Managing Multicultural Teams Essay Example
Managing Multicultural Teams Essay Example

Managing Multicultural Teams Essay Example

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  • Pages: 3 (709 words)
  • Published: February 22, 2017
  • Type: Case Study
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Managing Multicultural Teams a case study by Jean Brett, Kristin Behfar and Mary C. Kern, is one of the attempts to offer solutions to the problems embedded in the managerial world where one or the other hurdles make their way and get onto the head of the managers and the team involved. The situations of disputes, conflicts and clashes often become part of the professional world where people from different cultures work together as a team. These situations occur not because the differences are not respected but because they are not accepted.

The case study very clearly defines how the differences in cultures create barriers and disrupts the harmony of the working environment. Also, it provides solutions to tackle these situations, which are manageable but only with the right strategy and the

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right approach. The case study talks about the challenges that a manager has to face in the situations of clashes. The most substantial among them is to recognize the causes of conflict, and finally to intervene in the way that issue can be solved on the both sides.

In the so called journey of a manger where he is suppose to hunt for the cause of discordance in the multicultural team; he may encounter that the ways in which people from western culture communicate, and the ways in which people from non western cultures communicate, create misunderstandings leading to the situations of conflict. Also, problems such as trouble with accent and fluency, different attitudes of the people towards hierarchy and authority, and conflicting norms for decision making (where some people may take decision quickly and some may need tim

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to think and decide), may be the roots of the clashes.

Along with the analysis over the inception point of the disharmony in the multicultural team, the research also highlights the strategies to bring harmony back to the situations. The first of these strategies is adaptation, where the team members themselves resolve the issues by adapting to the working conditions. The other strategies include structural intervention where a little change in the structure of the team often solve cultural conflicts, managerial intervention that is the situation where a manager has o intervene to solve issues, and finally the exit where a member may leave the team. However, the strategy that works best is the attempt of the team members to resolve the differences on their own where no higher authorities get involve and the problem is solved without reaching the saturation point. Well, leaving aside the analysis done by the researchers involved in the case study, I would like to focus on the work done by my psyche in understanding and grabbing the significance of the research.

Interestingly, the research has been done with the single motive i. e. , to provide solutions to the multicultural clashes in the organization, thus it clearly depicts what it wants to say. With the help of various examples and the illustrations that represent the serious matters in the funniest way; the case study appealed my senses and grabbed my attention, involving me in the reading. However, the part I like most about the study is that it reveals both positive and negative faces of the strategies offered as solutions.

For example if a managerial intervention

could solve the tension it can also result into sidelining the team members or making them passive observers and over dependent on the manager. However, if I look beyond the interesting and attention grabbing arena of this case study a reader could lose a grip of the reading, in an example where an American manager was isolated from the team of Japanese members for confronting the problems openly. This example, I feel, has been exaggerated and a reader could doubt about the authenticity of such situation.

Elaborating a bit, I could say that after reading the lines “They literally put my office in storage room, where I had desks stacked from floor to ceiling and I was the only person there. ” one could either say that this cannot be true and why would the American bosses let that situation happen or one could also start despising Japanese, feeling sympathising towards Americans. However, one could also ignore such things being more interested in the crux of the story.

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