Example Of Essay On Managing Multicultural Teams

English

Brett, Behfar and Kern wrote this article, Managing Multicultural Teams. The article is about a major international software developer, and the people who contributed information to this article were managers and members of multicultural teams from all over the world. The target audience is the organizations that operate with multicultural teams.
The article talks about the difficulties experienced by organizations that have multicultural teams, and how these operational pain-points can be overcome. The article tells us that there is bound to be operational difficulties when there are multicultural teams working together on a project. The article is in fact focusing on common problems among multicultural teams that could jeopardize their effort to achieve their predefined target such as knowledge of different product markets, culturally sensitive customer service, and 24-hour work rotations. In revealing how difficult it is to operate an organization with multicultural teams, the article shows how culture impacts work ethics in different countries, and how this major international software develop should handle its multicultural employees. The most successful teams and managers used four strategies for dealing with such challenges, and these include adaptation of cultures, restructuring teams, managerial intervention, and the not so popular exit method where a team member is removed when all other options have exhausted.
The research was conducted in the U.S. The article is referring to the difficulties the major international software developing company in the U.S and India are having. It points out why and how multicultural teams working together on a project face problems, and how they should be overcome. The research for this article was done months before it was written in 2006.
This article has immense importance, because today, most of the major outsourcing and manufacturing has moved across the borders to countries such as India, China, Russia, and Vietnam and so on. There has been a considerable change in the business world, and the focus has shifted from consolidating manufacturing and production in native countries, to moving them to third world countries because of the advantages they have. It was not very long ago that China; an unknown Communist country lived in isolation. In the mid-twentieth century, China took on a route to liberalizing business, and welcomed multinational companies to establish their manufacturing and production houses there to gain cheap labor, raw materials, and government subsidies and incentives. Therefore, when these multinationals set up their manufacturing and production units in China, there was the problem of understanding how the Chinese did business, and what was the problems the western world would face in terms of working with them. When a set of managers were sent to China to work with the Chinese, they found that their style of working differed completely with that of the American system. This led to miscommunication and delays. Similarly, in this article, Brett, Behfar and Kern (2006) narrate the problem the Americans had with their Indian counterparts. When the project manager assembled some of their employees from India and the United States to brief them on the project they were to work together on, it ran into trouble. Right from the start both the teams couldn’t reach a common delivery date. While the Americans believed that the work could be done in two to three weeks, the Indians said that it would take two to three months. As time went on, the Indians became reluctant to report delays in the production process, which the Americans thought would be completed, but when they received the report, they were shocked to see that it was incomplete. This misunderstanding led to conflict of interest and brick-bats thrown around. Such situations can be catastrophic for organizations, and so, to overcome this, managers need to understand cultures and cultural differences. As for the project, accusations flew and delivery dates were missed, and the matter became personal.
In undertaking this research, a number of quantitative and qualitative research methods were employed. Managers from different companies and countries were asked to share their views and opinions on working with multicultural teams. As a future manager, this article is an eye-opener. It gives me an insight on how to manage multicultural teams, and this is important, because today, the globalized business world has overrun borders and nationalities and encapsulated them under a single banner.

Works Cited

Brett, Jeanne, Kristin Behfar, and Mary C. Kern. 'Managing Multicultural Teams'. Harvard
Business Review. N.p., 2006. Web. 21 Feb. 2015.