Self reflection about the challenges and benefits of cross cultural teams - Essay Example

CHALLENGES AND BENEFITS OF CROSS CULTURAL TEAMS Introduction The globalised world today has seen a growing need for people to move and work in different places across the world, which is quite different from their home environment. The growing opportunities for business and education among other important dimensions have meant that people try to understand about other cultures beyond their borders. The need for exploiting these opportunities has the emergence of different cross-cultural teams at the work place and even in institutions of higher learning where people seek education and career opportunities (Sembdner 2011, p. 34). The move towards having a highly geographical and globally dispersed organization alongside technology has played a big role in achieving this important objective.

This development seems to have greatly changed the way work is done and the work place in general, not only the United States and United Kingdom alone, but also in the entire world (Burke 2010, p. 42). The development is actually prompting organizational leaders to try and establish communications with teams that consist of virtually different backgrounds, styles and languages. In doing this, they are expected to manage a round table sitting without having any physical cues like gestures and other facial expressions.

The organizational leaders of such teams are often challenged to establish smooth operations inasmuch as many differences are often evident. During this process, possibilities for cultural blunders and misunderstandings can often be magnified in these kinds of work situations such that leaders can only benefit if they expand their techniques an tools in dealing with these and other emerging differences (Hansen 2009, p. 29). This paper examines some of the challenges and benefits being faced by different cross-cultural teams at the work place and even in educational institutions in different places.

Cross-cultural teams In the modern business world today, people interacting to work and carry out together forms a cross-cultural team; in this regard, cross culture becomes a very critical issue since success in international business requires the presence of a smooth interaction between employees in the company or particular organisation, who come from different regions and cultures across the world. At present, many companies have started devoting their substantial resources towards creating systems like training where their employees can freely interact with fellow employees in companies of different cultures in a bid to foment and effective cross-cultural competence (Mendenhall 2000, p. 32). Effective management of cross cultural teams can have many benefits to an organisation since it gains a competitive advantage especially when competing in new territories.

However, when poorly managed, it can also be a big threat towards existence and success of these organizations (Ang 2008, p. 61). For this reason, organizational leaders are supposed to ensure that they devise effective strategies by which they can draw maximum benefits from cross-cultural teams and not loose in their use towards organizational growth and success. Benefits associated with cross cultural teams One of the advantages of having cross cultural teams at the work place is that they often lead to increased knowledge.

By working with employees from various backgrounds, one if often exposed to a variety of knowledge and experience as opposed to when working in an environment having people from the same cultural background (Punnett 2004, p. 54). In this perspective, this knowledge enables one to be abreast with various issues and opportunities in others places, prompting business growth and development. Through having wide business and general skills, a cross-cultural team can enhance its interpersonal skills and offer a broad perspective on various ways of managing businesses and organizations for team leaders and managers.

The ability to manage cross-cultural teams offer valuable experiences since more work teams often tend to cross borders (Budhwar 2009, p. 25). In the modern business world, having the experience to work within certain international contexts has become an increasing important skill. Having the experience of working effectively within cross-cultural teams is an important skill for future organizational leaders, who are prompted by the need to be effective in their global business expansions (Brett 2007, p. 82). Challenges facing cross-cultural teams Inasmuch as cross-cultural teams seem to have many advantages for both employees and organizational leaders, they are faced with many challenges that can affect their growth and success.

Some of the major challenges faced by organizational teams include creating a system that can make it possible to effectively work with people that have different attitudes, values and even practices (Thomas & Inkson 2003, p. 67). The idea of creating such an effective system to address the above issues is often the headache for most organizational leaders, who are required to ensure that they help their employees to adopt quickly and contribute to the success of the institution. Many organizational leaders often wonder about what it takes to become successful and effective in this modern digital age, especially for the global work environment.

Here, a lot of competition exists between domestic business organizations and those fronted by multinational companies and corporations (Peterson 2008, p. 76). Success in this case comes from the ability to understand the new culture in a fast way and offer products and services in a manner that enables the business to build and consolidate on its market share. Group findings In our group work, we had been tasked with finding about some of the challenges and benefits accrued from working with cross-cultural teams.

The group, having members from different nations meant that we had to unite and brainstorm about some of the personal experiences and those faced by people interacting together from different cultures. In our discussion, we realized that cross-culturalism has become a common feature not only in business cases but also in many other places like learning institutions. Following the trends in globalization, people cannot afford staying within the confines of their national boundaries; they are often forced to seek better opportunities elsewhere, something that brings the concept of cross-culturalism.

Conclusion In conclusion, organizational leaders and their respective institutions are supposed to ensure that they rethink their mission and vision, organizational values and culture, procedures and different practices in order to attract and create effective and efficient cross-cultural teams. It is important to understand that challenges can happen to multiplied through cultural confrontations at the work place especially where effective systems to address the emerging issues are non-existent.

In this highly globalised world, the need for having effective and reliable cross-cultural teams cannot be overemphasized. It is the duty of organizational leaders to ensure that they devise proper systems by which they can handle the different approaches and systems to human resource management especially in a cross-cultural context. Success in these business organizations is derived from the ability to venture into new markets beyond national borders and establish competitive advantages through effective cross-cultural teams among other strategies Bibliography Ang, S. 2008. Handbook of cultural intelligence theory, measurement, and applications.

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