Cross_cultural Diversity Proposal

Growth is essential for everything in life. Growth represents movement and without movement things become old and out dated. In business, corporations will not and can not survive without growing. With today’s technology and advances it makes no sense for any company, no matter what the size, not to become cross-cultural or global. Going cross-cultural for Superior Widget Corporation is the only next step to take since they are a young company growing vigorously. The growth of the company is the reason why it is necessary to become a cross-cultural company. This is why the training is necessary.

This training will be different than any other training that has been given. This is going to be different because becoming a cross cultural business is something different. Normal training doesn’t correspond in training employees for diversity. Normal training consists of a trainer giving information that is pretty cut and dry. This training will not only be giving out information but it will also deal with people’s perceptions of other races, religion, backgrounds and how people perceive others. The senior managers will go through the training as a whole. It is expected that all the members of the senior management team set aside two business days to complete their training. Next, the training will be given to the managers. There will be three to five managers away from their departments for two days until they all have completed the training. Once all the managers have completed the training the associates will be next. They will go through the same training as the senior management and management. The training will consist of diversity training, cross cultural issues, global law and finance, multinational companies and multinational teams. Diversity will play an important part within this training because it is the foundation in which everything must stand. It is imperative that attendance, participation and an open minded is adhered to during this training.

This training will begin with the understanding of the importance of going global. The number one reason everyone will think that SWC decided to go cross-cultural is because revenue. That is not it completely true. Revenue is a reason but not the number one reason. They must understand that it is apart of job security. If the company decided going globally was not for them, then they will get left in the dust from the companies that are already in the global playing field. There will be four points that will be part of the discussions in the training classes and they are: Multinational teams and why they are helpful, Multinational Companies and who they are, Cross Cultural Issues, Global Law and Finance. Everyone taking the training will understand how diversity has a place in all of the items and why it is so important in this transition.

Multinational teams comprise of many different teams that work in different parts of the world. For example, in the automotive industry, the United States based company DaimlerChrysler took the Jeep Wrangler in 2007 and redesigned but this U.S. company had their parts built in many different areas of the world. “Kuka Flexible Productions Systems of Germany runs the body shop. Canadian-Austrian conglomerate Magna Steyr is in charge of the paint shop. Korea’s Hyundai Mobis makes the chassis modules.” (Wernle and Barkholz, 2006) In this case all of the employees are under the same umbrella which is DaimlerChrysler and yet they are located all around the world.

“To develop a strong multicultural team, the leader must be comfortable with that challenge--someone who can successfully combine the different perspectives and personalities that each member brings to the team to establish one organizational standard of performance.” (McGee, 2007) Managers that take the responsibility of becoming the leader for their department for the multicultural team will have to have exception communication skills and understanding of the different cultures and their languages including their body language and tone and demeanor. Tone and demeanor are important to read since the majority of communication will be over the internet via emails. There will also be text messages and multimedia messages that may have one connotation from the author and when the receiver gets it, the message can have a completely different meaning. A leader in a multicultural team means respecting everyone’s differences and applying them to the project, to become successful. They also must work meticulously so they will not fall into the trap of assuming what motivates people, especially people of other cultures.

From J.R. McGee in Quality Digest, he states these examples of cultural differences: “Professionals from Japan are just as focused on results, but they observe strict formalities in their personal and team interactions, and place a high value on loyalty and teamwork. In Russia, patience is considered to be an extremely important virtue. Russians will deliberately provoke someone in order to judge their patience--and hence, worthiness--as a business or negotiating partner. Often they’ll arrive late to a meeting for the same reason. When working with the Chinese, be sure to have the most important member of your team lead meetings and discussions, because the Chinese place great emphasis on rank and status. When working with businesspeople from Asia, keep in mind that showing proper respect is generally valued above all else.”вЂ¦Ð²Ð‚ÑšOne could easily assume that a Russian team member who displays a hot temper is simply being disruptive, or that a French team member who constantly argues is trying to derail the team. Yet, the Russian is most likely trying to determine what the other team members are “made of,” and the French employee highly values the ability of an individual to defend his or her position through rational argument.”

Members of the multicultural team must remember four items for success. The first is different cultures interpret the same situation differently and the will deal with them differently also. Understand everyone will not have the same understanding of the situation as you do. Second, “Make sure everyone knows what the team’s goals are and how the team had decided to achieve them. Everyone must also know their roles, responsibilities, and the conditions when flexibility is warranted or encouraged.” (Smith and Lindgren, 2007). Third, an understanding must be met on how the information will be handled in the team and how to communicate it. What is polite and what is rude to all. Lastly, keep an open mind. Different cultures have different behavioral rules, thus having an impact on their