Nowadays international collaboration is essential and a fundamentally synergistic and profitable corporate strategy. However, in order to be able to skim off this added value, a higher investment is required for cross-cultural teamwork than for national cooperation – and this is often forgotten.
On the one hand, we encounter the very normal problem areas that can also be found in national teams such as:
Tasks
Project tasks are unclear or too complex.
Methods and organization
Methods are unknown, insufficient resources, competences or unclear coordination and information.
Behavior
There is too little communication, lone wolf attitude, lack of social skills, departmental fights, group dynamics or lack of leadership skills.
On the other hand, international teams have to cope with aspects of intercultural communication – in addition to longer travel times, time and climate differences:
Language problems, stereotyping, the “imposition” of one’s own culture on others, unconscious interpretation and evaluation processes, national subgroup formation, different ways of working and communication styles.
These aspects lead to special challenges in international teamwork, e.g.:
- Time concepts – how are planning times, punctuality and time allocations handled?
- Employee leadership – does the team leader decide alone or are team members expected to be involved in decisions?
- Work motivation – is individual self-actualization at work the best way to provide incentive or is group orientation more likely?
- Problem solving and decision-making processes – is it more “trial and error” or is “careful planning” preferred? Is it common for the higher-ranking person to decide or is there more of a consensus decision?
- Negotiation and conflict styles – does one get to the point quickly or is restraint more appropriate? How is direct feedback handled and what role does face-saving play?
Since these are topics that are dealt with as a matter of course in national teams and are rarely on the agenda for discussion, it is often the case in international teams that team members lose patience when it comes to discussing such principles. They often feel as if they have to start all over again without making any progress with the actual project task.
However, these policy discussions are very important in order to be aligned for the actual task. International teams would therefore need more time in general to become really productive, which is usually scarce and therefore rarely made available. Team development measures, specifically for international teams, can help to shorten this start-up time through targeted measures, that prepare all sides to take a step back from their own habits and allow something new to emerge, without losing their respective authenticity. This can lead to the development of a new team culture in which differences are not only accepted but also valued. This is “intercultural” teamwork.
In a team it is important to learn to deal with each other and to approach each other without losing one’s own authenticity. Intercultural team development should provide the space for this. This is how to open the way to the hoped-for creation of synergies.
Sources:
Stephanie Püttker, extract out of a contribution for the congress volume of the international congress “experience & learn 2008 – empowering people for global responsibility”
