Developing and Managing Multi-cultural Teams: A Comprehensive Report

This report delves into the critical aspects of managing multi-cultural teams in today's globalized environment. It begins with an executive summary highlighting the importance of developing and managing diverse teams that respect the varied cultures and values of employees. The report explores dimensions of multicultural teams, emphasizing the need for managers to understand different communication styles and avoid stereotypes. It examines the impact of discrimination laws, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Equality Act 2010, and discusses affirmative action programs. Furthermore, the report outlines strategies for building an inclusive culture within teams, addressing challenges like language barriers and communication styles. Recommendations are provided to improve communication across multi-cultural teams, advocating for managers to be aware of their own cultural lens and embrace diversity. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of effectively managing cultural diversities to maintain a competitive edge and create an inclusive environment.

Management of multi-cultural teams 0
Development and management of cultural diversity
Importance of cultural diversity
Students Name
12/16/2018

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Executive Summary
The document depicts the development and management of the multicultural teams to
manage and respect the diverse culture and the values of the employees of the organization. It
suggests the ways to effectively communicate to the members and aims to develop a
culturally diverse team. It ensures that the entire diverse workforce gets the equal
opportunities to explore and contribute towards organization.

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In the today’s era, globalization of economies has led to increase of the multinational
corporations, which leads to cross-cultural diversities among the workforce and to manage
such diversities the organization takes the voluntary actions to include the employees from
various backgrounds into the formal and informal structures of the organization through the
policies and programmes designed. The organization aims to provide equal opportunities and
effectively manage the diverse workforce to accomplish the objectives of the organization in
an efficient manner (Ozbilgin, Tatli & Jonsen, 2015).
Dimensions of multicultural teams
The multicultural teams are made of the workforce who has a different culture,
religion, languages. However, the manager has to avoid the stereotypes and must be open-
minded to accept the difference in culture and religion. The person must focus on the
different communication styles of the diverse workforce to understand their style and can
efficiently work as a team. The manager must monitor the team dynamics and must give the
preparation time to understand the native language and take the actions accordingly. The
manager must focus to break the barriers that disturb the performance of the multicultural
team. The workforce of the organization has different values and opinions. However, the
manager must respect all the culture and the values to maintain the competitive advantage of
the company (Mor Barak, 2014).
Discrimination Law and their Impact on managing multicultural
teams
The organization must apply Universal declaration of human rights (article 1),
adopted by united nation general assembly resolution 217 A 9(III) of December 10, 1948.
The equality act 2010. These laws depict that the managers must provide the equal

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opportunities to all the members of the diverse needs and must get the fair rewards and
remuneration irrespective of the caste, religion, gender of the workforce. Implementation of
such laws provides the framework within which the managers have to operate, leaves a
positive impact on the workforce, as they feel satisfied, and gets fair opportunities to explore
(Caligiuri & Lundby, 2015).
Affirmative Action programs and their impact
Affirmative action programs are considered as the intervention measures, which are
applied to reverse the past discrimination against the specific groups. These are the temporary
actions to rectify the discrimination and aims to encourage the representative workforce. The
government provides incentives to ensure a free market mechanism. In the United States, the
main aim of the affirmative action program is to rectify the past and the current
discrimination by providing equal employment opportunities to minorities and women
(Gender Action Portal, 2018).
The affirmative action programs provide the incentives, employment opportunities to
the diverse workforce irrespective of the religion and nation they belong too. Such positive
actions create the zeal among the workforce to contribute towards achieving the goals of the
organization in an efficient manner (Ting-Toomey & Dorjee, 2018).
The building of inclusive culture within the team
The organizations must develop the culture that supports the values and utilizes the
individual and the intergroup differences within its workforce. It focuses on developing
cooperation, aims to contribute to the surrounding community to alleviate the need of the
disadvantaged group, and focuses on collaborating with the individuals, groups and the
organization that is across national and cultural boundaries. The aim of building inclusive

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culture is that the cultural values of all the employees must be respected and ensures
continuous alteration in the values according to the employees in the organization.
Development of such a culture will help the managers in building coordination and achieving
the goals in an efficient manner (Steers & Nardon, 2014).
Challenges of managing multi-cultural teams
The organization faces the challenge of using different languages as the diverse
workforce speaks different languages, which creates a problem in understanding the
perception of different employees and creates misunderstandings (Day Translations, 2018).
The communication style of the manager may be effective for one group but can be
ineffective to other as in America the informal style of communication is applied but can
create a problem for the other group of employees. The hierarchy structure also acts as the
barrier because some employees accept older people with higher positions but some believe
that higher positions are for the people who have the power to accomplish. Such a difference
in perception leads to the creation of conflicts among the workforce. So to overcome the
challenges of diverse culture, language, and values the manager must develop the strategies
to effectively communicate with all the members and ensures efficiency in decision making
(Day Translations, 2018).
Recommendations to improve communication across multicultural
teams
To improve the communication across the team the manager must be aware of
its own cultural lens i.e. the person must understand and have the full
knowledge of the culture of the employees so that it can effectively
communicate to its team members and does not lead to any misconceptions.

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The manager must accept that the cross-cultural situations are complex
because of changing customs and cultures. However, he must effectively deal
with the negotiations and must respect their decisions.
The manager must listen to the diverse workforce and must understand their
culture. The person must be open-minded and must avoid the stereotypes to
avoid the misconceptions within the workforce. The person must develop
strong relations with the diverse workforce to maintain their interest in the
organizational activities and respecting their culture.
Modeling and leading diversity acceptance and change
Embracing diversity is a way to develop a team. It helps in utilizing the strength of the
diverse workforce and ensures the development of a team. It means to empower people and
motivate them to support each other to ensure that all the actions are unified towards the
objectives of the organization. It fosters to develop the synergy of working together and
represent as a team. The manager should lead the team in such a way that it embraces
diversity and is able to maintain the competitive advantage over the others. The workforce
must accept and respect the culture and values of the other diverse workforce to remove the
barriers and conflicts that come in the way to achieve the organizational objectives. The
acceptance of change and diversity will help the individuals to work as a strong team and
accomplish the objectives of the organization (Ferdman & Deane, 2014).
From the above discussion, it is concluded that the managers must effectively
embrace and manage the cultural diversities to maintain the competitive edge of the
organization and must effectively communicate to the diverse workforce by understanding
the diverse culture and values. The manager must create an inclusive culture environment by
overcoming the cultural barriers.

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References
Ozbilgin, F.M., Tatli, A., & Jonsen, K. (2015). Global diversity management (2nd ed.).
Palgrave: United States
Mor Barak, E.M. (2014). Managing Diversity (3rd ed.). London: Sage
Ferdman, M.B. & Deane, R.B. (2014). Diversity at work: The practice of inclusion. United
States of America: Jossey- Bass
Day Translations. (2018). The challenges and benefits of having a multicultural team.
Retrieved from: https://www.daytranslations.com/blog/2018/05/the-challenges-of-having-a-
multicultural-team-and-why-its-worth-it-11508/
Gender Action Portal. (2018). The impact of eliminating affirmative action on minority and female
employment: A natural experiment approach using state-level affirmative action laws and EEO-4 data.
Retrieved from: http://gap.hks.harvard.edu/impact-eliminating-affirmative-action-minority-and-female-
employment-natural-experiment-approach
Steers, R. M., & Nardon, L. (2014). Managing in the global economy (1st ed.). New York:
Routledge
Ting-Toomey, S., & Dorjee, T. (2018). Communicating across cultures (2nd ed.).London:
Guilford Publications
Caligiuri, P., & Lundby, K. (2015). Developing cross-cultural competencies through global
teams. Leading Global Teams, 123-139

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