by There are tons, but most can be resolved straight forwardly by encouraging people to share information with each other about their cultures. We used to do monthly pot luck lunches where people would each bring a native dish and take turns explaining them. In the process, you’d get a lot of non-food insight into their lifestyles. Toronto, where I worked for many years is the most mixed city and workforce in the world. In one business they hung everyone’s flags in the cafeteria – about 80. In my admin assistant’s church, some 40 languages were spoken. This mixing makes it much easier to overcome culture differences on the job, because everyone gets used to them pretty well everywhere.
The problematic issues were sometimes quite odd. A group of women from the same culture ran a lottery inside a few departments and anyone who didn’t buy a ticket was shunned and punished in various other ways a blackmail scheme really, since those who ran it kept about half the proceeds. Apparently this was common in their culture ‘back home.’
Occasionally we’d find a theft ring taking our products, usually to sell at flee markets and they’d reasonably often be based around family or culture members working in different locations, supported by others of the same from outside – gangs really.
Sometimes we’d find bosses or even work groups where promotions were given almost always to people of one culture. Of course, this is rampant all around the world with respect to the biggest culture divide of all – men versus women – where women are most often offered fewer promotions and paid less nearly everywhere and men are given the advantages. People can see and disagree with some ‘culture differences’ and can’t see or try to correct others.
Studies all prove that the best, most creative teams are mixed ones, but they take a bit more skill to manage, so you certainly find many, many bosses who assemble teams who are like themselves. In hiring it is a given that if there are two candidates the boss, if left to themselves, will almost always find a rationale for taking the one most like themselves. For that reason some companies now use hiring teams, sometimes even excluding the boss. Not sure if that fixes the problem.
Communication is one of the biggest issues in cross-cultural teams. While some people are more direct in their communication ( they say what they mean), people from some other cultures can be very indirect in their communication, especially in the presence of seniors. You need to watch out not only for what is said, but also the way it is said – the tone is as important as the words.
Time Management is another challenge in cross-cultural teams. Countries like Germany, Switzerland etc. are very time conscious and punctual, whereas Spain, Italy, India etc. are more relaxed in their attitude towards time. Long lunches, unplanned/sudden long coffee breaks are fairly common in these countries, where unplanned breaks might be frowned upon in Germany. Meetings, deadlines etc. need to be clearly communicated, and late coming needs to be appropriately dealt with early in the process.
Individual vs group cultures also clash in multi-cultural teams. While some people are comfortable saying”I will own this / I will do it” , many group cultures find the use of “I” uncomfortable, and use the plural form “we” a lot more even while addressing one-on-one messages. For example, “ we shall complete the process” is fairly common in mails from India to their British colleagues, who are left wondering who the “we” refers to, when the mail is addressed only to one individual. This can lead to problems in fixing accountability, and needs to be addressed in team meetings.
Hierarchy is a huge challenge in multi-cultural teams. In some places your value is derived from who you are, like your status, your family background, your seniority, your education etc. like India and in some others, like USA, the structure is more flat and you are valued for what you have accomplished. When such cultures interact, issues can open over openly challenging your manager, expressing opinions freely in meetings, saying ‘no’ to seniors/ clients, decision making and involvement of team members in the process etc. This can be addressed by openly discussing hierarchy in teams, and encouraging a flat operating model.
