules of how to interact.
The team leader should control these processes but only in cooperation with his teammates.
International Environment
In chapter 3.2 we talked about international teams and their complexity. In times of globalization we do not only have to handle dynamics inside teams but also the dynamics of the working environment, which also influences the process of work together. In this chapter we want to show that external dynamics are part of the challenges of international teams. The reader should gain an overview of the complexity of an international or global environment.
Many companies choose the way of ‘going global‘ to increase their shares of the market. To achieve that goal all kinds of teams like departments, affiliated companies or other business teams have to handle various challenges to reach the required success.
An international working environment consists of insecurity and changes in short frequencies (Coade, p.1, 1997). They are caused by the external influences of stakeholders like local government, suppliers, customers, etc.. However external insecurities could be reduced by gaining information about the values and aims of the stakeholders as well as local laws and the ethics of the country in which the team is acting (Coade, p.1, 1997). So we could say that a ground rule for teams acting in an international environment is to fully understand the environment in which they are acting.
The use of this knowledge is very important for the integration of the underlying environment. It might sound somewhat exaggerated but internationally acting teams have a chance to create a ‘shared value‘ through collaborating with the environment.
The understanding of an international or foreign environment could be used to integrate this environment. In a way this has something to do with the shared value approach.
But what exactly is shared value?
„The concept of shared value can be defined as policies and operating practices that enhance the competitiveness of a company while simultaneously advancing the economic and social conditions in the communities in which it operates.“ (Kramer and Porter, P.6, 2009)
If we adopt this approach to a team then we could say the aim is to increase your team success through optimizing the environment. The understanding of the environment, especially if is not well known (like in a foreign country), is an important requirement for creating this general benefit.
Now that we know what shared value is and that it could be beneficial for an internationally acting team, we have to find out how this approach could be implemented by such a team.
Implementing Shared Value in general business means to build ‘supportive industry clusters‘ at the location‘ of a company (Kramer et al., p.7, 2009). For an internationally acting project team this could mean to inform the local government about the aim of a project and cooperate with local companies, which could support the project.
Although there would be some more examples, we can conclude this chapter by saying that an internationally acting team has to understand the setting in which it performs and as a further consequence use the gained information to integrate this setting for a general benefit.
Conclusion
Our goal was to look at the challenges teams consisting of members out of various cultures have to face. We have found out that cultural differences trigger mistrust and a high level of . Out of that good team cohesion is difficult to reach and an effective working infrastructure might not be built.
In the following chapter we tried to figure out ways to prevent these things to happen or develop strategies to intervene. It turned out that a team has to find coherences through values they share and work successfully through following the set up rules as well as following a firm goal.
The leaders of an international team should incorporate the multicultural context of the team when making decisions and guide such a team through support and through a cooperating leading style.
In our last chapter we focused on the environment in which an international team is operating.
Therefore we detected that extern factors have to be taken into account when working as an international team. They have to be understood and used as an advantage for a team.
To sum up this paper we want to say that an international team has many chances to outperform an ordinary team. However it has to fully overcome obstacles to be successful.
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Brett J., Behfar K., and Mary C. Kern, (2006). Managing multicultural teams
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Dipak Kumar Bhattacharyya (2010). Managing cross cultural teams
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