A STUDY ON MULTICULTURAL TEAM AND THE CULTURAL DIVERSITY IN

MULTI-NATIONAL COMPANIES

M.Jayanthi1 and Dr.KVR.Rajandran2

Introduction

• Multicultural teams are an essential part of today’s global business environment.

• It is clear that multiculturalism have huge effect on many aspects of our daily life

Introduction

• The food we eat• Social lives we live• The buildings around us• The people we associate with• The corporate offices run around us• Our own out look on the world

• Note: Nepalyees @Norway & Immigrant Labors @ Germany

Reasons for Multicultural environment

• International Corporate business Growth• Global Economic Changes and challenges• Cross boundary transactions

• Complex business environment

Adaptation

Environmental adaptation became more crucial for the business success, but

• Adaptation is driven by cultural diversity(Salas, Goodwin and Barke, 2009)

• Adapting to cultural diversity is a demanding process, since culture is still much slower to change. (C.Thomas & Inkson, 2004)

The concept of culture

• Culture is generally defined as a pattern of deep level values and assumptions concerning societal functioning, which is shared by an interacting group of people. (Adler, 2002).

• Cultural values are learned very early in life as people are socialized into their respective environments with in particular societies and are very difficult to relearn or change. (Hofstede, 2001)

• Note : 164 Definitions

Cultural Diversity

• Cultural diversity refers to the representation of people within a social system “the group which collectively share certain norms, values or traditions that are different from those of other groups” (Cox, 1993).

• Often the term cultural diversity is applied to ethnic or national diversity in work groups as well (Watson, 1993).

Review of Literature

• The basic theoretical assumption of diversity research asserts that diversity with respect to the group composition influences group processes and that these processes in turn affect group performance (Williams, 1998).

• Diversity research has established that diversity offers both a great opportunity for companies as well as major challenges (Adler, 2002).

Review of Literature

• Diverse work groups experience strong conflicts (Pelled, 1999), communication between group members becomes more difficult (Caldwell, 1992), the willingness to cooperate with fellow group members diminishes (Thomas, 1999) and group cohesion decreases (Harrison, 2002). All these process losses often result in higher turnover and absenteeism rates (O’Reilly, 1989) and lower the work satisfaction (Tsai, 1992).

Methodology

• Sample size: 50• Random sampling method• Multicultural team from countries includes India,

Australia, Singapore, USA, Saudi Arabia Canada and UAE

• Data Collection through: E- Mail• Data analysis done using: Multiple Response

Analysis (SPSS) and Percentage Analysis Technique

Data Analysis Influences of cultural diversity in multicultural team The benefits of a multicultural team

Problems in multicultural team

Stage at which problem arises

Need of cross cultural training

Key skills required for a multicultural team

Influences of Cultural diversity

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

Have In-fluence (74%)

No Influ-ence (26%)

Influences of Cultural diversity

• This finding of the research was inline with the previous study that “culture affects our perception”, “culture affects our verbal and nonverbal language”, “and “The culture affects our identity” (Cooper, Thomas and Simonds, 2007).

Benefits of Multicultural Team

Different skills

Better capabilities

Creativity

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

Benefits of multicultural team

No

of R

espo

nden

ts

34

2222

Benefits of Multicultural Team

• Lazear (1998, 1999) asserts that a diverse team can generate productivity gains if three factors are present.

• First, team members must have different skills, ability, or information.

Benefits of Multicultural Team

• Second, the different skills, ability, or information of team members must be relevant to one another.

• Third, communication is necessary for team members to perform the relevant joint tasks and engage in knowledge transfer to enhance productivity.

Causes of problems in a Multicultural Team

Miscommunication Unawareness of culture Attitudinal and perception issues0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

29

32

35

Problems in multicultural team

No

of R

espo

nden

ts

29

3235

Causes of problems in a Multicultural Team

• This finding is inline with previous literature that a major challenge for multicultural management is the different cultural beliefs, practices and traditions that are embraced by various segments of employees (Edwer, 2010).

Causes of problems in a Multicultural Team

• A lack of culturally appropriate communication can create animosity and division between employees, leading to internal challenges that will hinder overall performance (Devine, 2007).

Stages of project sensitive to problem

70%

30%

Stage of project sensitive to problem

Beginning Middle

Stages of project sensitive to problem

• “The Beginning” of the project is accordance with the framework of Tuckman’s model (1965). From Tuckman’s model it is apparent that all stages have some challenges for teams, but especially in the storming stage.

Need of Cross Culture training

62%

38%

Need of cross culture training

YES NO

Need of Cross Culture training

• The finding is in line with Mendenhall Model. • Training knowledge of corporate etiquette can

improve the skills of future team members and prepare them for the diverse issues in multicultural team (Mendenhall Model, 1987).

Key skills required

• better communication capabilities • respect, value and tolerance towards other’s

culture• open-mindedness to accept other’s culture and

views• flexibility to accept the changes taken place • continuous learning attitude• culture awareness • positive approach towards the problems

Key skills required

• A: Better communication capabilities • B: Learning attitude • C: Respect and acceptance for others culture • D: Open mindedness • E: Flexibility Mixture of these skills in correct proportion

will form Effective Multicultural work group which indeed required.

Key skills required

Conclusion

• Cultural diversity has impact in multicultural team work.

• Diversity offers both opportunity and challenges.• The beginning stage of the project is more

sensitive to the problems. • A multicultural group which has better qualities

will be able to establish a good working atmosphere

• Proper cross cultural training is required.

Thank you

My Sincere Thanks to

• PMU, Vallam, Tanjore.

• Dr.KVR.Rajandran, HOD, Dept of Management.

• Conference Organizers and Team members.