Cross Culture Management

Each culture has a distinct way of expressing human emotions and has different attitudes behind this expressions вЂ" also in business matters. Finding people who can fit into the culture of international organization is not easy. And then when we find them already we have to learn how to overcome culture bumps and how to make cultural differences work in our business. And once we get the hang of working around cultural differences, we can only get better. Most scientists acknowledge that, besides culture, many things influence human behavior, including genetic and environmental factors. We shouldn’t forget that each person is an individual, with different experiences and a member of a culture with his own perceptions. Once individuals come from different cultural backgrounds the possibility of having completely different perceptions of the same situation increases highly.

Whatever our preference set, it inherently involves certain blind spots to other perspectives and can create interpersonal problems when others expect a different type of involvement with us. Therefore, we would do well to examine the opposite preferences and the way these opposites would employ a different process. Many people attracted to Myers-Briggs Indicator see it as a means of categorizing and understanding others. An understanding of type can help broaden the definitions to cover the different ways people perceive, different ways they make decisions, different styles of relating to the external world, and different learning styles. While that benefit certainly exists, I have found it difficult to implement in practice. At best "typing" others is a tentative hypothesis that requires constant revisiting. And since there are variations within a given MBTI type (no two people within a type are truly identical), assumptions can be dangerous.

Certainly personality styles influence the team behavior and efficiency. Creating the team and hiring person to be a member of this team we have to know the answer to the question - is the best team a collection of essentially the same kinds of people вЂ" with the same strengths and same weaknesses? Or are there some benefits of having diversity вЂ" with some complimentary strengths? For some jobs, it may be quite appropriate to have a narrower range of differences. Someone with a preference for Introversion, for example, who is required to do a lot of detail work or think through a problem, may find it disruptive to be in an team where a lot of interaction is required. Typically someone with ISTJ preferences would naturally employ processes that involve a good deal of independent, logical, and structured analysis - having things well worked out before presenting to others for their input or reaction. Yet in working or relating with certain other types of people, this natural style could spell problems. They may expect a more spontaneous, deal-with-it-right-now approach. It can influence team's efficiency negatively. In my opinion, as we live in a very dynamic changing world, is better to work in the team with people of different personalities. One is that different personalities bring energy to a department or team that otherwise would exist in a stagnant environment. Having a broader collection of perspectives among a given group of practitioners helps us better adapt to changes. Whatever are the new demands, having a diverse group means that it is more likely some in our group will be well equipped to meet these new challenges. However, in this situation, team management requires substantial skills. Not only because the members could be different but also because some of them could have the same personality type. There is a common belief that people with the same personality understand themselves better and their friendship has positive influence on a team. The friends communicate a lot together which naturally results in other members being drawn into discussion, that reflects in a good “social” feel to the group and improve motivation and commitment. But sometimes it causes the other people feel excluded which means that there will be two sub-groups at least. In this case the information may not flow across the whole group, but only within the subgroups and may lead to poor collective performance.

Preparing myself to the module I found description of very interesting research initiative of Dr. Judith Orasanu on effectively collaboration in teams of astronauts under highly stressful conditions . Effective interpersonal relationships are critical as crews become more varied in terms of culture, gender and professional backgrounds. Teams were most successful when one of the searchers rather than the base coacher ( BC) emerged as the leader. However, when the BC was viewed as the leader, higher leadership scores were associated with better team performance. Emotional stability, Disagreeableness and Extraversion characterized perceived leaders. Cognitive ability predicted perceived leadership only when correlations among different cognitive factors were taken into account. Task success was related to the quality of team members planning. High-performing teams were found to cope with high task stress (time pressure, severe consequences) by explicitly planning for events and by specifying each team members role. The BCs role was crucial in this context as he kept track of the teams progress as well as their available time and resources. The base coordinator plays a special role in the simulation because he must evaluate and forward critical information concerning weather and environmental conditions, notify searchers of time-critical emergency requests and assist in restocking supplies. The BCs personality characteristics, physiological reactivity and communication behaviors were related to team performance. BCs levels of Extraversion, Openness and Conscientiousness influenced team performance, but only when mediated by group cohesion and team collaboration. Lower BC reactivity to stress was associated with higher team performance. BCs communication in successful teams was inclusive and agreeable, providing task-relevant information while leaving actual task coordination to the searchers. In less-successful teams, BCs micromanaged and favored some while neglecting other team members. The conclusions were most interesting: team factors such as group goals and strategies, team average personality, team composition and the base coordinators characteristics contribute more to team cohesion, climate and performance than individual crewmember personality.

Most of people have encountered challenges within the organizations when it comes to communicating effectively. The process of communication is multifaceted. The sender selects words that best describe the message using special intonation to emphasize parts and structures message so that it can