Managing Multicultural teams
Introduction
Over the past few decades, there has been a rapid increase in globalization that has resulted in employees in most organizations working in multicultural environments. Workers from diverse cultural backgrounds constitute multicultural teams. With the diversity within experienced in multicultural teams, both the organization and the employees gain a wide range of benefits. However, poor management of multicultural teams may negatively affect the productivity of the workers.
Multicultural teams may present a range of benefits and disadvantages to an organization. Binsiddiq, & Alzahmi (2013) articulates lack of commitment to work and communication barriers as some of the drawbacks of multicultural teams. While cultural diversity may pose severe challenges to an organization such as frequent conflicts, low commitment levels and poor performance, it may also offer the opportunity for cultural exchanges, collaboration, sharing of ideas and innovations (Glinkowska, 2016). Various scholarly works have presented sufficient evidence of multicultural teams, presenting an array of challenges that the management has to deal with to attain effectiveness and maximum productivity in workplaces.
Cultural diversity in workplaces or organization has significant effects on employees’ levels of commitment. A study conducted by Jäger & Raich (2011) to determine the levels of commitment in multicultural teams indicated that the commitment levels decrease with increase in diversity. Besides, increased diversity within multicultural teams was associated with increased levels of delegation conflicts and processes as well as relationship conflict (Jäger & Raich, 2011). Managers have a role of enhancing cohesiveness in multicultural environments, and encouraging cooperation among member of different cultural backgrounds to increase workers’ levels of commitment.
Multicultural teams can be managed more effectively by creating suitable combinations of employees of diverse cultural practices and values. The levels of uncertainty avoidance at different team formations also have an impact on employee performance levels. A study conducted by Cheng, Chua, Morris, & Lee (2012) on self-managing teams characterized by cultural diversity indicated that the outcomes of such teams could be improved by suitable combinations of people with different cultural values. The findings of the study also revealed that the culturally diverse self-managing teams that have lower uncertainty avoidance levels in the early formation stages give better performance. In contrast, those that have moderate uncertainty avoidance, the effect on performance is more pronounced. However, in the final team development stages, uncertainty avoidance made no significant impact on teams’ performance. Instead, the relationship orientation of team members is what affected performance. Therefore, in multicultural teams that are self-managing, cultural orientation plays significant roles in determining performance in the various phases of team formation.
There are various types of multiculturalism among teams. According to Chevrier (2013), there are three primary forms of cultural diversity in multicultural teams which include political culture, professional culture and company culture. Company culture encompasses the values, rules and standards set by a company that every member of the organization must comply with. Company culture plays a critical role in promoting cohesiveness within multicultural teams (Chevrier, 2013). Since all employees regardless of their cultural orientation, share the same values and standards, there is greater cohesiveness, improved communication, better staff cooperation and communication. However, variations in company culture among workers may negatively affect the productivity of the workers.
Variations in political cultures may characterize multicultural teams. Different countries or states vary in the manner in which they govern their people. There are variations in the manner in which people are socialized, and their judgments of different actions also vary. With variations in political cultures, the different teams interpret management practices differently. Such variations in political cultures may culminate in conflict and misunderstanding among members of multicultural teams (Chevrier, 2013). Multiculturalism may also take the form of variation in professional cultures. According to Chevrier (2013), job and industry sector are the main modifying factors since people performing similar jobs have similar professional cultures. The same case applies to the professional cultures of individuals in the same industry sectors. Variations in professional cultures among employees in different jobs or industry sectors may spark off recurrent conflicts. With the various forms of cultures, proper management is critical in minimizing conflicts, enhancing communication and increasing productivity.
Management and strong leadership are critical for effective management of multicultural teams. According to Cheng, Chua, Morris, & Lee (2012), communication barriers may exist in multicultural teams due to variations in cultural values and their orientation. Such variations may result in interpersonal conflicts which affect effective communication and hinder team effectiveness. The management should promote effective communication and possess conflict resolution skills to deal with conflicts that emerge as a result of the diversity of cultures within the organizations.
The managers play critical roles in shaping the performance of employees in multicultural environments. According to Glinkowska (2016), managers working with people from diverse cultural backgrounds must acknowledge variations in values and practices in the different cultures hence they should be willing to assimilate and accommodate new values, business practices, ideas, cultural assumptions and technologies. Besides, the management must put in place measures to ensure equal treatment of all employees, effective communication and conflict resolution strategies (Glinkowska, 2016). Therefore managers play significant roles in ensuring smooth operations and effective communication among members of multicultural teams.
Cultural impact and team leadership may persist as a challenge affecting multicultural teams unless mitigation measures such as training and capacity buildings are conducted. Building the skills of managers on handling multicultural teams will go a long way in enhancing productivity, promoting cooperation and cohesiveness in to improve culturally diverse working environments. Such measures would be critical in enabling the organizations to tap the talent and innovativeness found in the multicultural teams while minimizing the costs and other implications of adverse effects of cultural diversity in teams.
References
Cheng, C. Y., Chua, R. Y., Morris, M. W., & Lee, L. (2012). Finding the right mix: How the composition of self‐managing multicultural teams’ cultural value orientation influences performance over time. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 33(3), 389-411.
Chevrier, S. (2013). Managing multicultural teams. J.-F., Chanlat, E. Davel, et J.-P. Dupuis, Cross-Cultural Management: Culture and Management Across the World, New York: Routledge, 203-223.
Jäger, M., & Raich, M. (2011). The management of multicultural teams: Opportunities and challenges in retirement homes. Journal of Management & Marketing in Healthcare, 4(4), 234-241.
Glinkowska, B. (2016). Managing teams in the multicultural organizations. Journal of intercultural management, 8(2), 55-70.
Binsiddiq, Y. A., & Alzahmi, R. A. (2013). Work Engagement and Group Dynamics In Diverse and Multicultural Teams: Critical Literature Review. Review of Management Innovation & Creativity, 6(19).