The Challenges of Selecting, Creating, Developing and Managing a Multi-Cultural Team - Literature review Example

A critical examination of the challenges of selecting, creating, developing and managing a multi-cultural team Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 Cultural Dimensions: Multicultural Team Management 4 Cultural misunderstandings in Multicultural Team Management 7 Group Dynamics 9 Motivation of Groups: Multicultural Team Management 12 Conclusion 13 Reference List 14 Appendices 18 Reflective Learning Log 18 Introduction In recent years, with the rise of globalization, getting multicultural teams within an organizational environment to work effectively has become a concerning issue for companies across international boundaries (Ochieng and Price, 2009). It is being predicted by scholars like Ochieng and Price (2009) that the trend of multi-cultural team management is going to rise in coming years with the onslaught of global modernisation. With the advent of globalization and cross border knowledge transfer, propensity of expanding business operation in different cultural environments has exponentially increased for companies (Weatherley, 2006; Zakaria et al., 2004). While expanding internationally, modern business organizations are not only adjusting operational policies in accordance to socio cultural norms of particular countries but also recruiting talents from different cultural background for improving process outcome. In similar context, while working as an Operations Manager for an international facilities management company based in Doha, Qatar; I recently had the opportunity to manage a multi-cultural team of my own. In simple words, managing a multicultural team was a rewarding experience but the process of managing a multi-cultural team has also provided significant learning experience for me. During the project I faced the challenges of selecting, creating, developing and managing the multicultural team. An Interesting fact that transpired is that the challenges I faced can be justified and contextualized with the help of available literature on the topic. In such context, the objective of this report will be to explore literature regarding challenges of selecting, creating, developing and managing the multicultural team. While doing research on different aspects of multicultural team management, Weatherley (2006) and Ochieng and Price (2009) used concepts like cultural dimensions in multicultural teams, group dynamics, cultural misunderstanding and motivation of team members in multicultural teams to understand dynamics of multicultural team management. These theories will be used to analyze the situations being presented in the Reflective Learning Log. However, before going to the main discussion, the report will discuss concepts of cultural dimensions that are being closely linked with multicultural team management. Cultural Dimensions: Multicultural Team Management Consideration of the research works of Yang (2006) and Yang et al. (2000) reveals the fact that actions of people in multicultural teams are being directed by their cultural dimensions. Therefore, understanding cultural dimensions can help managers to predict how employees will behave in multicultural teams. While working as an Operations Manager overseeing a team of multi-cultural managers in Doha, Qatar; I also found a significant amount of divergence in the behaviour of team members representing different countries. Yang (2006) pointed out that personality, ability to adjust in a team environment and motivation levels of members in multicultural teams are being directed by their cultural orientation. For example, I found that some of the team members showed tendencies to take risks while other team members lacked the confidence level to take risks. Lack of confidence level to take risks is being directed by uncertainty avoidance factor mentioned in cultural dimension theory. The question is whether the behaviour of a team of multi-cultural managers is being directed by so called “cultural dimension” or it was a case of mere chance factors. In such context, Dreu and Weingart (2003), De Wit and Greer (2008) and De Dreu (2006) performed meta-analysis for understanding the role of cultural dimensions in directing motivation levels as well as behaviour of the individual team members. These scholars found that reward expectancy, team working capabilities and language proficiency of multicultural team members were being directed by cultural dimensions. From historical perspectives, origins of cultural dimension theories were being developed on the basis of anthropological theories being proposed by Hall (1955) and Guetzkow and Gyr (1954). After 30 years, Hofstede (1980, 1991 and 1993) developed formal theories of cultural dimensions. Theories of cultural dimensions were being further elaborated by Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner (1997). In the seminal research work, Hofstede (1991) identified five cultural dimensions such as collectivism versus individualism, masculinity, risk taking attitude, long term orientation and power distances. In more refined work, Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner (1997) identified an additional two cultural dimensions. It is being assumed by scholars like Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner (1997) and Hofstede (1980 and 1991) that divergence in working practices of individuals in a team can be influenced by their cultural orientation. Collectivism versus individualism: employees from countries blended with individualistic culture tend to prefer to work alone and care less about the interests of other members in the team (Hofstede, 1980 and Chen, 2008). Multi-cultural managers with individualistic culture dimensions tend to be less responsive towards group meetings and focus only on their personal objectives. For example, I found that team members who belong to countries with high individualism score were pretty ignorant toward viewpoint of other team members (Geert-Hofstede, 2014). On the contrary, employees from countries blended with collectivism culture think more of the betterment of the group and they prioritize interest from the team members. Multi-cultural managers with collectivism culture dimensions tend to show respect to opinion from other team members and stress more on team development. During the workplace situation being mentioned in the Reflective Learning Log; I had asked 7 individuals to be included in the team. Previous working relationships with these individuals were being used for categorizing them as potential team members. However, four of these seven individuals belonged to countries with high collectivism score in Hofstede parameters (Geert-Hofstede, 2014). These individuals showed genuine interest for being part of the team and agreed to become team members. Due to presence of these enthusiastic team members, collaboration and commitment index of the team was increased. Masculinity versus femininity: according to Hofstede (1980 and 2000), team members from countries with masculine cultures tend to show behaviour like arrogance, sacrificing their own personal happiness for achieving professional targets and dominance over other team members. Multi-cultural managers with feminine cultural dimensions show the tendency to care for interest of other team members and listen to other team members while making important decisions. During the production of the Reflective Learning Log; I became to recognise the people from countries with masculine culture and multicultural managers from countries with feminine culture. From a team performance perspective, managers with masculine culture orientation were great contributors. Inclusion of these managers had complimented the group dynamics of the team. Power distance: according to Hofstede (1980 and 2000), in the case of countries with greater power distances, social power is being concentrated in the hand of leaders and these leaders dictate the terms of life of its social members. On the contrast, multicultural managers from countries with low power distances tend show courage to speak their mind in front of top level management and these managers can expect equal treatment by top level management. During the production of the Reflective Learning Log; multicultural managers from countries with low power distances were freer while expressing their opinion and contributed significantly in team development. On the other hand, multicultural managers from countries with high power distances showed the tendency to remain silent during meeting and they were pretty hesitant in expressing their problems. Uncertainty avoidance: Bozionelos and Wang (2006) and Branine (2005) argued that people from countries with high uncertainty avoidance dimensions fear to take risks and prefer to follow others. On the contrary, multicultural managers from countries with low uncertainty avoidance show the tendency to handle complex business problems or lead other team members during contingent business situations (Brockner et al., 2000). During the project I can recall identifying some managers who showed a genuine interest in providing solutions or feedback to improve the effectiveness of the team. These managers came to me and asked for additional responsibilities so that they could contribute to team development. Short term versus long term orientation: multicultural managers from countries having short term orientation cultural dimensions look for immediate benefits from their actions. These managers were being engaged by financial incentives. On the contrary, multicultural managers from countries having long term orientation cultural dimensions are ready to forsake immediate benefits in order to achieve long term success. I therefore used rewards like career development, promotion and additional responsibilities to engage these managers. Cultural misunderstandings in Multicultural Team Management Ochieng and Price (2009) used similar arguments for understanding the diversity in work attitude of team members in a construction project team. While doing research on problems that faced managers working with multi-cultural teams, Reva and Ataalla (2002) and Brett et al. (2007) found that languages play a vital role during multicultural team management. Language problem regarding multicultural team management can be directed by range of factors such as, 1- Confusion regarding mode of communication, 2- Problem regarding understanding of accents and fluency of speakers, 3- Differing or better to say biased attitudes towards members in organizational hierarchy, 4- Conflict of interest between team members and 5- Poor language understanding ability of team members (Brett et al., 2007; Friedman et al., 2009; Friedman et al., 2006). In similar context I also faced language problems while communicating with the team members. For example, some team members faced difficulty in understanding and communicating in English. These team members were not only poor in terms of communicating but they also showed the tendency of committing many grammatical errors during written communication. In order to hide their inefficiency, these team members remained non-interactive during team projects. In some cases, due to their lack of understanding of Basic English, these team members often misinterpreted critical information. Brett et al. (2007) also identified similar kinds of consequences for the existence of language barriers within multicultural teams. It is evident from the research work of Emmitt and Gorse (2003 and 2007) that apart from language barriers; other factors like clash of work ethics, absence of proper leadership style, lack of trust between team members, biased attitude towards particular segments of people and absence of formal communication may also decrease efficiency of cross cultural team management. Therefore, it can be said that the challenges of selecting, creating, developing and managing a multi-cultural team is being directed by both internal as external factors. Emmitt and Gorse (2003 and 2007) identified communication barrier as major challenge regarding multi culture team management. While developing an ideal communication model for a multi culture team, Emmitt and Gorse (2007) and Ochieng and Price (2009) selected range of predictors like establishing clear line of responsibility, developing a culture of respect for each team member, instituting cultural empathy to team members, integrating value management techniques, developing an environment of trust among team members and ensuring ethical behaviour among team members. Developing a robust communication plan can be referred as a building block for the team development process. Ochieng and Price (2009) stated that group dynamics and the production of a multi-cultural communication plan are two strategic development units for ensuring a successful team working. Victor and Ariane Berthoin (2005) pointed out that conflict between self competence and self identity of team members in multicultural teams may result in formation of cultural misunderstandings. While defining cultural misunderstandings Victor and Ariane Berthoin (2005, pp. 69-86) stated that “An effective member of a multicultural team is able to establish an interpersonal relationship with a foreign national via exchange of verbal and non verbal levels of behaviour-exhibit intercultural competence”. Unfortunately, while developing a professional team of multicultural managers, I found that managers from non-English speaking countries were avoiding communication with managers from countries where English is treated as first language. Also managers from countries where English is being used as second languages were comfortable in communicating through their local languages. As a result of this for the first few weeks the distance between these two groups of managers was created and the group dynamics of the team was negatively affected. As a relatively dominant leader I had negotiated with both sets of managers and worked as a mediator during communication exchanges between these two groups. In the team, there was mix of Muslim and non-Muslim managers. Due to lack of education in those areas, it was difficult for non-Muslim managers to understand the value system and ethics level of Muslim managers. In order to ensure sustainability of group dynamics and eradicate conflict of viewpoints between managers, strategic negotiation techniques were used by me. Group Dynamics While explaining concepts of ‘Team Role Theory’, Belbin (1993, p. 38) stated “The more you understand how / why people act the way they do and the more you are able to align them to your goals the more successful you will be.” Such statements can be considered as the central idea behind concepts of group dynamics. The term ‘Group’ is pretty important in case of team formation approaches. Groups are being developed with more than one individual and these individuals join groups due to certain personal likings, expectations, ideology or mere external forces (Belbin, 1993). While joining groups within organizations, each individual brings a distinctive set of personal characteristics, capabilities and work ethics. In simple words, group dynamics can be classified as movement of members in the group while considering intra level interaction or relationship between respective team members as a reference point. Consideration of the research works of Williams (2002) reveals the fact that direction of group dynamics is being influenced by complex, intangible and difficult to track factors like human emotions, perception of team members, motivation level to work in a team and engagement level. Therefore, it is very difficult to control the outcome of group dynamics. In the seminal research works, Tuckman (1965) and Tuckman and Jensen (1977) identified stages for group development such as forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning. Forming- this stage is being described as the cautiously excited stage where group members cautiously explore the norms of acceptable group behaviour. During this phase, group members tend to analyze behaviour of other group members and they also bear some trepidation regarding the outcome of the project for which they are being grouped (Tuckman, 1965). During forming phase, goals of the group formation are being communicated to team members and trepidation feelings of team members gets diluted with the pride as well as excitement for getting selected in the respective groups. A successful group formation strategy, Tuckman and Jensen (1977) suggested techniques such as coordinating actions of group members, clarifying the goals to team members through repetitive meetings, encouraging group members to voice their concerns and establishing guideline for meeting behaviour. Harrison et al. (2002) argued that social interaction between team members affect the effectiveness of group formation. If a team member receives a cooperative attitude from other team members, then the first team member develops positive thinking about the personality of the other team member who is showing cooperative attitude. However, Tuckman (1965) pointed out that early developed perception of team members regarding other members might restrict the outcome of group dynamics. Rather, rigid negative perception of team members regarding other team members creates scope for the storming phase. Organizational leaders face difficulties regarding lack of knowledge about skill levels of employees being utilised in varying geographic regions. For any particular project, employees may be hired from different cultural as well as geographic locations. In such cases, it becomes difficult for managers to use personal relationships for selecting team members in the project. Emmitt and Gorse (2007) found that many managers use just intentions to recruit team members and in most of the cases, such unstructured decisions decrease efficiency of the multi cultured team. Brett et al. (2007) also found that establishing an unbiased and efficient team is concerning great issue for managers. Due to the absence of knowledge about skill levels of employees from different cultural regions, managers often feel the dilemma of selecting the employee for the team. It has been already mentioned that I used prior working relationship knowledge for selecting 4 team members. Two managers gave untruthful statements about their current workload/projects in order to avoid being part of the team. During the development of team, multicultural managers raised concerns regarding the outcome of team. I can recall handling repetitive questions, even from experienced managers and lack of confidence from these managers regarding the outcome of the group. Storming- during this phase, group members show resistance to the task and responsibilities being assigned for them (Tuckman and Jensen, 1977). Generally, such resistance are being caused by fluctuations in attitude and feelings of uncertainty regarding the probability of success of the team. Members plagued with vices like jealousy, impatience, overt recognition and pessimism may fuel the storming process. In order to successfully manage storming phase, Tuckman and Jensen (1977) suggested techniques such as encouraging team members to express their negative feelings, giving importance on negative feedback of team members, using interpretive feedback, involving the group members to resolve the emergent issues and identifying consensus views. In similar context, during the execution of the project I asked team to complete a SWOT analysis in order to decrease the magnitude of the storming phase. Thorough interactive as well as honest negotiations, I identified an amount of time which each team member could devote in the mobilization project. Minor level storming was created by two members by stating their concern regarding the duration of this project. Issues raised by these two members were resolved through periodic group meetings. Two team members (those with poor English skills) performed the anchor roles during group meetings they also developed action tracker to log important events. Members showing resistance regarding meeting schedules were asked to rearrange their calendars and prioritize their time for the project mobilising of the new contract in Doha. Norming- according to Tuckman (1965), during this phase, members develop consensus regarding norms of teams and accept their responsibilities. During norming phase, sense of cooperation becomes and avoiding conflict becomes top priority among team members. Similar norming situation was faced by me while managing team of multicultural managers. Through periodic group meetings, tasks and responsibilities were assigned to team members in accordance to their preference. I recall having personally communicated with one team member showing reluctance to continue on the assigned task. As a result of the personal meeting, the reluctant team member became ready to perform the task that was requested. Upon negotiation, team members decided to meet during lunch time on a weekly basis. For three members E-mails were used to communicate the meeting agenda. Performing- Consideration of research works of Kerr and Hertel (2011), Köhler (1926 and 1927) reveals the fact that group performance is being directed by the engagement level of team members. In the performing stage, the group members develop cohesiveness and coordinate strength of individual team members to address concerning issues. Group members form close attachments and constructively work during problematic situations (Tuckman and Jensen, 1977). I observed such a situation during end of the 2nd month of the project, the performing phase of the group was attained. During the project mobilising of the new contract team members showed great enthusiasm to update their tasks on weekly basis. As a result I got the opportunity to review task progress of team members in responsive manner. However, only 5 of the team members used to email their task progress while other team members used to give excuses for not sending the progress report. Considering Belbin’s (2010) team role theory, I had taken the role of coordinator in order to engage reluctant members who used to give excuses. According to Belbin (2010), leaders of the team need to execute roles of Co-ordinator (CO), Shaper (SH) and Implementer (IMP). I on the other hand had mixed the role of Co-ordinator (CO) and Implementer (IMP) in order to not only coordinate activities of team members but also implement the projected idea in the core of the group. Adjourning- during this stage, task and responsibilities of team members are finished and team members move on for the next challenge. For successful projects, finishing of the project can be done in a progressive manner but in case of unsuccessful team gatherings, the team can be dismantled on an immediate basis. However, in case of this project, it was successfully completed and delivered to the client within time and financial constraints. Motivation of Groups: Multicultural Team Management Deal et al. (2013) and Usher et al. (2012) and Maslow (1943) defined motivation as cognitive orientation of people to fulfil five types of needs such as Physiological needs, Safety needs, need for belongingness, need for esteem and self-actualization. Emmitt and Gorse (2007) suggested that organizational leaders need to use personal judgement and working relationships while motivating different individuals from various functional departments within an organization. Within any organisation the need for esteem or recognition, safety needs and need for belongingness are extremely important factors to influence the motivation level of employees. Driven by need for esteem or recognition, employees look for reward in way of promotion or a career development opportunity. Driven by safety needs, employees look for prolonged employability and financial rewards that can help them to live a better quality of life. Driven by a need for inclusion, employees feel motivated to work with known team members or develop emotionally significant relationships with colleagues. According to the expectancy theory being proposed by Atkinson (1957), if team members find an offered reward as significant then they tend to adjust their behaviour within the group to achieve the reward. Herzberg et al. (1959) identified ‘Motivators’ that directly influences job satisfaction of employees. Challenging work conditions, recognition within workplace and career development opportunities are being regarded as ‘Motivators’ for employees. On the other hand, ‘Hygiene factors’ are extrinsic work related factors like job security, work conditions, fringe benefits and salaries. In such context, presence of the above mentioned ‘Hygiene factors’ may not cause positive job satisfaction among employees but in the absence of these factors may result in job dissatisfaction among employees at all levels. During this exercise I also experienced problems like decreasing motivation levels from certain team members, increasing absenteeism and lack of engagement level from employees. As a result, active team members started showing concern regarding balancing current work commitments and the fulfilment of the project. In such context I used concepts like the expectancy theory being proposed by Atkinson (1957) and ‘Two factor’ theory being proposed by Herzberg et al. (1959). It was discovered that a night out bowling was quite popular among team the members and team members regarded a night out bowling as a rewarding experience. As a result, I used the night out bowling and meal as a reward if team members completed their assigned duties competently. In order to ensure the presence of Hygiene factors’, a year-end bonus, incentives were being adjusted to salary structure of team members. In order to ensure integration of ‘Motivators’ into the teams work life I started monthly performance based appreciation for team members. For example, techniques like ‘The Manager of the Month award’ or allowing team members to perform the role of team leader at next phase of the project were used as ‘Motivators’ for team. Conclusion It is evident from the above discussion that the complexities of group dynamics are being directed by the individuality of team members. During the course of this study, motivational forces behind the action of group members were being analyzed. Movement of people within the group can be considered as mediator between concepts of motivation and group dynamics. It has been found that dynamics of relationship between two group members can influence their engagement as well as their commitment level towards the group. However, the study has tried to establish a link between cultural dimensions of multicultural team, group dynamics and motivational theories but more refined research works are needed to establish the mentioned relationship in robust manner. Exploring cultural dimension theories was an enriching experience for me as it allowed me to look at the whole process from a different angle. In conclusion, it can be said that conducting the study has not only increased my knowledge level on team dynamics but also increased my awareness regarding what effects multiculturalism can have on a task, whatever the complexity. Reference List Atkinson, J. W., 1957. Motivational determinants of risk-taking behavior. Psychological Review, 64(6.1), pp. 359-372. Belbin, M., 1993. Team roles at work. Oxford: Reed. Belbin, R., 2010. Team Roles at Work. 2nd ed. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. Bozionelos, N. and Wang, L., 2006. The relationship of mentoring and network resources with career success in the Chinese organizational environment. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 17, pp. 1531-46. Branine, M., 2005. Cross-cultural training of managers: An evaluation of a management development programme for Chinese managers. Journal of Management Development, 24, pp. 459-72. Brett, J., Behfar, K. and Kern, M. C., 2007. Managing multi-cultural teams. 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Usher, A., Kober, N. and Center O. N. E. P., 2012. What Is Motivation and Why Does It Matter? Washington, Washington University: Center on Education Policy. Victor, J. and Ariane Berthoin, A., 2005. Negotiating Reality: A Theory of Action Approach to Intercultural Competence. Management Learning, 36(1), pp. 69-86. Weatherley, S., 2006. ECI in partnership with engineering construction industry training board (ecitb). London: Master class Multicultural Project Team Working. Williams, J., 2002. Team development for high tech project managers. London: Arctech house. Yang, N., Chen, C. C., Choi, J. and Zou, Y., 2000. Sources of work-family conflict: A Sino-US comparison of the effects of work and family demands. Academy of Management Journal, 43, pp. 113-23. Yang, Z., 2006. The real cross-cultural conflicts management. 21st Century Business, 1, pp. 27-30. Zakaria, N., Amelinckx, A. and Wilemon, D., 2004. Working together apart? Building a knowledge-sharing culture for global virtual teams. Creativity and Innovation Management, 13(1), pp. 15-29. Appendices Reflective Learning Log Title of entry A critical examination of the challenges of selecting, creating, developing and managing a multi-cultural team Brief description I am currently working as an Operations Manager overseeing a team of multi-cultural managers for an international facilities management company based in Doha, Qatar. Shortly after arrival I was delegated a task of developing a professional and competent team for assessing the feasibility of mobilising a new contract in Doha. The primary purpose of this project was to prepare a team of managers who could repeat this task at any given time in the future with the minimal of supervision. Reflection on outcomes As a relatively dominant leader, I have always integrated well as a team member on various projects throughout my academic and professional career. However trying to bond and evaluate the individual strengths and weaknesses within a multi-cultural team in such a short space of time after taking up a new position was a first for me, and to be honest it was somewhat daunting. There were many challenges encountered by the team as few members were open with their opinions and information was being misinterpreted by some team members who had extremely poor English, both spoken and grammatical. However, our team was able to complete the project on time and our mobilisation plan proved invaluable as we delivered a contract to the client within constraints of the tender, both financially and operationally. Reflection on processes Creating a team – The foremost task was to select individuals from different areas of the company. Since I had already developed strong working relationships with some individuals I asked them about their willingness to be a part of this important project. Of seven people, only four agreed to become team members. The remaining three said that they had important deadlines for the coming months and it would be difficult for them to commit to such an activity. However, I was aware that two of them were making untruthful statements about their current workload/projects. This showed me that everyone has different commitment levels and priorities and people think about their own personal situations before that of the company. Delegating tasks and responsibilities – After the team was created, the next step was to assign the respective duties to each member. In order to identify the strengths of individuals, I asked the team to complete a SWOT analysis and give me their honest opinion about the pending project mobilisation. Also, they were asked to give their viewpoint about the amount of time which they can dedicate and what tasks will they be able to perform. To my surprise, the two team members with poor English skills proved extremely proficient and they suggested practical options for performing the work flow, for example they produced an action tracker to log important events and give ownership and target dates for completion. Team members that I had good working relationships with gave too much positive feedback and I was aware of their personal capabilities. However, I decided to assign the responsibilities in accordance to the preference of each team member. One of team was showing signs of disapproval for not assigning him the task which he preferred. I communicated to him that it is better to resolve the conflict by discussing the issue and reluctantly he agreed to continue on the task that he had been assigned. Monitoring the progress – Once everyone was assigned the respective duties and responsibilities, it was imperative to decide about the meeting schedules and milestones to be achieved. Three of the members recommended that they cannot attend these meetings and would prefer to communicate through E-mails. Others said that having meetings on a weekly basis would be feasible and lunch time would be appropriate. The members who showed resistance to attend the meetings were asked to rearrange their calendars giving priority to my requests. Reluctantly all of the team members agreed to meet on a weekly basis so that we could discuss the project. In order to make sure that the project was completed on time, we had to be certain that the progression was effectively executed. It was decided that at the end of week i.e. before close of business (COB) on Thursday every team member will have to mail me with an update on all the tasks completed in the week and I will review the details on weekends. The milestones for each week were decided in the next week and only five members used to mail me the progress reports. The remaining used to come up with excuses and consequently we were lagging behind in our project. Motivating the members – Since the motivation levels were decreasing and the pressure was intensifying, the steady team members were becoming increasingly concerned about the fulfilment of the contract and balancing their current work commitments. In order to enhance their motivation level, I told them that they will be rewarded in the form of a night out bowling and a meal if they completed their assigned duties competently. My line manager was not happy with this offer from me and requested that I ask them to perform their duties with the use of this motivational tool. In order to maintain some sort of reward structure, I circulated an e-mail that the incentive had been changed to a year-end bonus and there will be an appreciation on monthly basis in the form of The Manager of the Month award. Moreover, that person will be allowed to lead the team for the next phase of the project. This provided them an opportunity of developing their potential leadership skills. It was judged by most as a reward and created a completive scenario between the more competitive and confident members of the team. I also aimed to maintain motivation levels by continual verbal recognition when appropriate of good work and dedication to our ultimate operational goal. Final presentation and documentation – The most important aspect of the entire project was its service delivery plans. Few group members had the ability of making appropriate contributions and analysis with the use of an acceptable level of English. The information retrieval from two members was difficult because they had an extremely poor command of the English language. Moreover, they were continually receiving instructions on a repeated basis as they had difficulty in understanding the actual task at hand. This was one of the most time-consuming processes of the project. Reflection on the experience of others Team members – All of the team members were asked to give their opinion about the project and their viewpoint about the team efforts and comment on ways the process could be improved upon. The responses mainly revolved around key aspects such as having the opportunity of working with people of similar standing and skill sets, working behaviour and competencies; learning the ability of listening to others and developing effective communication skills; trusting others in fulfilling the assigned tasks; self-motivating in demanding circumstances and dealing with issues related to the absence of other members due holiday and other work constraints; being open and honest about the work load and their own capabilities are; and ability to work under a person who has different leadership style. There were two negative comments made by associates i.e. lack of proper communication framework and inability of the leader to fulfil the reward promises. Line Manager – The CEO was happy with the successful implementation of our mobilisation plan. He even appreciated our efforts to work with determination even in the absence of pivotal people in the team. Furthermore, he recommended that I carry out all mobilisations of contracts at our other Middle Eastern offices so that I can carry on with the good work that was achieved with limited resources. Colleagues – The colleagues also viewed my work as being of superior quality. They were pleased with my ability of carrying out the project with a balanced approach and fair ethos of stimulation recognition and reward. However, one of them said that I need to understand the mindset of different and varying nationalities proficiently so that I can get the work done more efficiently. Reflection on personal experience A detailed review of my entire process highlighted a range of learning improvements. On a personal level, I realised that I have the capability of leading teams and I can inspire them to enhance their efforts. It also taught me to be patient and tolerate the shortcomings of the individual to certain level. I even learnt the ability of facing the challenges with a positive outlook despite being under immense pressure to achieve results within a new working environment. With all projects, there were some low points where I doubted the commitment of certain individuals in the process. I believe undoubtedly that my positive nature, energetic ethos and commitment to getting the project delivered on time, and within financial constraints had a positive effect on the team as whole. However, I have identified the key areas which need to be improved on so that I can become a more competent manager and have the relevant competence levels of reaching higher level positions within the company. The negative comments from some of the team members had a detrimental effect on me, but I accepted them with grace because mistakes for me are the source of guidance for achieving success in future tasks. Learning from reflections Upon direct reflection of this activity, I learnt that I shouldn’t necessarily underestimate my team as they can have many undiscovered capabilities. Since I had never tested my leadership proficiency in an arena such as this, this opportunity revealed a hidden talent to motivate and extract an acceptable result from a multicultural team. The successful delivery of this project taught me that people have a varying range of mind-sets to what is considered an acceptable work load. Moreover, as a leader one has to be prepared to handle all challenges positively and keep the team inspired by guiding them to undertake the designated tasks however challenging they may be. Action plan Since many areas were identified to be improved upon, I decided to work on them immediately. The foremost thing that I have implemented is to start believing in the teams’ confidence to handle challenges of everyday life effectively. I have to understand better strategies for dealing with people having varying viewpoints and have to appreciate their individuality. Moreover, I have comprehended that every person is motivated by different incentives and they have to be provided resources to perform their work to the best of their abilities. Arrange management training for those individuals who would benefit, especially those who are less than forthcoming in volunteering for individual tasks through the project. This will be primarily for the candidates who lack commitment and it will also be an opportunity to establish long term suitability for the positions within the company. Set targets for personal improvement of underperforming team members. Identify and mentor the members of the team who performed well and assist them in achieving their career aspirations. I believe in the short term that my efforts will reward best with dedicating valuable time to developing the team members with the right attitude. Key Learning Points Leadership is something which can be learnt with the passage of time and experiences. I am competent leader by nature but I am sometimes incorrect when assuming the capabilities of individuals on first impressions. Trust in others is vital because everything cannot be managed solely by a leader. Trust can only be established with time and effective team building. Everyone had different intellectual capabilities and it is important that they are given tasks according to their own level of abilities and competencies. People show negative reactions when their demands are not met. It is important to be prepared for unforeseen situations such as people refusing reasonable instruction. Contingency planning is important to make sure that there is another strategy for dealing with unforeseen events such as holidays, unplanned events, sick absence of team members and additional unforeseen work activity Communication among team members has to be organised and well-synchronised so that everyone is able to attend and contribute with their individual opinions. Before making any reward commitment, it is important to consult with superiors so that the members can be promised only feasible incentives. I have developed my self-confidence further with delivering a project of this nature that was initially outside of comfort zone, assisting me greatly in homing my skills to be a competent and professional manager Signature: Date: Read More