Culture
Teams/organizations should be aware of several items:
– cultural differences
– work ethics
– language barriers
– time zones
– technology awareness
– religious beliefs
– respect for others
When working in teams or in a business organization you must respect all cultural beliefs. You should be aware of their national holidays, religion and beliefs of their country. For instance my company has an office in China, they celebrate Chinese New Year which does not fall on the same day of our New Years celebration. You have to respect Jewish holidays and any other holidays celebrated by different nationalities.
You should be aware of the time zone people work in. China has a 24 hr time difference, we have an office in LA that is a 3 hour difference and our main office is on the east coast. You need to schedule a time for a meeting that will work for everyone, if not find a way to fill in the people with details either minutes of the meeting or an analysis of what was discussed. You also need to make sure you have the right technology required so everyone can meet up. Conference call numbers are hardly used these days. We have life size conference rooms, skype, google talk all this new technology is used to familarize people with one another.
People should review others working ethics, beliefs etc. In China when you are finalizing a business deal you can buy the person gifts and that is acceptable. In the United States that would be considered a bribe. You need to respect the way people work, some woman in China seem to take the back seat and let the men control the more important role. This is just a belief of another country. Companies in South America close for 2 hours after lunch so they can relax. Different strokes for different folks.
Issues of cultural communication varies in many aspects. In different parts of the world we find that these cultures share some of the same traits. For example, individualist cultures vs collectivist cultures. In an individualist culture there is independence, individual goals, initiative, promotion of achievements and the “I” identity is established. In a collectivist culture, each individual is encouraged to be active by the society, the rights of families, communities, and the collective supersede the individual and the decisions are made in the best interest of the nation as a whole. These ideals can lead to other theories such as power distance, uncertainty avoidance, monochromic vs polychromic, formal vs informal, high or low context, expressive vs reserved and deal focused vs relationship focused. In these cases when cultures are met with difference it’s best for each of them to learn about the other. The concept of adaptation is key. To avoid cultural miscommunication and unawareness, it’s best or companies and individuals to seek cross training and inter cultural training. Cultures will be able to better facilitate better relationships and reduce misunderstanding. Trust will be built as well as mutual respect. In the end, a trust building strategy that implements the following should be created: setting clear transparent aims and goals, prepare clear instruction, communicating effectively, centralized decision making, insist on information-sharing policy, recognizing contributions, acting on team recommendations, and providing practical user friendly tools. Teamwork is crucial to projects and companies and so is the understanding and appreciation if cultures.