People and Global Organisations Reflection: Teamwork and Challenges

This report provides a reflection on the challenges and opportunities of teamwork within a global organization simulation. It explores issues of cultural diversity, communication barriers, and inequality within a simulated company, 3rd Mobile. The report details conflicts arising from differing cultural backgrounds, communication issues, and ethical considerations related to decision-making. It discusses the implementation of distributive leadership, online meetings, and the GE Seven Step Change Acceleration Model to address these challenges. The report highlights the importance of cultural tolerance, empathy, and adapting to change for organizational success. It concludes with recommendations for managing diversity and adapting to globalization, emphasizing the need for employee input and proactive change management strategies. References include Hofstede, Lewin, and Ansoff, among others.

People and Global Organisations Reflection
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People and Global Organisations Reflection
1. INTRODUCTION
The use of PPD simulations for team learning has been very interesting for me and my team
because of its user-friendly interface, ability to make accurate forecast and suitable for all
management level. As a team, the experience i had from the use of simulation makes me feel and
assume that I and my team were in a real world situation. Our company was named 3rd Mobile, it
was incorporated and as a team, we make decision that impacts the business. Our team consist of
a diversified group of individuals from different culture and nation who has different beliefs,
culture, ethics, religion, traits and gender. Working as a team at the early stage, we experienced a
lot of back lashes and conflict which arises from inequality, communication barriers, resentments
from individuals, risk associated with decision making, absenteeism, personality traits that
affected inter-personal relationships and disunity that existed amongst us, this therefore affected
the pace in which we make decision. Later on, to enable us resolve the conflict and disunity
amongst us, we were able to set out some certain rules and objectives to help us achieve our aim.
We also adopted distributive leadership style and we were also able to tackle the issue of
inequality that exist amongst us. This report will depict the challenges we faced as a team in our
decision making process, how we were able to resolve such conflict and challenges, the theories
we adopted in resolving it and also recommendation on the best fit to resolve organizational
conflict in a situation of diversity.

2. FACTORS AFFECTING TEAMWORK
a. Team Working Across Cultures
Our company 3rd Mobile was made up of individual from different nation, culture, traits, ethics
and belief making business decisions that affects the profitability and productivity of the
business. According to o Hofstede et al. (1997), “a multicultural team is a team whose members
have different cultural backgrounds”. at the early stage of the business inception working as a
team, we experienced a lot of conflicts as a result of communication barriers. This
communication barrier was as a result of ineloquence in English language amongst some team
members also some felt that they do not have great accent to communicate thereby making them
give ineffective feedback. Also, the emergence of Covid 19 pandemic abruptly limit our meeting
thereby limiting how often we meet for discussions and decision making. According to Pincas,
(2001), “the use of English as a second language and the lack of paralinguistic cues in cross-
cultural communication cause many difficulties, e.g. using conventions of mother tongue,
politeness, modes of emphasis, ways of referring back to previous messages, use of netiquette
rules, and the perception of relevance, which is reported as the most difficult aspect of cross-
cultural discourse”.
We were also faced with the issue of inequality resentments amongst team mates, inequality here
does not ponder only on the issue of gender inequality but also on the issue of cultural
supremacy. Some individuals feels that coming from a particular culture or being from a
particular race places some certain team members above others especially towards decision
making. Some team members were made to feel that they do not have much to contribute
because they come from a developing or under develop nation that might limit their mental
capacity in making decisions that deals with business management especially in a business that

deals with technology, the affected individuals was not cool about such treatment and thereby
they started harbouring resentments this therefore affected the effectiveness of their feedback
especially when given a task. “When two people with different perception and value systems
meet, it is almost inevitable that each party misunderstands the behavior and motives of the
other” (Robinson, 1997).
In order to resolve this conflict and challenges arising from communication barrier, I made my
team to understand that we need to tolerate each other culture to enable us achieve our
objectives. Pauleen & Yoong (2001) advise that “cultural tolerance and empathy are basic
conditions for communicative openness”. We were able to subject our meeting to online which
we felt was easier and more productive because some of the team mates that absconded from the
physical meeting as a result of some personal and social factor can now attend the meeting at
their convienience. Also, the issue of inequality was addressed with the introduction of
distributive leadership which enhances creativity amongst teammates and also giving individuals
the power to influence an event or a situation. According to (Uhl-Bien 2006), he suggested
“distributed leadership is a systemic perspective, whereby leadership is conceived of as a
collective social process emerging through the interactions of multiple actors”.
Diversity
3rd Mobile was made up of board of directors from various socio-cultural backgrounds.
According to Wentling & Palma-Rivas (2000) Organizations with a diverse workforce can
provide superior services because they can better understand customers’ needs. The challenges
we experienced was not only limited to differences in race, gender, age, colour, physical ability,
ethnicity, etc, we also experienced a situation whereby some individual feels that their work
ethics and beliefs might not be in line with other person view or opinion. Research indicates that

greater diversity can create higher levels of dissatisfaction (Miliken & Martins, 1996). Also some
female individual feels that they might not give opinion on situations that requires decision
making simply because their culture does not deem it right to make suggestion in the midst of
men, this is perceive as a sign of disrespect in their culture. Talking of ethics, we experienced a
situation whereby there was a conflict associated with the decision of proceeding with sales
without market research as a result of covid 19, though some were for and against. I discovered
that the ones that were against it was simply because their work ethics does not allow them to
make assumption on business without getting the necessary information from the target market
before proceeding with sales, to provide solution to this, I suggested that since there is covid 19
and restriction to visit the target market, we should make decisions based on the available
published market data from reliable sources like marketline, passport, knoema etc. Organisations
that develop experience in and reputations for managing diversity will likely attract the best
personnel (Fredrick, Omboi & Francis 2012).
Change management
Today, organization are facing a lot of change as a result of globalization, one of the problem
that pose as a challenge to us during our simulation work was how 3rd Mobile will adopt
innovative changes to increase productivity. According to Mutihac (2010) “Organizations today
are facing more change than ever before”. Though it was very challenging for some of my team
mates to adapt to these technological changes because they feel that they are being mandated to
accept such changes of programs which did not correspond to their own contributions or views
this therefore, discouraged some individuals not to participate actively to achieve the
management aim and result. This also leads to no sense of ownership being generated amongst
the team which then delayed the pace of decision making due to lack of commitment from some

members of the team. Ansoff & McDonnell, (1990) cited that “it is even more astonishing given
that it is well recognized that the success of organizational changes often rests on the motivation
and commitment of employees themselves” . To proffer solution to this perceived challenge, we
agreed to implement the GE Seven Step Change Acceleration Model (2000) built by Lewin.
According to Lewin (1947) he suggested that “successful change has to go through three phases;
unfreezing, moving to a new state and refreezing”. Adapting this model pacified our decision
making process because w were able to integrate leadership, engagement, communication and
commitment feature frequently which enabled us to affect change in the management. We did
not only at affecting these change, we also implemented them for every member to follow.
Conclusion and Recommendation
It is very important to note that an organization should always consider its employee opinion or
their diversified status whenever there is need to adapt any plan to effect any change because
employees may feel that work might be shifting environment. It is important to be aware of what
other changes are also occurring and acknowledge the risk that one set of changes may be
overwhelmed by the combination of other changes taking place. Change is an initiative that
every organisation has to take to sustain and compete in changing environment and to be flexible
in all aspects. The organisation and people in it have to be committed to change process
successfully and take positive steps towards new heights, sustainability and profit. It is believed
that organizations should put in place strategies to enhance workforce diversity. Managing
diversity in organizations is absolutely dependent upon the acceptance of some primary
objectives to which employees are willing to commit, such as the survival of the firm. In today's
fast-paced work environment a successful organization is one where diversity is the norm and
not the exception (Lawrence, 2001).

References
Ansoff . I, & McDonnell E. 1990. Implanting Strategic Management. Prentice Hall 2nd Edition.
Fredrick, W.O., Omboi, B.M., & Francis, K.M. 2012. Effects of Workplace Diversity
Management on Organizational Effectiveness: A Case Study. European Journal of
Business and Management 28 (4) 78-94
Hofstede, G.J, A Vermunt, M Smits, & N Noorderhaven, 1997. Wired International Teams"
Experiments in Strategic Decision Making By Multicultural VTs. [On-line]. Available:
http://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/6714909.pdf
Lawrence, P. 2001. “Diversity in action news”, available at: www.tc.faa.gov/employee-prg/
diversity/20.htm (accessed December 8, 2003).
Lewin, K, 1947. Group Decisions and Social Change. In Burnes, B. (2000), "Managing Change:
A Strategic Approach to Organisational Dynamics", 3rd Edition, Harlow: Pearson
Education, pp. 270-271
Lewin, K, 1951. Force Field Analysis, in Francis, D, & Woodcock, M, (1982), "Fifty Activities
for Self-Development", Aldershot: GOWER
Uhl-Bien, M. 2006. Relational leadership theory: exploring the social processes of leadership
and organizing. Leadership Quarterly, 17, pp. 654–676.
Pauleen, D.J., & P Yoong. 2001. Relationship building and the use of ICT in boundary-crossing
VTs: a facilitator’s perspective. J. Inf. Technol. 16(4), 205–220 (2001)
Pincas, A, 2001. Culture, cognition and communication in global education. Distance Educ.
22(1), 30–51
Robinson S.D., 1997. Intercultural management: The art of resolving and avoiding conflicts
between cultures. Paper presented at Global Theme Conference. Basel, Switzerland.
Wentling R.M, & Palma-Rivas N. 2000. "Current status of diversity initiatives in selected
multinational corporations", Human Resource Development Quarterly, 11 (1). pp.35-60.

Introduction
This report will focus on the impact of globalization in the organization which they are yet to
achieved, but as more organization embrace this trend and become diversified, certain changes
will emerge. Some of these changes are good, while others may not have result positively. As
globalization becomes more prevalent, organization deal with increased diversity within the
labor force. These changes require organization to adopt effective policies and guidelines for
workers. This increased cultural diversity also has produced many benefits as organization gain
new dimensions into different cultures from a management and a marketing standpoint. The
report will also emphasize on change management, as long as globalization is concerned,
organizational change management is unavoidable to enable it adapt to globalization. This can be
in form of altering the mission, objectives and vision of the organization, use of new
technologies or innovation, changes in organizational structure and targeting a new set of
customer groups with other necessities and a totally different behavior than its previous
customers. This report will also find out how cultural differences affect teamwork as a result of
maybe risk and decision making amongst team. In some cultures, making a decision requires
more data and information than others.
Team working across cultures
The workplace is a unique environment that is frequently dynamic. Whether it is people,
processes, markets or products, there are often shifts that employees have to deal
with. Organisation is becoming increasingly globalized, which means that employees often
work with people from different countries, religions, cultures and backgrounds ( Anam 2020).

It is crucial to understand the personality differences amongst team or employees in order to
foster harmony in the team. Most times, cultural differences affect teamwork as a result of
some factors according to (Future Learn 2020) which includes:
Style of communication: some cultures are against talking rudely to people especially when they
are older while some culture permits it, this definitely can cause miscommunication, resentment
and confusion. Most times, teammates may not speak up if they disagree with another team
member because it’s not something that is done in their culture. Also, they might view providing
feedback as stepping on the toes or taking too much authority.
Hierarchy and power: Equality in the organization is the norm in some cultures, whereas in
others the structure is more hierarchical. For employees or teammates that come from cultures
that emphasized more on status and authority, giving feedback about problems associated with
the organization may be difficult because they feel uncomfortable or disrespectful. Also , those
that treasure equality may see others as incompetence if they don’t share their views, thoughts
and opinions with leadership.
Decision making process and risk involved: In some cultures, making a decision requires
suffiecient, validated and reliable data and information than others. Some employees may have a
low level tolerance for risk and not want to commit to making a decision without having context
or reference. Others may be confident in making decisions without much data. This can affect
the pace of the team and how work is conducted.

Lastly, employees can come from the same culture but still have many differences to deal with
in the organization. Most times, the personality trait of a team member affects how they work
with others.
Change Management
It is a commonly expressed view that change is the only permanent thing in life. Much as the
view is commonly expressed. The world is evolving as a result of globalization, In the same way,
the organizations we create are equally evolving and dynamic. Change is therefore pertinent in
order to achieve organizational success. Organizational change management may therefore be
described as a systematic process through which an organization conceptualizes, implements
and appraises its change effort for the desired result (Burke 2011). Change in organization is
determined by internal and external factors. It is important to note that those internal factors
impacting change in organizations are directed towards establishing external changes. The
following have therefore been identified as some of the basic factors that may impact the quest
for change in an organization; low productivity, absenteeism, turnover, union activity and
leadership (Burke 2011). The above listed factors are also see as external factors, even though
they are categorized as internal factors to deal with external factor such as; Competition, need to
respond to market demand, changes in technology, changes in government policies and Social
pressure. Any organization that desires growth and success should always envisage in its
administrative process to encourage efficiency while managers are faced with the best fit to
respond to the forces of changes in a bid to move the organization forward. (George, & Jones
2012). The use of GE Seven Step Change Acceleration Model (2000) built on Lewin’s Model of
Change that was developed on the underpinning that change has three phases, i.e. Unfreezing,

Movement (change) and Refreezing as the essential component of the Change phenomenon.
Lewin’s model focused on Leaders’ role in establishing urgency for the change, crafting and
communicating the vision, leading the change, measuring the progress of change along several
dimensions and institutionalizing the change. This whole process involves the re-evaluation of
the basic management process (activities across functional units) in a bid to restructure and
achieve a great improvement in its performance, cost, quality and service of its product or
services.
Diversity
The term diversity can be used to mention the different forms of human societies or cultures in a
specific region, or in the world as a whole. Diversity also refers to the characteristics that people
use to identify themselves amongst other people. These characteristics can be seen in form of
demographic factors (race, gender, and age) also values and cultural norms (Ferris, Frink &
Galang 1993). The persistent increase of globalization in the world and cultural diversity in the
workplace has grown as a trend. “Cultural diversity is when differences in race, ethnicity,
language, nationality, religion, and sexual orientation are represented within a community”
(Amadeo, 2013). Globalization provides both positive and negative influences on cultural
diversity which can have far reaching impacts.
One negative effect of cultural diversity in the workplace is the continous tendency for
employees to engage in inter-personal conflict. Opinions, thoughts, beliefs, norms, customs,
values, trends, and traditions arises when employees are culturally diversified. According to
Harrison, Price, & Bell (1998). “When culturally diverse workers are placed in a group to
achieve a goal with mutual effort and collaboration, these differences of opinions and other
variables can hinder the development of unity”. A positive impact of cultural diversity in the

organization is perceived when employees belonging to different cultures usually have different
ways of reasoning and have same mindset in analyzing a conflict. This is hard to achieve when
employees belonging to the same culture are asked to analyze the same matter. Employees
coming from different cultures have different experiences, which can be beneficial by providing
the organization with a sound and vast knowledge base. Another positive impact of diversity in
the organization is the increased tendency of employees to subdue cultural shock shock as the
business expands in other countries and becomes international. This is a very important benefit
derived from cultural diversity of the employees because many modern companies have global
expansion on their corporate agendas.
Intervention and Recommendation
As far as change in management is concerned, the necessity of proper management of
organizational change that involves employing the strategies embedded in the adopted theories is
capable of eliminating the problems in organizational change management. Therefore, it is
important that organizations intending to implement change objectives should prioritize the
reaction of its employees in its change plan and should be ready to integrate employees in the
process of change in order to gain acceptance and achieve the desired objectives.
Most times, the effects of cultural diversity in the workplace depend upon how well they are
being managed by the organizational leaders. With proper strategic planning, top management
can enhance the positive effects and reduce the negative effects of cultural diversity in the
workplace.
The issue of team working across culture will be more effective if organization can hire teams
within its business, or are hiring employees to work as part of a team. It is very important to