Cross Culture Intelligence at Workplace - Challenges and Strategies

This article discusses the challenges faced by cross-cultural workforce and strategies to overcome them. It covers topics like nonverbal communication, cultural shock, different attitudes towards conflict, task completion, decision making and building trust. The article also highlights the importance of effective communication and management in a multicultural workforce.

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CROSS CULTURE INTELLIGENCE AT WORKPLACE
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10-12-2018

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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Cross-cultural workforce.................................................................................................................3
Major communication Challenges...................................................................................................3
Nonverbal communication...........................................................................................................3
Cultural shock..............................................................................................................................3
A different attitude towards conflict............................................................................................4
Different approaches to task completion.....................................................................................4
Different styles of decision making.............................................................................................4
Building trust...............................................................................................................................4
References........................................................................................................................................5

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Introduction
Virtual Cross culture workforce is employees with different cultural background, or
geographical areas working together as a team, mediating through technology and is dealing with
language barriers and cultural differences. This happens mainly because today most of the
companies are becoming globalized, even if the company is operating in one country, cultural
diversity, that is cross-border labor movement is normal facet at the organization
(CultureWizard, 2018).

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Cross-cultural workforce
There are many reasons for the increase in cross-cultural workforce like the need for
various skills and knowledge that do not exist currently in the organization. For example,
managerial capabilities of Indians are higher than, Chinese employees (Semanticscholar, 2018).
Management plays a vital role towards multicultural workforce, the critical approach used by
management includes treating everyone equally, and considering views of everyone, and after
considering different cultures viewpoint, the decision is made. Culture and communication are
closely related to each other because communication is essential for culture to survive through
communication codes like nonverbal cues, language, or common symbols (CultureWizard,
2018).
For example, IBM is one of the companies with high performing virtual teams. A major
challenge faced by the company is time zones management because it has more than 200,000
employees from different countries and cultures (Onpointconsultingllc, 2018).
Major communication Challenges
Nonverbal communication
It plays important role in the effectiveness of communication. A major challenge in
virtual teams is not able to convey message face to face, due to which nonverbal communication
such as body language is not possible in virtual teams (Forwardfocusinc, 2018).

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Cultural shock
Members unable to identify and take actions for cultural issues that can influence cultural
shock. Symptoms of cultural shocks include anxiety, feeling isolated, and a decrease in job
performance, high helplessness, and high nervous energy (Forwardfocusinc, 2018).
A different attitude towards conflict
People from different cultures have different aspect regarding conflicts. For example,
management in eastern countries considers conflict positive whereas employees from U.S don do
not find conflicts desirable (Gugin, 2018).
Different approaches to task completion
For example, Hispanic and Asian cultures focus on relationship development in the initial
stage of a project and emphasis more on task completion at a later stage. While Americans-
Europeans immediately focus on the task and let gradually build a relationship as working on the
task (Forwardfocusinc, 2018).
Different styles of decision making
For example, U.S people include delegation in decision making whereas Latin American
employees prefer holding decision-making authority to themselves. This can lead to
misunderstanding and conflicts in a team with different cultures (Gugin, 2018).
Building trust
Across cultural boundaries, building trust is a major concern because trust is created in
different ways in different cultures. Demonstrated performance is a way of creating trust in the
U.S while in other countries like Asia relationship building is a criterion for professional
interaction (Forwardfocusinc, 2018).

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References
CultureWizard. (2018). 5 Strategies for Working in Cross-Cultural Virtual Teams. Retrieved
from CultureWizard: https://www.rw-3.com/blog/5-strategies-for-working-in-
cross-cultural-virtual-teams
Forwardfocusinc. (2018). Cross-Cultural Management Challenges and How to Face Them.
Retrieved from forwardfocusinc: https://www.forwardfocusinc.com/inspire-
leaders/cross-cultural-management-challenges-and-how-to-face-them/
Gugin. (2018). Challenges of Cross-Cultural Management. Retrieved from gugin:
https://gugin.com/challenges-of-cross-cultural-management/
Onpointconsultingllc. (2018). 3 Companies With High-Performing Virtual Teams . Retrieved
from onpointconsultingllc: https://www.onpointconsultingllc.com/blog/3-
companies-with-high-performing-virtual-teams
Semanticscholar. (2018). Managing Cross-Cultural and Virtual Teams . Retrieved from
Semanticscholar:
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/presentation/0006/48a2918fea3258acb3b98ea04f
625dc0861d.pdf