Team Diversity in the Modern World - Essay Example

In a top-level business meeting among supervisors from different parts of the world, the topic discussed was the income statement and strategic plans of the supervisors for the next five years.

The New Yorker supervisor explained that the loss generated by his company during the past year was an opportunity to study where they had failed and to try their best to bounce back and generate profits in the coming years. In the United States, Children grow up with a positive and challenging life where TRY AND TRY AGAIN TILL YOU SUCCEED is the motto because the US territory is WIDE enough for challenges.

Some of the supervisors from the other countries looked at the loss during the previous year as proof that normal life is really hard down there because there is no elbow room in their place for research & development.

To ease the situation, I gave each member a cultural (Schermerhorn, 1997) and historical nutshell report of the cultures and traditions of each country to all members of the meeting. It was explained that based on Appendix A below, the US has a high creativity index.
It is recommended that the five-step program(Strickland, 19997) be implemented to eliminate mistrust and misunderstanding among the different cultures. Firth, all supervisors are to TEACH the other members of their cultures so work will go smoothly and prevent stereotyping. Second, the cultural structures have to be integrated such as no more male or female jobs. Third, cultural group barriers must be broken down so that there is only ONE group of many cultures. Fourth, The company must break linkages between cultural group identity and the organizational identity meaning there will be no more young or old or men or women, etc. groups but only one group called COMPANY. Fifth, All interpersonal conflicts within the organization based on culture or groupings must be eliminated for the smooth flow of information.

Situation 2

In a meeting between 2 supervisors from New York and France, the New Yorker transferred his chair a few steps further away from the French supervisor. It is customary that the US has a wider roaming space when they talk This was interpreted by the Frenchman as an insult because, in France, people stay close together when they talk.

To ease the situation, I gave each member a cultural and historical nutshell report of the cultures and traditions of both the US and France to both members of the meeting.