Question

Case 5

An international team is being organized. The members of the team are from Germany, Mexico, the Netherlands, and the United States. The main language of the group is English. The German member criticized the Mexican member for not being committed to the project because the Mexican had arrived late for the first meeting. What does commitment mean to each of these cultures? As they started working on the project, they discovered that some of the members had goals that were separate from the project goals. How would task- and group-maintenance functions differ between an international team of workers and a single country? What prejudices might these members have against other members of the group? Given what you know about these four cultures from this textbook and any other cultural materials you may have, discuss the situation. Why were the members acting as they did? What would everyone need to know as a member of an international team? How would exploring each other’s beliefs, norms, and values at the initial meeting of the team affect the group?

Answer 1

The two elementary parts of effective group discussion is task roles and maintenance roles.

Now the Task function includes initiating ,information seeking, information giving ,opinion seeking, clarifying, elaborating ,coordinating ,development processes and summarising .

Whereas in the maintenance Functions we see encouraging each other,expressing feelings, having fun ,compromising ,facilitating communication ,setting standards and goals ,interpreting carefully, listening ,following and declaring success.

Now these two important Functions are very significant while working in groups.

Here in this case we see people from different cultures and background .

People often speak of culture in the plural "cultures "because the believe that there are many different cultures in the world .At one Level this is of course true . The American culture is different from the Chinese culture both of which are different from the Egyptian culture and so on.

A culture can be defined as the characteristics ,knowledge of a particular group of people encompassing language ,religion cuisine ,social habits ,music and arts.

For example eastern culture is less of a distinctjdi between secular society and religious philosophy than there in the west. Therefore one's behavior is also dependent on the culture.

Now in this case it is it is clearly mentioned that the German member criticized The Mexican one . Now the reason behind the same is that ,Germany is known for his rigidly following procedures and adhering to the rules in the workplace while the Dutch handle business with more laidback approach therefore the german are very particular about timing,that's how all of them were being judgmental.

As members of an international team ,four of them beed to know that they need to accept the different cultures of each other only then they can achieve success in their work.

There are few ways by which we can try to overcome the cultural barriers at the international level .

Firstly we should be very good at communicating things . Secondly learn your co workers culture, One should be opened to try new things .Be accommodating .Promote and appreciate others ideas and religious beliefs.

Keep a common language and don't be judgemental.