MAR038 Intercultural Business Competencies Assignment Sample
Introduction
Working in international teams needs adequate collaboration as well as inclusivity in order to succeed by complying with relational business objectives and goals. In this regard, several multinational organisations are already notified to put a profit focus on the maintenance of collaboration for their international assignments, which has been helping them to ensure lucrative outcomes.
The present report will pay attention to critically enlighten the consequences of working in international teams. Different theoretical attributes would also be added in this case that will help to effectively differentiate the prospects of international team management.
Scope
The aim of this report is to critically evaluate the consequences of managing international teams from a business perspective. This report would include subsequent elaboration regarding international team management with the combination of both academic as well as evidence-based interpretation. This report will also investigate relational areas implicated with intercultural team management in order to capture the real image of global operations with a diversified workforce.
Research limitations
The outcome of this report has been limited due to time constraints as the obtainment of adequate time might have added a greater value to this study with more descriptive elaboration of the topic as well as research context. Moreover, the report has not paid attention to highlight specific industry or organisation oriented analysis that might have predominantly enlightened strategies undertaken for coping with international team management in a business.
Procedure
The overall report has been conducted with the usage of secondary information available in the accessible public domains. With the help of this secondary data and information, the report has been able to put up a sequential discussion regarding the prospects of international team management.
Methodology
In order to ensure accuracy and validity of the data and information, updated and authentic sources are considered for data collection. For instance, the Google scholar database has been explored in order to collect different journal papers and academic evidences related to the research area. Authentic websites and news articles are also considered in this report in order to enhance the reliability and accountability of the study.
The investigation method for this report highlights the consideration of observation. This method has been helpful to put up an evidence oriented discussion to signify the concept of international team management. Secondary data collection method is preferred in this case due to its easy availability as well as time and cost optimisation feature.
The secondary qualitative process is considered for analysing collected information. In this case, different themes are created with regards to the research topic that has been supportive to interpret the concept of team building as well as intercultural team management.
During the collection of secondary information from available sources, subscription issues in different websites and news articles became a potential obstacle. Due to this reason, the research outcome has been limited to some extent as some valuable information might have been missed out. The adjourning section of this report would pay attention to logically highlighting evidence-based interpretation of the research arena.
Findings and analysis
Working in teams and successful team-building
For a global company that has teams operating in the global market, it is essential to have responsible and effective teams that can collaborate together in order to achieve mutual goals and objectives. One of the major difficulties that global teams often face is the lack of collaboration and cultural differences which constantly reduces the overall effectiveness of the teams and often leads to internal conflicts (Gibbs et al. 2021).
Cultural differences and conflicts in global teams are quite common as a result it is essential for organisations to ensure that inclusiveness is prioritised by organisations throughout the organisation. This can effectively help in minimising cultural differences, especially cultural discrimination that often occurs in global teams.
Leadership in international teams plays a determinant role in ensuring that these teams are functioning in an effective manner. Effective leadership helps in prioritising the needs and demands of employees based on which employee satisfaction at a higher level can be gained and this is quite important for global companies (Vesa, 2020).
Lack of employee satisfaction in global teams can effectively lead to higher employee intention rates and this significantly affects productivity and increases the labour costs of the organisation.
Ineffective management of human resources also reduces the overall morale of the workforce and even if the employee tension rate is higher the productivity and efficiency of the global teams in achieving global objectives can appear to be quite lacklustre (Lu et al. 2022).
Training opportunities are another essential aspect that helps in the overall development of global teams and helps in achieving collaboration between different individuals belonging to different geographical locations. Apart from that, training opportunities also help in increasing the overall skill sets of the existing workforce which essentially increases the organisation’s ability to achieve its global goals and objectives.
A highly skilled workforce effectively allows organisations to achieve competition in the market which in the end helps the organisation to achieve better profits and more sales (Ndubuisi et al. 2021).
Risk mitigation is another essential requirement of global teams which essentially helps leaders and the management to identify risks within the workforce and eliminate them before they can cause any damage.
Ineffective global teams have various ways that not only hampers the productivity of the organisation but also leads to faulty work processes, which reduces the capabilities of the organisations to achieve their objectives (Nordbäck, 2018).
Furthermore, it has also been identified that when need of effective leadership is another essential requirement that global teams constantly require from time to time in order to guide them to their goals and objectives (Yamamoto et al. 2019). In this context leadership styles such as transformational and transactional leadership work quite effectively as it allows the leaders to work alongside the employees which helps them in understanding the specific issues they are facing.
Furthermore, transmission leaders are also known to quite charismatic as a result it essentially helps them in achieving change management strategies quite effectively compared to other leadership styles (Prakash et al. 2021).
Global teams are subject to frequent organisations or changes within teams to increase collaboration and cohesion and their food the presence of a transformation and leaders can effectively help companies to minimise resistance arising due to the implementation of a change management strategy.
Adding to that, the focus on communication is another necessary aspect that ensures global corporations have a high level of connectivity between their teams. In order to facilitate better communication between the global team managers and leaders and adopt multiple channels of communication which helps them keep touch with the current problems of the organisation on a particular project or objective (Nordbäck, 2018).
Organisations such as Amazon, Microsoft and Google can be taken into consideration that have effective leadership and also manage their global team quite effectively.
These organisations have transformational leaders such as Jeff Bezos, Satya Nadella and Sundar Pichai who are the current examples of transformational leaders in the contemporary world (Prakash et al. 2021). The leadership has helped these organisations to achieve their current glory and become market leaders in their respective segments.
Working across cultures in international teams
International teams are quite culturally diverse especially when it comes to global teams that operate in multiple markets and need extensive collaboration between their global teams.
Cultural differences can cause various issues within the organisation and it is the responsibility of the management and the leaders to ensure that these issues do not affect the reputation of the organisation or its productivity at any level (Briggs and Montoya, 2020).
Cross-cultural teams require effective collaboration and this can be achieved by enhancing communication and minimising the differences by engaging the global teams in different activities where they can contribute towards a mutual goal and objective.
This can be done effectively with training sessions to increase the practical knowledge skills and experience of employees working in different departments (Torelli and Stoner, 2019).
Apart from that, it has also been noticed that employees working from different geographical locations have different approaches towards a management style to which they can adapt themselves. Some teams are more suited towards bureaucratic leadership and management while some teams prefer a more flexible and transmission leadership.
Apart from that, cultural behaviour in global teams is also different for different individuals and therefore adaptive capabilities are essential to be present in employees who work with their global counterparts (Elbasir et al. 2020).
Cultural differences also arise due to gender differences and gender diversity is one of the recent aspects upon which global companies are focusing to minimise internal issues. There have been several cases of gender discrimination in global companies which has not only affected the repetition of the organisation in the global community but has also affected internal operations and productivity levels.
Apart from that, it has also been seen that cross-cultural teams working in global companies also face an educational class where the education levels between different individuals become a matter of conflict.
In such situations, employees with a higher level of education can try to become more dominant than the others however it is the role of the leader to maintain and treat every individual equally and also motivate the others to do the same (Sharma et al. 2018). Furthermore, it has also been identified that negative stereotypes can interfere with cultural diversity in operating in a global context. This leads to discrimination based on ethnicity.
Ethnic discrimination based on colour is most profound and has often been seen to occur in global companies, which have detrimentally impacted the reputation in the global market.
It is necessary to ensure that such instances do not occur in global teams as they tend to have a very harmful impact on the motivation levels, morale and willingness to work in the company (Briggs and Montoya, 2020). This can also lead to a significant loss of talent in the organisation which reduces the company’s overall competitive advantage.
Theoretical interpretations
Two-factor theory
The two-factor theory is a management theory which is also known as the motivation has in theory and extensively indicates the various aspects that can help in promoting the motivation levels of employees in the organisation. The two-factor theory also indicates the various factors that help in achieving employee motivation as well as hygiene factors that tend to have a negative impact on the motivation levels of employees (Thant and Chang, 2021).
These factors are quite essential when it comes to maintaining and developing global teams, especially for companies that have teams working in different parts of the world. Motivation factors such as job status recognition personal growth and opportunities for advancement are quite essential for individuals working in global teams as it helps them in achieving a sense of belonging to the organisation.
As a result, the presence of these factors within the workforce can extensively help in motivating employees to achieve their goals and objectives in a more effective manner (Alrawahi et al. 2020). Similarly on the other hand there are also hygiene factors which are equally important and a lacklustre attitude of the organisation towards these factors can extensively minimise the motivation levels of employees.
These factors are the salary received by the individual’s strict policies and rules, relationships with colleagues, the working environment and a few more. Ineffectiveness in these aspects can greatly reduce the willingness of employees to work in the company.
Schein cultural model
This theory has been highlighting different aspects an organisation needs to follow as an integral part of developing their workplace culture. The theoretical understanding also highlights that the formulation of an organisation culture is dependent on the adaptation of external environment. 3 different levels of organisation and culture are also depicted in this theory including artifacts, values and assumed values (Bolcaș and Ionescu, 2019).
Artefacts highlight potential behavioural aspect of employees along with mission and vision of the business. Values define both the thought process as well as attitude of employees that usually put a deeper impact on the workplace culture. Assumed values reflect the inner aspects of human nature that cannot be measured but have the ability of differentiating the workplace culture.
In this research context, the prospects of international team building and intercultural team management are highly focused. Both these concepts are highly interrelated with this theory from the view point of analysing an organisational ability of maintaining their cultural aspects.
With regards to this concern, this theory can be signified as a sequential parameter of justifying the internal culture of an organisation that might be supportive behind the formation of international teams for their global operations (Ghazali et al. 2019).
On the other hand, the maintenance of intercultural team is equally dependent on the behavioural aspects of employees in an organisation that is also covered with their thought process and attitude.
This aspect is highly significant in terms of generating a supportive as well as collaborative culture in the workplace that may eventually enhance overall productivity of an organisation. With the support of collaborative attitude as well as behavioural aspects in the workforce, an organisation might be able to effectively cop with their business objectives based on motivated workplace environment.
Conclusion
Based on the findings in the above report it can be concluded that global teams that operate in a highly competitive market environment need to maintain a collaborative and productive global workforce.
However, management within these global teams tends to be quite difficult sometimes however the above report has focused on strategies which can help in making global teams much more flexible and collaborative. Similarly, the reports also focus is upon cultural differences and the difficulties employees face while working across cultures in international teams.
The various factors that led to issues within international teams have been identified along with strategies that can help in minimising the same. These aspects have also been interlinked with theoretical interpretations to highlight key aspects link to global teams across cultures.
Recommendations
Certain suggestions can be provided to the international organisations regarding the maintenance of supportive intercultural management and team building.
Collaboration and communication
The multinational organisations are strictly recommended to focus on the conceptualisation of flexible communication as well as collaboration within their workforce. This attribute 10 make highly motivated employee base where the cross cultural teams might be able to operate in a flexible manner by maintaining inclusivity and effective teamwork.
Establishment of code of conducts
While operating as a multinational organisation, it is highly suggested to establish adequate code of conducts as an integral part of avoiding negative issues such as workplace discrimination, harassment, cross-cultural bias and others. Strong code of conduct can eventually force the employees to operate in a supportive manner by considering extended collaboration that may eventually enhance overall productivity of the business.
Appointment of independent ombudsman
The multinational organisations will have to look for appointing an independent ombudsman. This initiative can enable the organisation management to have timely reports about potential conflicts and issues that take place within the workforce environment while managing a diverse and inter cultural team.
References
Alrawahi, S., Sellgren, S.F., Altouby, S., Alwahaibi, N. and Brommels, M., (2021). The application of Herzberg’s two-factor theory of motivation to job satisfaction in clinical laboratories in Omani hospitals. Heliyon, 6(9), p.e04829.
Bolcaș, C. and Ionescu, V.C., (2019). Organization Culture. Models and Approaches. Manager, (30), pp.163-171.
Briggs, E. and Montoya, D.Y., (2020). Providing service in multicultural environments. In The Routledge Handbook of Service Research Insights and Ideas (pp. 480-500). Routledge.
Elbasir, M., Elareshi, M., Habes, M. and Aissani, R., (2020). The influence of trust, security and reliability of multimedia payment on the adoption of EPS in Libya. Multicultural Education, 6(5).
Ghazali, S.S., Kadir, S.A., Asimiran, S. and Eric, S., (2019). Entrepreneurial School Culture Model Development: Centralized Implementation in Malaysian Schools. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 9(2).
Gibbs, J.L., Gibson, C.B., Grushina, S.V. and Dunlop, P.D., (2021). Understanding orientations to participation: overcoming status differences to foster engagement in global teams. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 30(5), pp.653-671.
Lu, J.G., Swaab, R.I. and Galinsky, A.D., (2022). Global leaders for global teams: Leaders with multicultural experiences communicate and lead more effectively, especially in multinational teams. Organization Science, 33(4), pp.1554-1573.
Ndubuisi, A., Slotta, J. and Marzi, E., (2021). Building Intercultural Competencies through Virtual Teams in Engineering Education. In Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning-CSCL 2021. International Society of the Learning Sciences.
Nordbäck, E., (2018). Shared Leadership in Global Virtual Teams: Building Conditions for its Emergence and Team Effectiveness.
Prakash, D., Bisla, M. and Rastogi, S.G., (2021). Understanding Authentic Leadership Style: The Satya Nadella Microsoft Approach.
Sharma, P., Tam, J. and Wu, Z., (2018). Challenges and opportunities for services marketers in a culturally diverse global marketplace. Journal of Services Marketing.
Thant, Z.M. and Chang, Y., (2021). Determinants of public employee job satisfaction in Myanmar: Focus on Herzberg’s two factor theory. Public Organization Review, 21(1), pp.157-175.
Torelli, C.J. and Stoner, J.L., (2019). Global consumer culture: consequences for consumer research. International Marketing Review.
Vesa, T., (2020). Building and Developing Teams.
Yamamoto, T., Pang, C., Ong, B., Shih, J., Chu, H.C. and Shih, M., (2019). The Curriculum Development for Global AGILE Problem-Based Learning in Social Entrepreneurship in Global Teams. In 2019 Pacific Neighborhood Consortium Annual Conference and Joint Meetings (PNC) (pp. 1-6). IEEE.
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