Managing multiculural teams Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Managing multiculural teams - Essay Example The article provided an example of American team working with a Korean group. The Americans communicated a problem directly to the superiors of the Korean team. This created lots of problems because in Korea the cultural norm is for the Korean workers to explain the problems to their superiors, not for outsiders to identify the problems. Resistance to change often occurs in multicultural work teams. It is hard for people from different cultures to accept the social norms of others. The language barrier can create communication problems in multicultural teams. The knowledge I gained from reading this article can be put to good in the future by me. I leaned that it is imperative to have patience and understanding when working in multicultural teams. Due to the diversity of the U.S. workforce it is common for employees to face situations that require cultural understanding. The United States is a multicultural society. I realize after reading this article that the cultural factor is a variable that must be considered by managers. An issue that was mentioned in the article that can lead to miscommunication is direct and indirect communications. Sometimes indirect communication can lead to problems because an employee may misinterpret the message. In the future I planned on taking a proactive approach to multicultural team settings. I will study and learn about the culture of my co-workers in order to better understand their point of views. The four strategies that were suggested by the author of the article to deal with multicultural team issues were adaptation, structural intervention, managerial intervention, and exit. The adaptation strategy is more effective when team members are willing to acknowledge and name their cultural differences and assume responsibility for figuring out to live with them (Brett & Behfar & Kern). A positive aspect of this strategy