Challenges of Managing Multicultural Teams in Global Business

The essay delves into critical challenges faced by international business corporations in managing global teams. It emphasizes the impact of culture, communication, and project management on organizational performance. The discussion includes concepts like 'twin sword' and anthropological approaches to improve cross-cultural management. By analyzing real-life case studies and integrating diverse viewpoints, the essay provides insights into enhancing global team efficiency.

Running Head: Business Research
Business Research

Business Research 1
I realised that the literature review executed in the previous assessment discussed about the
challenges which a company faces while managing the global teams. There are numerous factors
which plays crucial role in relevance with managing the global teams in the multinational
corporations, thus, it is necessary to analyse the alternatives through which the impact of those
factors could be minimised as well as the task of management of global teams could be
performed in an appropriate manner. It has been observed that the multinational corporations
faces huge challenges because their operations are based on different cultures, hence,
management process also differs from the domestic or local companies (Tarique & Schuler,
2010). In order to manage the operations of organization in an effective manner, organization is
required to adopt certain effective measures such as cross cultural management method. In this
method, organization may face several issues such as different beliefs, different culture, language
issues, etc. and these entire plays crucial role in the success of an organization. Thus, with the
help of outcomes originated from analysis conducted, it can be observed that the gaps identified
between the techniques adopted by the management and the challenges faced by the organization
in different cultures needs to be rectified using advanced approaches (Reiche, Mendenhall &
Stahl, 2016).
Various topics had been discussed in the previous assessment in order to ascertain the gaps
amongst the articles used in the previous task in relation with the challenges in relation with
managing global terms. As per my opinion, companies engaged at the international level suffer
from various challenges such as managing the entire process, controlling the functionalities of all
branches and outlets of the organization from headquarter (Mendenhall, et. al., 2017). There are
four main factors which mainly face the challenges in relevance with multi-cultural teams:

Business Research 2
 Workplace culture;
 Project management;
 Communication systems; and
 Technology factors;
Three articles have been analysed for identifying the challenges amongst managing the global
terms. Following are those articles:
 Cross-cultural challenges for a global maritime enterprise.
 Managing organizational challenges in global projects.
 Cross cultural and strategic management.
In the first article, it has been observed that modifications of cross cultural challenges have been
discussed by the author. The major issue which has been observed in the article conversation
issues due to difference in culture. Multinational companies operate its functionalities in various
countries and this also leads the organization to appoint different employees from the local
places. Due to unique cultures, management faces issues in performing its functionalities such as
conveying their messages to the employees. Employees also face the same issue and this leads
the organization towards various issues such as delay in accomplishment of the tasks,
communication gap amongst the management and the employees. Due to unique cultural
background of the employees, their functionalities, behaviour and the point of view differs in
comparison with the management (Boutellier, Gassmann & Von Zedtwitz, 2013). Due to this,
organza ion becomes incapable to attain its desired goals in the particular time period. This also
affects the relationship of the employees and the management and increases the cost of the
organization in training and development sessions. As the observations, management of the

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multinational corporations needs to provide certain training and counselling sessions in order to
teach them in relevance with the organizational functioning, policies and the methods used for
accomplishment of the tasks. In order to fill the gap between the communication procedure of
management and the employees, organization needs to adopt certain crucial strategies such as
integrated communication system in order to develop the balance amongst the employees and
management (Daim, et. al., 2012). This procedure helps the organization to manage its
functionalities in an appropriate manner along with developing the effective ways through which
the outcomes could be originated on the basis of organizational management’s expectations.
People from different cultures and background come with different understanding level which
may be in relevance with the organizational requirement or it may be against the organizational
requirements. This leads to the challenges for the organization which will extract negative
outcomes and it will also affect the organizational procedures and their expectations. Managing
all the employees with different backgrounds and cultures will require an effective management
system which may require additional expenditures for providing training and counselling
sessions in relevance with providing them the knowledge regarding company’s policies, rules
and regulations to accomplish tasks (Pless, Maak & Stahl, 2011).
The second article discussed in the previous assessment describes the challenges for the
management in relevance with managing global projects. On the basis of this article, it has been
observed that the article contains several dimensions through which multinational corporations
get global advantages. In this article, certain factors has been discussed which are the primary
reasons which acts as the failure of organization, barriers between the communication process,
and the cultural differences (Farndale, Scullion & Sparrow, 2010). All these factors relates to the

Business Research 4
cross cultural management system. Reviewing the content of authors, it has been observed that
various multinational corporations are facing unique cultural issues through which the
management activities have been affected. This has declined the effectiveness of management in
order to manage their functionalities for managing the global teams. Due to which the
organization is not able to accomplish its desired targets. Management of the organizations are
responsible for managing all the operations in an effective manner in order to extract the results
on the basis of organizational expectations. They need to face issues from both sides i.e. from the
top level members of the organization and from the employees who are facing cross cultural
differences (Jones & Jones, 2010). Managers needs to face real life scenarios and for managing
the real life scenarios on the basis of top level management’s expectations, it is required to adopt
certain effective strategies through which balance amongst the two sides could be developed
effectively.
Along with the differences and issues, this article also contains the information regarding the
benefits of managing the global teams. With the help of global team management experience,
managers become capable enough to increase their efficiency in order to cope up with the
requirement of various scenarios. After gaining experience in the management field, managers
become capable enough to handle all types of issues from employees’ sides as well as from the
top level management (Stahl, et. al., 2012). This also helps the employees to match up with the
organizational requirements and it also increases their capabilities. This also led the organization
to increase in the opportunities for the organization to accomplish its desired goals and the
objectives as well as to set up an effective position in the target market. In this article, authors
have used a term “twin sword” for defining the assortment of cultures. This has been used for

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describing the quality of the managers through which they organise and manage all the activities
of the organization effectively. Numerous strategies could be adopted by the organizational
management in the global market for improving their effectiveness as well as to gain the benefits
from implications of those strategies.
Third article is based over the cross cultural and strategic management issues and benefits. It also
focuses over the key issues which resist due to cross cultural system in accordance with the
global business communication function. From my observation, this article consist a unique
approach “anthropological approach” and it seems to be the crucial factor of this article. The
primary function of this approach is to perform the functionalities of the multinational
corporation at the global context in an appropriate manner. This approach also determines the
significance of communication system through which organization could be able to reach to the
desired destination. With the help of centralised communication system, multinational
corporations being able to resolve the major issues like cross culture and lack of communication
amongst the subordinates and amongst the management (Meredith & Mantel, 2011).
As per my opinion, I have personally realised by reviewing this article that effective
communication process plays vital role in the success of the organization and without this
process, organization will face issues like cross cultural issues through which the attainment of
the desired goals would not be possible. This is the primary reason of adaptation and
implementation of anthropological approach in the workplace with the view to ascertain the
cross cultural issues in the management system. Apart from these factors, secondary factors
which lead to the conflicts and disputes amongst the team members and the management are
unique cultures of the employees and lack of internal communication system. This leads to

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decrease in the efficiency of the organization along with this expansion in the international
market would not be possible (Jones & Jones, 2010).
Gantt Chart depicting Action Plan
March April May June July August
Maintaining a Journal
Read Literature
Conducting survey international companies
Interacting with global employees
Analysis of real life case study
View point of inter cultural students
The above Gantt chart explains the significance of activities which are required to be executed in
this reflective essay. With the help of maintaining journal, regular information regarding the
challenges faces in managing teams will be analysed. Literatures will help in determining the
views of various authors in relevance with the topic which will be executed twice in the
particular period. Further, conducting surveys will help the organizations to analyse the real life
challenges faced by them in managing the global team and conducting their functionalities.
Integration with the global employees will help the organization to understand their point of view
which is detected due to cross cultural factors. The next part of the Gantt chart showcase the
significance of real life case study and in this, multinational corporations past and present
scenarios will be determined with the view to ascertain the opportunities regarding the issues due
to ineffective cross cultural management. Last objective is analysing the view point of students

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which are from different and unique background and this will help to understand the real factors
which may affect the organizational functionalities.
With the above analysis, it has been observed by me that all the above articles in this reflective
essay determine the key issues of the organization through which its efficiency decreases. Along
with this, these articles focus over the challenges faced by the international business corporations
while performing their operations in global market. Such big factors’ influence over the
organizational performance like technology, communication, and culture and project
management has also been discussed under this reflective essay. Along with this, the essay also
includes the crucial terms such as “twin sword” and anthropological approach for improving the
management’s efficiency and ways to detect the critical issues in the cross culture management
system have also been covered.

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References
Boutellier, R., Gassmann, O. and Von Zedtwitz, M., 2013. Managing global innovation:
uncovering the secrets of future competitiveness. Springer Science & Business Media.
Daim, T.U., Ha, A., Reutiman, S., Hughes, B., Pathak, U., Bynum, W. and Bhatla, A., 2012.
Exploring the communication breakdown in global virtual teams. International Journal of
Project Management, 30(2), pp.199-212.
Farndale, E., Scullion, H. and Sparrow, P., 2010. The role of the corporate HR function in global
talent management. Journal of world business, 45(2), pp.161-168.
Jones, G.R. and Jones, G.R., 2010. Organizational theory, design, and change.
Mendenhall, M.E., Osland, J., Bird, A., Oddou, G.R., Stevens, M.J., Maznevski, M.L. and Stahl,
G.K. eds., 2017. Global leadership: Research, practice, and development. Routledge.
Meredith, J.R. and Mantel Jr, S.J., 2011. Project management: a managerial approach. John
Wiley & Sons.
Pless, N.M., Maak, T. and Stahl, G.K., 2011. Developing responsible global leaders through
international service-learning programs: The Ulysses experience. Academy of Management
Learning & Education, 10(2), pp.237-260.
Reiche, B.S., Mendenhall, M.E. and Stahl, G.K. eds., 2016. Readings and cases in international
human resource management. Taylor & Francis.

Business Research 9
Stahl, G., Björkman, I., Farndale, E., Morris, S.S., Paauwe, J., Stiles, P., Trevor, J. and Wright,
P., 2012. Six principles of effective global talent management. Sloan Management
Review, 53(2), pp.25-42.
Tarique, I. and Schuler, R.S., 2010. Global talent management: Literature review, integrative
framework, and suggestions for further research. Journal of world business, 45(2), pp.122-133.