Performance in Multicultural Teams

Performance in Multicultural Teams
CROSS CULTURAL MANAGEMENT
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Performance in Multicultural Teams
The spread of globalisation and liberalisation has led to overseas expansion of small, medium
as well as large scale business organizations. Global business expansion has increase the level
of competition between business organizations operating in an industry. One of the key
elements of a global business is the presence of multicultural or a diverse workforce. Global
business organizations can employ three types of employees in their workplace i.e. home
country employees (employees belonging to the country where the company has its
headquarters), host country employees (employee belonging to a country where a company
has its foreign subsidiary) and third country nationals (employees belonging to any other
country other than the host country or the home country) (Noe, et al., 2017). This results in a
diverse workforce where people from different cultural backgrounds come together to
achieve a common goal or an objective. In this report, we will analyse three factors that are
important for the success of a multicultural teams and can have an influence on their
performance levels. The three factors discussed in this report are the cultural quotient of the
team members, their education levels and the organisational factors of the company where a
multicultural team is established.
Business organisations have discovered that multicultural teams can achieve a lot more than a
team comprising of employees belonging to a same cultural background. The reason behind
the efficiency of multicultural teams is that employees belonging to different cultures have
different thought processes and can find out innovative solutions to an organisation’s
problem. Multicultural teams have a greater possibility of creating positive synergies in an
organisation and achieve success through high performance but all this can only be achieved
if an organisation is able to manage a multicultural team efficiently (Jimenez, et al., n.d.).
Some factors that can have an influence on the performance levels of multicultural teams are
discussed below:
Cultural intelligence or cultural quotient is a term used by business organizations to define
the capability of an individual to relate and work in a culturally diverse environment (Ang &
Van Dyne, 2015). The first and the most important factor that can influence the performance
levels of the employees of a multicultural team is the cultural quotient of the team members.
Culture, in simple words, is defined as a set of morals, ethics, language, ethnicity, etc. that
governs the behaviour of a group of people. Multicultural teams, by definition, comprise of
employees coming from diverse cultural backgrounds and have different morals, ethics,
communication preferences, etc. For the team members of a multicultural team, it is
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Performance in Multicultural Teams
important to have a high cultural quotient so that they can understand each other in a better
way. During cross-cultural communication, there are a number of barriers and stereotypes
that come into play and can have an impact on the perception and behaviour of the team
members (Sağa, et al., 2016). For an example, a Chinese employee would bow down while
greeting his team members whereas an Indian employee would shake hands in order to greet
his team members. This is a simple example of non-verbal cross-cultural communication
differences. Further, it is normal for Indians to ask their fellow workers about the well-being
of their family members, which is considered to be offensive in a number of foreign cultures.
If both the employees are not culturally intelligent, they would not understand the gesture of
the other employee, which can lead to misunderstanding in extreme conditions (Adekola &
Sergi, 2016). At times, these differences in cultures are perceived as personality traits by the
employees who are not culturally intelligent and they become more likely to pick a side
believing that the other person is wrong. In such encounters, nothing constructive comes out
of the arguments and the situation can make the group members of a multicultural team
uncomfortable while working with each other. Therefore, having a knowledge about the
cultural preferences of the employees of a multicultural team can help them in providing
them a competitive edge as they would be able to understand each other in a better way and
would also be able to demonstrate high performance levels due to creation of synergies.
Training and development are learning programs that are arranges by business organizations
to improve the skills and competencies of their employees. Through training and
development programs, business organisations are able to develop their employees and
ensure that they perform better than before. Training and development programs have
multiple benefits for employees as well as for the employers. They provide career building
opportunities to the employees and can be helpful for the employers in making their
companies more efficient, productive and profitable. Training and development is another
factor that can impact the performance levels of a multicultural team. By education, we mean
that the educational background of the employees as well as their in-service training
education, both can have an impact on their performance levels. Sağ, Kaynak, Sezen (2016)
concluded through their research that education is one of the most important factors that
drives performance levels in a multicultural team. According to them, education can have a
direct impact on the cultural quotient of the employees and also on their informational
diversity levels. Informational diversity is defined as the difference that exists between the
knowledge base and perspectives of the team members of a multicultural team (Zhou, et al.,
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