CC BY
52
УДК 339.138 DOI 10.12737/13338
Получено 20.01.2015 Одобрено 10.08.2015 Опубликовано 17.09.2015
Паруль Тиаги
профессор, Государственный университет управления, Москва
e-mail: [email protected]
Многонациональные команды: человеческий вызов глобальным организациям
Аннотация
Многонациональные команды — это команды, состоящие из представителей различных культурных традиций. Развитие данных глобальных команд может быть использовано в качестве конкурентного преимущества, позволяющего применять новые, эффективные бизнес-решения. С расширением мировых рынков и повышением международной бизнес-конкуренции приходит соответствующий спрос для организаций и частных лиц, которые готовы работать в этой новой области мировой торговли. Развитие глобальных команд обеспечивает стратегии и идеи для того, чтобы занимать лидирующие позиции. Глобальные организации должны управлять разнообразием культурных традиций для создания синергии как внутри компании, так и между компанией и внешней средой. Умение управлять мультикультурной/многонациональной командой очень важно для по-настоящему глобальной компании.
Ключевые слова:
многонациональные команды, глобальные команды, разнообразная культура, международный бизнес, глобальные организации, взаимодействие.
Parul Tyagi
Professor, State University of Management, Moscow
e-mail: [email protected]
Multinational Teams: The Human Challenge to Global Organizations
Abstract
Multinational teams are the teams consisting of representatives from diverse cultural traditions. Evolution of these global teams can be used as competitive advantage allowing making of new and effective business solutions. With expanding of world markets and international business competition increasing comes a corresponding demand for organizations and individuals which are ready to word in this new area of global trade. Evolution of the global teams provides strategies and ideas to take leading positions. Global organizations must manage cultural diversity to create synergies both within the company and between the company and its external environment. Competence to direct the multicultural/multinational team is very important for a truly global company.
Keywords:
multinational teams, global teams, diverse culture, international business, global organizations, synergies.
INTRODUCTION
Multinational teams have become the central cogwheels that put global organizations in top gear for competition in a global economy. Companies depend on multi-cultural teams to leverage and align globally the functional business processes to accomplish tasks across international boundaries . Organizations field such teams at the board level, as teams reporting to the board; mission-critical merger-integration teams; product-development and clinical-development teams, which focus on both problemsolving and learning; and multi-cultural teams from various functions responsible for the global alignment of functional business processes .
But team building is a difficult exercise at the best of times and doubly so when the team members are separated by culture, language and geography (G . Davis, 1992) . The usual issues that plague team, such as how to resolve conflicts, how to communicate more effectively, how to motivate team members and how to lead teams
effectively, all become more complex with multi-cultural teams
Any organization consists of groups . Companies organize their employees into groups called teams and it is the job of human resource professional to ensure that their team keeps pace with the current rush of global competition . The productivity of teams in an organization depends on a number of factors including its task, available resources and its process . The team's process consists of the actual steps taken by individual's or the group when faced with a task i e all intrapersonal and interpersonal actions taken by the members to convert their resources into products and services along with the non-productive actions provoked by competing motivations, frustration and inadequate understanding towards the other members of the group
The increasing complexity of the workplace, much modern work requires a high degree of interdependence and interaction of employees This interaction is often relegated to a work group or team . People do not work
within the social void, rather they interact and are interdependent on others as they work and behave in an organization . (Earley & Gibson 2002) A team's actual productivity is therefore its potential productivity minus the losses caused due to faulty processes. Putting it differently, to increase a team's productivity it is imperative to minimize the process losses, especially so when the field is global
In addition to this, the single biggest organizational challenge today is the intensifying battle for talented people . This challenge of acquiring and managing talented people focuses on deploying, developing and connecting because these are the issues that employees really care about . If organizations can focus on engaging and challenging their best employees, they will retain those employees . Here also, teams come in handy as the potential that global teams offer for engaging employees is illuminating
But developing global team and building synergy out of their diversities is a challenging task. Some of the challenges to a multicultural team can be listed as: Communication barriers- language, misunderstanding, misinterpretation; Attitudinal problems of dislike and mistrust; Perceptual problems like stereotyping; Differences of ethnocentric mannerism and habits; Lack of cohesiveness or working together as a united whole ; Stress and Work place ethics
These challenges individually as well as cumulatively have a negative impact on team effectiveness, efficiency and consequently on productivity. What is the need of the hour is a meticulously planned process of imbibing the very essence of being a truly multicultural and global organization into the working of their multinational teams.
DEFINING GLOBAL ORGANIZATIONS
The company becomes global when it begins to plan, organize and coordinate production, marketing, R&D, financing, and staffing . For each of these operations, the firm must find the best location in any part of the world . In his book "A Manager's Guide to Globalization" Dr. Steven Rhinesmith (1996) says, "Going Global does not mean just doing business abroad" . In a true Global Company there is harmony between different cultures Resources and materials are moved seamlessly across different countries so that the company enjoys maximum competitive advantage Global organizations share and source their resources on a global basis When organizations adapt the Global Sourcing strategy, transformation of the company's organization to be an effective Global Organization is very critical . Sourcing human resource from around the world is an opportunity to gain the best talent available, but it is not without challenges The benefits of a global organization and its constituent teams can be reaped only after a strategic plan is put in place
and supported by the top management to create the right corporate culture
A global organization is one that transcends its home base by competing in international markets To be successful as a global firm, it must be capable of responding to customer needs from diverse and distant markets, rapidly and effectively. Not only is virtual information flow from these markets to the firm's headquarters critical, but the headquarters should be capable of processing the received information effectively. (The Hindu 2001)
Robert Reich,(1991) a former Harvard Professor, notes in his book The Work of Nations that "We are living through a transformation that will rearrange the politics and economics of the coming century" In this book, the author explains how corporations will transform and there will no national economies; how only Global Economics will dictate the direction of the organizations .
Global Organizations have several unique attributes Among other things, these organizations have:
• A value system/culture in the organizations which focuses on the competitive advantage gained by going global It is argued that diverse groups make better decisions since they cover a wider spectrum of viewpoints. A diverse workforce enhances creativity and understanding of customers of diverse markets
• Manages change associated with going global with a reflective vision, meticulous thought process and thorough planning
• Always lookfor the most profitable markets for products/ services across the world
• Institutionalize Global Mindset. The organizations have developed such leaders with mindset open and accepting to differences and diversity of all kinds without prejudices They employ people with a global mindset who can separate emotions from business decisions and make the appropriate decision that would maximize shareholder value when faced with competition, market growth, and difficult economic trends
Toyota and Wal-Mart are examples of organizations that succeed in multinational or multicultural environments and thrive in the larger business world Toyota achieved significant success in comparison to other Japanese businesses because of it's approach to work standards and to sustaining teams that are unrelenting in their drive for continuous improvement As a result, the company now has plants and facilities all over the world and a workforce that seamlessly incorporates numerous cultural differences . Another great example, Wal-Mart employees represent all cultures, the epitome of diversity in today's workplace Both these organizations possess an ability to unite their employees into a highly focused entity
with a common identity while executing a well defined strategy focused on the common goals and objectives . Mc-Donald's, IBM and Volkswagen are also examples of Global organizations .
Differentiating between Multinational organizations and Global organizations
Multinational Organizations Global Organizations
• Multinational organizations are those that have established identical units of their domestic business in different countries and markets. • Place less emphasis on managing diversity external to the firm, but effectively manages multinational diversity within the firm. • Global organizations are one step ahead of the multinational organizations. Instead of establishing identical units, the Global Organization share and source resources on a Global basis to provide superior quality product/service at the lowest cost possible. • Continually manage diversity both within the company and between the company and its external environment.
TYPES OF DIVERSITY IN MULTINATIONAL TEAMS
There is a variety of terms used to describe a team composed of members from multiple cultures
and nationalities . First the meaning of multinational team (MNT) varies considerably across the authors . Secondly and relatedly, the different meaning ascribes to MNT seem to reflect the theoretical perspective taken by the authors and/or the level of analysis of authors' data . (Shapiro et . al . 2005) . Adler (1997) refers to this type of teams as multicultural; Hambrick and colleagues (1998) use the term multinational; and Snow and colleagues (1996) use the word transnational. However, all these terms essentially refer to a similar concept, i e a team consisting of members from three or more cultures . IBM, Unilever, Hitachi, Volkswagen are often coated as Global Organizations with multinational teams
People can be diverse by way of their race, ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation, physical abilities, class, colour, job status, religion, immigrant status, language and nationality. Sherman & Bohlander (1992) in their book Managing Human Resources observe, "The biggest mistake managers can make is to assume that people are the same everywhere" . But we will refer to teams with members of more than three ethnic backgrounds as multinational Many authors tried to classify the cross cultural differences into dimensions in order to understand why people of different cultures interpret situations, actions and events uniquely and differently and react to them in different fashions Two name are worth mentioning here: Geert Hofsteade and Fons Trompenaars . Hofsteed identified five cultural dimensions of Power Distance, Uncertainty Avoidance, Individualism-Collectivism, Masculinity-Femininity, Long Term
Orientation . Trompenaars presented seven cultural dimensions: Universalism-Particularism, Individualism-Collectivism, specific versus Diffuse, Neutral Versus Affective, Achievement Versus Ascription, Time Orientation and Relationship with Environment .
According to Victor et . al . (2005), "there are, however, significant conceptual, practical drawbacks to an approach that sees national culture as distinct, overreaching systems for guiding behaviors . It tends to classify individuals and groups in terms of a single culture (Hong et al . , 2000); failing to account for the fact that it is possible for individuals to be members of different and overlapping cultures at the same time . Besides, cultures are constantly changing and are therefore fluid None the less cultural dimensions do provide a base for understanding the cross cultural differences
When people from different nations put their heads together and work as a team to achieve the objectives of their globalised organizations, they are vulnerable to be plagued by their differences, which if managed correctly can prove to be a boon
MERITS OF MULTINATIONAL TEAMS
Multicultural teams have the potential to achieve higher productivity, with respect to:
1. International marketing: Often increases understanding of global markets
2 . Creativity and problem solving: Frequently more creative in developing ideas and solutions Can perceive, interpret and evaluate solutions in numerous ways
3 . Limited groupthink: Diversity allows the team to have many perspectives of a given situation, avoiding the trap of groupthink
4 . Managing employees: From the manager's perspective people from diverse nationalities and culture often provide for better understanding of multinational employees
5 . conflicts (productive): These are based in disagreement over the means to an end or over the end themselves but in productive conflicts, interaction is guided by the belief that all factions can attain the goals by coming to a consensus.
Taylor Cox and Stacy Blake have suggested six arguments to manage the cultural diversity they are:
1. cost Argument: Given the reality of diversity in workgroups, failure to manage the special challenges that it presents may lead to higher cost structures for firms by contributing to higher employee turnover, higher interpersonal conflict, and more miscommunication
2 . Resource acquisition argument: As sources of labor become increasingly diverse, firms that are able to hire, retain and effectively utilize workers from all social-cultural backgrounds may gain an advantage in human assets over firms that less effectively meet their diversity goals
3 . Marketing Argument: By tapping the insights and understanding of people of different cultures, genders, ethnic groups, etc , firms may gain advantages in designing and selling products and services to a culturally diverse marketplace
4 . creativity argument: Human diversity in workgroups creates a richer flow of ideas and thus has the potential to increase creativity and innovation; this, in turn, can improve organizational financial performance
5 . Problem-Solving argument: Diverse perspectives create a potential for better problem solving in workforces that are culturally diverse These advantages should be observable in recognizing and defining problems as well as in generating useful solutions
6 . values argument: Organizations seek to perform on a diverse set of measures, including integrity on stated core values such as fair and respectful treatment of all members and/or promotion of equal employment opportunities in the broader society Firms must be proactive in managing diversity in order to honor these values
CHALLENGES OF DIVERSITY
TO MULTINATIONAL TEAMS
Multinational teams can be the most effective teams of the organizations if they are handled well . But it turns out that mostly this is not the case and the potential strength of diversity turns out to be the central cause for reduced productivity The main challenges faced by multinational teams can be listed as follows:
1. communication: Communication is commonly defined as "the imparting or interchange of thoughts, opinions, or information by speech, writing, or signs" It is the transference of meaning-letting others know what I mean The communication is verbal as well as non verbal It is not possible for the receiver to understand the message identically as the sender has send it because the transference involves symbolic behavior The message changes its meaning subtly from encoding to decoding as it involves the perception of the message by the receiver which is based on his cultural background This often leads to misinterpretation and misunderstanding
Kinesics or the body movements including postures, gestures and facial expressions vary considerably in their received meaning the world over Like language, symbolic nonverbal behavior developed within specific cultures and can mean different things in different cultures In Canada, the "V for Victory" sign is an insult if your palm is facing yourself If you must use this sign, face your palm outward . When Khrushchev visited the US at the height of the cold war, he greeted the press with a clasping of his hands, shaking them over each shoulder. This expression is understood to be a sign of greeting
of friends in the USSR, symbolizing the embracing of a good friend . In the US this gesture is understood to be the symbol of the winner in a battle; consequently, the US media understood the message as a sign that the USSR would be victorious over the US . The examples of misunderstood, kinesics signs is endless .
Proxemics i . e . how space is used as an indicator of intimacy conveys deeply held values and attitudes of a culture . Personal space or the region surrounding a person which he regards as psychologically his is variable from culture to culture . Estimates place it at about 24 . 5 inches (60 centimeters) on either side, 27 .5 inches (70 centimeters) in front and 15 . 75 inches (40 centimeters) behind for an average westerner Those living in densely populated places tend to have a smaller personal space Residents of India tend to have a smaller personal space . Invasion of personal space often leads to discomfort, anger, or anxiety on the part of the victim . In Canada, Personal space and body movement or gestures differ between the English and the French provinces and cities . In English areas, body movement is minimal, there is rarely touching other than handshakes, and personal space — how close someone stands — is about two feet . In French areas, people stand closer together, people will frequently touch, and gestures are more expressive
Language problems of not understanding the language of others as well as that of translation are grave. Many words won't mean the same thing to different people or many words don't translate well . The seemingly simple word "yes" is a good example of this . Some, including those from the United States, interpret "yes" to mean an agreement or commitment . Japanese strongly prefer to avoid the word "no" and occasionally say "yes" but clearly mean "no" . In Saudi Arabia, "yes" can sometimes mean "maybe".
2 . Attitudinal problems: An attitude is a hypothetical construct that represents an individual's degree of like or dislike for any issue, person or situation Attitudes are judgments . They develop on the ABC model (affect, behavior, and cognition) . The affective response is an emotional response that expresses an individual's degree of preference for an entity. The behavioral intention is a verbal indication or typical behavioral tendency of an individual The cognitive response is a cognitive evaluation of the entity that constitutes an individual's beliefs about the object Most attitudes are the result of either direct experience or observational learning from the environment According to the cognitive dissonance theory, dissonance occurs when a person perceives a logical inconsistency in his beliefs, and the behavior of others . The dissonance might be experienced as anger, frustration, or criticism When you can't logically explain and understand the
behavior of others you turn skeptical and this leads to dislike and distrust
3 . Perceptual problems: Perception is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of sensory information What one perceives is a result of interplays between past experiences, including one's culture, and his expectations. A common perceptual error of stereotyping is a generalized and simplified conception of groups Stereotyping involves a form of categorization that organizes our experiences and guides our behavior towards various groups within the society Germans are stereotyped to be very task oriented, Americans as materialists and informal, Britishers as conservatives and so on Stereotyping becomes counterproductive when we overlook the individual's characteristics and evaluate him only on the bases of the negative attributes associated with his group This often leads to unjustified prejudices. When working is a multicultural team such prejudices prove to be detrimental to the cohesiveness and productivity of the teams
4 . Differences of ethnocentric mannerism and habits:
Each nation, ethnic group or culture has its own characteristic mannerisms and way of living When people behave in ways different from us, we might find it undesirable, inferior or grounded in ignorance- a classic case of ethnocentrism An inability to appreciate things unfamiliar to you or engaging in ethnocentric mannerism can be a reason to put off other members of the team If all the members of the team hold the belief that their way of life (derived from their culture) is the best, and demean the traditions of others, it can cause problem to the functioning of teams and the organization can loose on the potential advantages of multiculturalism .
5 . lack of cohesiveness: Cohesiveness is the team's ability to act as one. Diversity makes this difficult as members with varied backgrounds find it difficult to interpret, understand and react in similar ways . A lot of resources are wasted in reaching consensus and creating solidarity Misperception, misunderstanding, misinterpretation are abound Process losses due to this, has a direct impact on group performance
6 . Work place ethics: At a conference on global business ethics, a distinguished panel of ethics experts grappled with the question: "Which is more ethical-treating people as if they were all the same or all different?" No one presumed to know the right answer to that question in every situation, and that's the crux of the problem with global business ethics According to Professor Thomas Donaldson, three major business ethical areas are gender, bribery and corruption What happens when people from different nations get together in a team carrying different degrees of acceptance or rejections to these core ethical issues?
Some scenarios to consider:
a . Your country believes in gender equality. What happens when a woman in your team is treated by local team members as a second-class, following that country's customs? What obligations do you have to her? How do you react? Western female managers face a lack acceptance in more patriarchal cultures like those of the Middle East or Asia
b . You have very strict value system on receiving gifts on job However, in the country you are working in, it is customary to exchange gifts Without offending your team members, business partners (distributors, suppliers, etc ), what should you do?
c . Your team appears to be agreeing on taking advantage of the working conditions in an overseas subsidiary that you are posted to, even though your company provides much sought-after employment. Your conscience is bothered. What should you do?
d . You are very punctual and hard working, but some members of your team are much too casual about work and almost never punctual What options do you have? Latin Americans are known for their relaxed attitude toward work
The issues are endless, but if not handled on the organizational level can lead to serious problems to multinational teams
7 . increased level of stress: Continuous problems of communication, conflicts arising out of lack of understanding, trust; exertion of getting along and performing as a team, all take a toll on the stress level of team members, who feel stressed out When team members are not at ease with each other and do not see eye to eye, they may find giving results difficult and can even feel distressed
MANAGING MULTICULTURAL TEAMS
1. Establish a vision or super ordinate: Goal members of diverse teams generally have more difficulty agreeing on the purpose and task than do members of homogeneous teams To maximize effectiveness, leaders need to help teams agree on their vision or super ordinate goal, a goal that transcends individual differences Super ordinate goals that require collaboration and cooperation usually decreases prejudices and increases mutual respect
2 . increase cross cultural knowledge through training: Wall exists between international members because of lack of proper understanding among team members . In order to knock down these walls, a global organization needs to invest in cross cultural training Cross Cultural Team Building Training will aim to raise team members' awareness of each other culturally in order to foster mutual trust, respect and understanding The result of which will
be clearer lines of communication . On personal level also employees can be encouraged to learn more about the cultures of their co workers by interacting with them and asking questions as well as by reading books and searching on the internet
3 . Encourage cultural empathy / avoid the blame game and create mutual respect: The need is to cultivate a mindset where members do not get judgmental towards members of other groups and learn to treat everyone equally and with respect For most teams to work efficiently, members must respect each other
4 . overcome language problem: Language problems between multinational team members can cause miscommunication The problem can be overcome by following a number of ways like agreeing on the use of a common language, defining key words, translating and retranslating important documents so that the soul of the matter in the document is not distorted, as well as by encouraging members to learn the major languages they will come across
5 . Breakdown walls by agreeing on norms of behavior: The differences in ethnocentric mannerism and habits often offend the members of other cultural group and one way of avoiding this is to agree upon general norm of public behavior that will apply to everyone equally
6 . encourage interpersonal activities and face to face interaction: One of the reasons that a wall exists between members of multinational teams is that they simply don't know each other. A solution to this problem is encouraging members to engage in interpersonal activities both in and out of work time . Guirdham (2005) argues that there is a greater level of communication within cultures than between them and those cultures will in fact vanish if their members communicated as much with people from outside the culture as they do with those within their cultural group
7 . cultivate leaders with global mindset: Leaders help to achieve an organization's vision. Global teams need leaders who are comfortable with the challenge of combining different perspectives and personalities in a way that
References
each contributes maximum towards the achievement of goals . They don't fall in the trap of making assumptions about people and what motivates them In Multinational organizations, leaders who can get along with all the members of the team without any prejudices or inhibitions, who are open and flexible in their approach and who believe in differences as advantages need to be cultivated and nurtured in right corporate culture
8 . careful selection and deployment: Effective global team members and leaders need an arsenal of skill and competencies, especially cross cultural ones These skills are not easily acquired or developed For most organizations, global members need opportunities either to gain skills in the first place or to use those that they already have so that they don't lose them . Consequently, organizations should look to select their team members( and leaders) from appropriate high potential and leadership development pools for this purpose . Selecting former assignees with firsthand experience working on multinational assignments and diverse workforce could help mitigate some of the struggles organizations face when working on multinational assignments and trying to retain repatriates
CONCLUSION
Global teams are the need of the global organizations They are like double edged swords that have to be managed with utmost diligence and care The advantages of a multinational team are numerous It brings increased awareness of the varied markets and customers It allows for a range of alternatives and interpretations of any given situation or problem It makes possible innovation and creativity in solving problems and developing new products But all this is not without the risk of major losses in terms of faulty process in culturally diverse teams . Diversity makes functioning more challenging because team members find it more difficult to see, understand and act on situations in similar ways . Nonetheless the need of the hour is to develop and nurture teams that are efficiently global
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