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Creating Value with Diverse Teams in Global Management
Abstract
Describes a set of skills and principles that turn culturally diverse teams from destroyers or mediocre performers into sustaining value creators. The Map-Bridge-Integrate (MBI) approach is presented to identify and develop an operating mode that unlocks each team's own potential. To map, teams use objective means to describe their cultural differences and apply this understanding to explain past incidents and set up future expectations. To bridge, team members communicate carefully, taking others' cultural backgrounds into account and adapting their own behavior to the team. To integrate, team members manage the team's interaction so that relevant information emerges, conflicts are resolved, and ideas evolve and are built upon. It is argued that in each of these steps, cultural differences can both hinder processes and enhance results. It is concluded that the final outcome is the creation and execution of unique and innovative solutions to complex organizational challenge. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
... The literature on diversity demonstrates its multifaceted nature, which can encompass a broad range of characteristics such as age, gender, ethnicity, abilities, and experiences, among others (Baker & Clark, 2010;DiStefano & Maznevski, 2000;Meric et al., 2015, Popov et al., 2012. Moreover, when characterizing teams, there is evidence of the double-edged nature of diversity; while it fosters benefits such as enhanced creativity and problem-solving capabilities (Baker & Clark, 2010), it also presents challenges like miscommunication or biases (Popov et al., 2012). ...
... Therefore, educators play a key role in cultivate an inclusive learning atmosphere in their class and in promoting a deep understanding of diversity that reflects what students will encounter in their professional lives. At the same time, educators must possess a deep understanding of their students' needs, which often vary significantly across disciplines and contexts (DiStefano & Maznevski, 2000). This understanding is crucial in designing interventions to maximize these benefits and overcome the challenges posed by diverse teamwork. ...
... Diversity is a complex concept that encompasses a wide range of characteristics, whose relevance varies depending on the context (DiStefano & Maznevski, 2000). This study focuses on O&SCM, an area that has received limited attention in past research. ...
Universities are crucial in preparing students for diverse team dynamics, with the understanding that the impact of diversity can vary across settings. This study delves into Operations and Supply Chain Management (O&SCM), an area where the importance of diverse team management has recently increased but is underexplored. The aim is to comprehend how O&SCM students perceive diversity and its consequences for teamwork. The investigation focuses on the MSc Supply Chain Management program at the University of Groningen, with specific insights on the Process Improvement and Change course, involving (diverse) teamwork. Findings reveal a multifaceted view of diversity, emphasizing dimensions like educational background, nationality and cultural differences, while also less-explored aspects like goal diversity. This study supports the dual effect of diversity on O&SCM teamwork, aligning with existing literature, but also unveiling new aspects like the influence of varying grade aspirations on team dynamics. It questions student-identified countermeasures, considering industry trends.
... But in reality and practice, global teams do not often create the value expected. Instead, members clash, because cultural differences prevent them from getting along well and prevent teams from moving forward, resulting in conflicts and immobility (DiStefano & Maznevski, 2000). Thus, the first key idea in the MBI approach is mapping to comprehend cultural differences (DiStefano & Maznevski, 2000). ...
... Instead, members clash, because cultural differences prevent them from getting along well and prevent teams from moving forward, resulting in conflicts and immobility (DiStefano & Maznevski, 2000). Thus, the first key idea in the MBI approach is mapping to comprehend cultural differences (DiStefano & Maznevski, 2000). This strategy was implemented to foster achievement, settle conflicts, and provide value in multicultural teams (Figure 1). ...
... But as soon as team members make the first steps to effectively communicate and work together, productivity and creativity with positive outcomes as well as more sophisticated abilities and increased confidence follow. Decentering is one of the key competencies in creating a bridge within a heterogeneous team (DiStefano & Maznevski, 2000). Team members employ what they have learned about one another's differences through mapping to modify their own thought processes and behavioral patterns in order to decenter. ...
In an era of globalization and increased diversity, there is wide agreement on the need to actively deal with diversity in educational organizations. In this scenario, the challenge of global competition for UAE schools requires principals to lead differently and deal more effectively with teachers from diverse cultural backgrounds and fulfill their diverse needs. Strong empirical evidence exists for the positive link between effective diversity management and overall organizational effectiveness. This chapter sheds light on cultural intelligence (CQ) as a viable entrée from which leaders can manage diversity effectively and lead in multicultural settings successfully. This chapter also unlocks several key multidisciplinary trends between diversity management and organizational performance outcomes.
... International inventor teams with members representing two or more cultures leverage creativity for product and service innovation more effectively than single-culture teams (e.g. Bouncken et al., 2015;DiStefano & Maznevski, 2000;Hoever et al., 2012;Jang, 2017;Lane et al., 2009). Diversity in cultural background is particularly salient (Stahl et al., 2010) because it affects the team members' beliefs, attitudes, and mindsets (van Knippenberg et al., 2013). ...
... Organisation research confirms that an excessive level of diversity may cause disparate mental models and interpersonal tensions, which hinder a team's ability to develop creative outcomes (Khedhaouria & Jamal, 2015). Cultural differences within a team may inhibit the team's ability to develop a task strategy, resolve conflicts, build cohesion, and foster effective interaction among team members (Anderson, 1983;DiStefano & Maznevski, 2000;Kirchmeyer & Cohen, 1992;Kirkman & Shapiro, 2005;Watson et al., 1993Watson et al., , 2002. Negative social interaction and group incohesiveness are also likely to reduce the benefits from heterogeneous knowledge in international inventor teams in the effective creation of technological variety (Huang, 2009;Nissen et al., 2014). ...
... However, in line with H2, increases in variety flatten as the number of inventor countries increases. These diminishing marginal returns could be explained by cognitive limits to knowledge identification (Noteboom, 2000), disparity between originating ideas (Olsson & Frey, 2002), inhibited social interaction and group cohesion due to cultural differences within international teams (DiStefano & Maznevski, 2000;Kirkman & Shapiro, 2005;Lane et al., 2009) -all resulting in increasing costs for coordination and management of knowledge transfer and integration from international R&D (Castellani et al., 2017;Narula, 2014). Our finding of diminishing marginal returns supports the view that team diversity might both provide opportunities for creativity and hinder a team's ability to develop creative outcomes (Bassett-Jones, 2005;Khedhaouria & Jamal, 2015;Milliken & Martins, 1996). ...
This study investigates the relationship between international inventor teams and the technological variety of multinational enterprises. We frame this relationship conceptually by considering two possible attributes of diversity in international inventor teams: cultural differences and heterogeneous knowledge. We employ a dataset for 454 multinational enterprises with 71,126 subsidiaries across 185 countries that applied for 139,066 priority patents during the period 2007–2014. Fixed-effects panel estimations indicate that international inventor teams are positively associated with both related and unrelated technological variety at the level of the MNE. Such relationships display diminishing marginal returns, pointing to management and coordination costs reducing the benefits from international inventor teams. In addition, we find that MNEs with higher technological innovation capability deal with the additional complexity from managing and coordinating international inventor teams by consolidating technological variety.
... Overall, this article can be considered as a response to the calls for more pragmatic inclusivity perspectives of cooperative value creation by Luo (2024), for the development of concepts that move beyond dominant logics in international business based on dichotomies (e.g. convergence vs divergence; standardisation vs localisation) by Caprar et al. (2022), for more relational perspectives in international business by Szkudlarek et al. (2020), for more focus on the continuity of shared value creation in a diverse network of stakeholders by Distefano and Maznevski (2000), for a more dynamic and positive view of culture by Tung and Stahl (2018) and thus to increase and maintain the relevance of contemporary cross-cultural management studies (Mahadevan and Primecz, 2024). This article is a first step to venture a relational view on the management of cultural complexity, with the aim of facilitating new discussions for theory building and practice. ...
... This transcultural learning process has similarities to the MBI approach developed by Distefano and Maznevski (2000) that consists of the three elements mapping (understand the differences) bridging (communicate, take differences into account), and integrating (bring together and leverage the differences), but takes into account the important role of commonalities and shared experiences as highlighted above. Again, in a similar spirit, Distefano and Maznevski conclude in their final step that "teams need shared ground around two things for good bridging: defining the situation itself, and interacting with each other" (2000: 53), an insight that the transcultural learning models aims to take further by connecting differences and commonalities. ...
Organisations such as multinational enterprises (MNEs) coexist and constantly compete and cooperate in complex networks of value creation that cross geographical and cultural borders. To address the corresponding management implications, traditional theoretical concepts have often focused on national cultures, thus simplifying cultural complexity and the realities of cross-cultural cooperation. This is reflected in a prevailing problem-focused view of culture and solutions such as adaptation, adjustment, and the development of intercultural skills at an individual level. Against this backdrop, this article explores the conceptual implications of a transcultural approach to management that focuses on developing commonalities rather than on managing cultural differences. Such an approach is in line with the “relational turn” in the social sciences, which proposes a conceptual shift away from a focus on entities (e.g., nations, individuals, leaders, groups or organisations) towards a focus on continuously unfolding relations. Accordingly, transculturality emphasises the relational nature of culture itself and pursues the continuity of cooperation as its main goal. Specifically, this article develops a total of four models of transcultural management: it introduces the relational event as the unit of analysis, describes an experience-based and commonality-focused transcultural learning model, develops an approach to identify and foster cooperation corridors, and finally presents the Transcultural Management System to productively relate the global and local level of MNEs.
... Openness to language diversity, the extent to which team and organizational members accept and promote linguistic differences and overcome linguistic barriers, is likely to be a critical factor in promoting a more positive organizational experience in multicultural environments (cf. Distefano and Maznevski, 2000). If the team is not open to differences in fluency, certain individuals' contributions may be undervalued and the benefits of bringing together a diverse set of competences may be undermined (Stahl et al., 2010a). ...
... Hence, openness to language diversity can facilitate the communication process, which tends to be associated with good multicultural team performance, both directly and indirectly by impacting other processes such as conflict resolution and cohesiveness (Lauring, Andersen, Storgaard, and Kragh, 2017;Stahl et al., 2010a). With regard to creativity: Openness to language diversity will enable individuals to communicate with a wider range of group members, and thus allow them to more fully reap the information-richness rewards of diversity, particularly in teams also open to value differences (Distefano and Maznevski, 2000;Ely and Thomas, 2001). ...
In this paper, we address how different types of positive attitudes towards international diversity
among team members can influence team outcomes. Our study explores whether openness to
language diversity could contribute to the effect of openness to value diversity becoming more
salient. Data was collected from 1,085 team leaders of highly globalized academic research teams
in the Nordic region. The results show a significant and positive effect of openness to different
cultural values on team outcomes. Furthermore, in teams rated more open to language diversity,
the impact of openness to value diversity on team performance is enhanced. Effects of different
types of diversity attitudes have been assessed in extant literature. No prior studies, however, have
focused on the interaction between the different types of diversity attitudes. This is an important
omission because one type of diversity attitudes could function as a boundary condition for other
types of diversity attitudes.
... The approach to difference in Cross-Cultural Management (CCM) studies has evolved from an obstacle to be overcome to a resource to be utilized. However, whereas some contexts, such as global virtual teams, have already been investigated with regard to the positive potential of 'difference' (DiStefano and Maznevski, 2000), other phenomena, such as migration and refugee movements, are still perceived as involving 'problematic' differences. In particular, there are perceptions of ethnic, religious or cultural Otherness and the question of how such fundamental differences can ever be reconciled. ...
... It is in this context that difference is perceived the most positive in CCM studies (e.g. DiStefano and Maznevski, 2000). The understanding is that cross-cultural diversity in global virtual teams, if moderated in positive ways, contributes to increased team performance and output (see Stahl et al., 2010;Stahl et al., 2016). ...
Otherness in contemporary cross-cultural management (CCM) studies often emerges from migration and refugee movements, with ensuing integration challenges. In this context, ‘difference’ is perceived as being more problematic than enriching, and this makes it difficult to contribute to integration via a Positive Organizational Scholarship. Introducing the sociology of conflict, I propose that the success of a positive cross-cultural management engagement with Otherness should not be measured in terms of the degree to which difference is overcome and integrated, but in terms of the degree to which more parties engage more deeply with relevant conflict and friction. Investigating Otherness by means of a sociology of conflict approach thus radically changes the assumptions, research agendas, practices, presumed goals and potential responsibilities of a contemporary cross-cultural management theory and practice: deeper conflict signifies better integration, and assuming otherwise is both unrealistic and mis-fitting. I exemplify this reverse logic, and how to employ it, with a discussion of the ‘refugee crisis’ and the dynamics of ‘migration background’ in Germany. Thus reconfigured, integration in Germany emerges as more successful than is commonly believed.
... As the hidden-level diversity is malleable, psychological and increasing in complexity, it requires the emphasis to shift to developing an inclusion climate that creates psychologically safe spaces for everyone to experience value for their uniqueness and contribution (Brimhall et al., 2017;Nembhard and Edmondson, 2006). When deep-level diversity characteristics are valued within teams and in the organization, the positive impact over time of creating psychological safety will result in increased levels of diversity of thought, creativity, and innovation that benefit both the organization and its workforce (Edmondson and Mogelof, 2006;DiStefano and Maznevski, 2000;Harvey, 2013). The deep approach addresses power within the organization (Ahonen et al., 2014). ...
... In the deep approach, cultural inclusion integrates the organization's diversity management approaches into the organizational culture, systems and processes where differences are valued, and a common purpose brings together the diverse organization to deliver the outcomes for everyone. Managing for inclusion of diversity shifts to systematically integrating organizational learning, fostering an inclusion climate, systems, policies, and processes in the organization (Ely and Thomas, 2020;DiStefano and Maznevski, 2000). The deep approach goes beyond the surface approach of having a visibly diverse workforce to enable the diverse workforce to contribute meaningfully towards the organization's focus. ...
The growing complexity of cultural diversity within organizations’ workforce today requires leadership to find new organizational approaches to diversity management. Today’s workforce are seeking a different management approach where the staff experience inclusion and belonging whilst contributing to the organization’s purpose. The current organizational approaches to diversity management have not been successful in delivering on the promised outcomes (e.g., creativity and innovation) that leadership seeks. Leadership’s role is critical to developing organizational approaches to diversity management. Cultural inclusion offers leadership today’s approach of managing for inclusion. This paper proposes a conceptual framework that looks at leadership’s role in their organization’s diversity management approach. We identify three dimensions in our conceptual framework that influence leadership in their effort’s for effective diversity management: leadership’s accountability for diversity management; leadership’s approach to diversity management; and leadership’s focus of diversity management. This conceptual framework allows the leadership of organizations to identify their current diversity management approaches by mapping leadership position’s position with the three dimensions to identify leadership’s role in managing their culturally diverse organizations.
... Despite the crossing of national boundaries which are normally considered to be essential for a GVT, all characteristics are displayed in COVID-induced VTs, given that culture may also refer to multiple cultural identities and cultural complexity in context (Korzilius, Bücker and Beerlage, 2017;Brannen, 2020). If one summarizes the existing GVT definitions (Chudoba et al., 2005;DiStefano and Maznevski, 2000;Jarvenpaa and Leidner, 1999;Jonsen and Gehrke, 2015;Martins and Schilpzand, 2011;Maznevski, 2012;Saarinen, 2016;Zander, Zettinig anf Mäkela, 2013, Zander et al., 2015 and adapts them to COVID-induced VTs, then the following characteristics can be identified: ...
... Performance factors in GVTs can be differentiated into input factors, mediators and output factors (Jarvenpaa and Leidner, 1999;Chudoba et al., 2005;DiStefano and Maznevski, 2000;Martins and Schilpzand, 2011;Maznevski, 2012;Saarinen, 2016;Zander, Zettinig and Mäkelä, 2013;Zander et al.,2015). In order to facilitate positive team-dynamics, input and output factors have to be considered, and mediators have to be configured accordingly (Maznevski, 2012). ...
Cultural intelligence, also referred to as Cultural Quotient (CQ), is a crucial Human Resource Management (HRM) theme. It contributes to individual and team performance, and it is generally considered a crucial skill, for instance, for (virtual) team leaders. Cultural intelligence is required for and triggered by culturally unfamiliar situations and collaborating across diverse cultural identities. Culturally unfamiliar situations might also arise from major work-related shifts, such as the COVID-19 pandemic which moved many teams from non-virtual and on-site to virtual and work-from-home. Many individuals across found themselves in such COVID-induced virtual teams. These teams find themselves in a culturally unfamiliar situation, in which the integrative force of organizational culture and system decreases, and team diversity increases. The goal of this conceptual paper is thus to enable HR to assess and develop cultural intelligence in COVID-induced virtual teams and beyond. Our contribution is threefold: First, we apply cultural intelligence to COVID-induced virtual teams, this being an academic first. Secondly, we outline the specific characteristics, dynamics and performance factors of COVID-induced virtual teams, thus providing HRM researcher and practitioners with a structured understanding of CQ requirements in COVID-induced virtual teams. Third, we propose the cultural intelligence learning cycle for COVID-induced virtual teams and draw HRM implications for CQ development in COVID-induced virtual teams from there. In Cultural intelligence in COVID-induced virtual teams 2 particular, HR needs to (1) support individuals who maintain high motivational CQ despite crisis conditions, (2) foster the development of cognitive and behavioural CQ which can generally be assumed to be low in COVID-induced virtual teams, and (3) introduce appropriately timed reflection points for metacognitive CQ that (3a) ensure inner-team learning and (3b) contribute to cross-team organizational transformation.
... The theory claims that groups in which members have more opportunities to socialize face lower cultural barriers with regard to action and thus develop relations among them. Members of homogeneous leadership groups display similar norms and preconceptions (DiStefano and Maznevski 2000), have low cultural barriers, and develop more cohesive groups in terms of communication and positive social relations (Richard et al. 2004;Vlas et al. 2023). ...
In my research, the effects that the racial diversity of firms’ leadership has in deciding the sustainable composition of firms’ alliance portfolios is investigated, defined as the distribution of exploratory, exploitative, and mixed alliances. Grounded in social categorization, information elaboration, and social contact mechanisms, racially homogeneous leadership has a J-shaped relationship with sustainable alliance portfolio composition. Very racially homogeneous or heterogeneous leadership leads firms towards maintaining more exploratory alliances in their portfolio as opposed to moderately diverse leadership, which prefers the safety of exploitative alliances. Further, I explore how racially homogeneous leadership differs from racially heterogeneous leadership in that the former has a higher propensity to maintain more exploratory alliance portfolios compared to the latter. A two-stage analysis on a panel of 128 pharmaceutical and software firms, accompanied by response surface analysis, yields support for our theorizing. This study encourages scholars to further investigate the different weights that social categorization, information elaboration, and social contact exercise on leadership diversity and how they are elemental in firms’ sustainable alliance decision-making.
... Racial Diversity and Organizational Performance: Racial diversity means the presence of employees belonging to different races instead of one race (Blau, 1977). The evidence showed that racially heterogeneous groups, in comparison to racially homogenous groups, proved to be beneficial for decisionmaking activities (Maznevski & Distefano, 2000). Additionally, when creating and implementing the strategy, racially diverse groups present a larger variety of ideas and more possibilities than homogenous groups (Watson, Kumar, & Michaelsen, 1993;Cox & Blake, 1991;Cox, Lobel, & McLeod, 1991). ...
The management is accused of opportunistic behavior and financial report delays following the
global financial scandal. Consequently, studies examine the effect of client-specific characteristics on financial
report timeliness, and Nigeria is not an exemption. Recent studies focus on the effect of auditor's attributes in
mitigating or explaining the rationale for the financial reporting delay. However, limited studies exist in
Nigeria on the effect of audit characteristics on financial reporting timeliness in non-financial institutions. Our
study contributes to knowledge by examining the effect of audit characteristics on the financial reporting
timeliness in the Nigerian listed non-financial institution. We select 450 firm-year observations from 2011 to
2020 using a purposive sampling technique and estimate the model using the Ordinary Least Square Method
(OLS). The result reveals that audit price and audit firm size positively affect financial reporting timeliness,
while audit tenure is negative but insignificantly related to financial reporting timeliness. Our study
concludes that delivering the financial report to the users takes longer when the auditors charge higher fees,
reflecting an increase in auditors' workload resulting from additional audit risk and procedure. Also, large
audit firms take a long time to communicate financial reports taking due care in forming audit opinions to
ensure audit independence and reduce the litigation risk arising from the audit assignment.
... However, cultural diversity can also lead to communication barriers, misunderstandings, and conflicts that hinder team performance. For example, scholars have found that cultural differences in communication styles, norms, and values can lead to misunderstandings and mistrust among team members (Earley & Mosakowski, 2004;DiStefano & Maznevski, 2000). Organizations and educational institutions seeking to maximize the benefits of cultural diversity in their teams should consider the nature of the task, team processes, and the level of cultural diversity when designing and managing their teams. ...
... Research in fields such as international business have identified many positives from intercultural interaction (DiStefano & Maznevski, 2000;Tjosvold, Wong, & Chen, 2014), yet despite the concern that too many intercultural studies have focused on the negative, there has been little intercultural discourse research into the positives of intercultural learning and growth. While there are occasional exceptions (e.g. ...
An essential one-volume reference to contemporary discourse studies, this handbook offers a rigorous and systematic overview of the field and its recent developments. Written by an international team of leading scholars, this volume covers the key methods, research topics and directions across 26 chapters, providing both a survey of current research and more practical guidance for advanced study.
Fully updated, revised and restructured to take account of developments over the last decade, in particular the innovations in digital communication and new media, this second edition features:
- 6 new chapters, covering the discourse of media, multimedia, social media, politeness, aging, and English as lingua franca.
- 6 completely rewritten chapters, covering conversation analysis, spoken discourse, news, intercultural communication, computer mediated communication, and identity.
- An expanded and updated glossary of key terms.
Identifying and describing the central concepts and theories associated with discourse and its main branches of study, The Bloomsbury Handbook of Discourse Analysis makes a sustained and compelling argument concerning the nature and influence of discourse and is an essential resource for anyone interested in the field.
... Diverse teams have shown to be more innovative at problem solving and produce more revenue than homogenous teams (DiStefano & Maznevski, 2000). This diversity can bring a larger variety of ideas from the breadth of experience that each employee brings to the table. ...
The term extended reality, or XR for short, references a group of emerging technologies that includes virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), simulations, holograms, and other digital tools and applications that in some way manipulate our perception of physical reality (Fitzpatrick et al., 2021). These technologies stimulate our senses of sight, sound, and touch in such a way that we become immersed in digital environments (Stanney et al., 2020). In fact, we gain such a feeling of “presence” while immersed in an XR environment that it can deeply impact our sense of time and place (Vasarainen et al., 2021). This feeling of presence is a defining characteristic of immersion, and each type of XR technology generates that feeling in different ways. This book's chapters share different insights into leveraging that feeling for teaching and learning.
... Moreover, the cultural diversity can improve team effectiveness and have a positive impact on the team´s ability to solve problems (Ng and Tung 1998). Diverse backgrounds of team members allow for tapping a wider range of information sources and networks (DiStefano & Maznevski 2000). Simultaneously the work-related attitudes of younger generations have been changing. ...
As communication becomes easier with the proliferation of ICT (Internet Communication Technology), more companies and individuals face the need and challenge of creating and facilitating virtual teams. Those are groups of people that contact each other only by the means of the internet, with no real-world physical face-to-face contact. Despite the numerous benefits, as low-to-non monetary costs and enormous creation flexibility, there are also many (psychological) risks, often not apparent from the outside. In the current paper we discuss the teaching program that was designed to foster virtual communication skills. We describe a project conducted simultaneously between Palacký University (Olomouc, CZ) and University of Opole (Opole, PL) in the summer term of 2015. We argue that such classes have a potential for individual and business development, provided the necessary preparations are made.
... Make sure you provide everyone a chance to speak. If you listen, you will come across as compassionate [77]. ...
The current study aims to define a good leader in general, not for any specific companies, schools, offices, or organizations. The author has read and consulted various documents, significantly articles published in reputable outlets, to boost related ideas vis-à-vis good leaders from different walks of life. After reading, reviewing, and taking notes, the author focused on different leadership types and the characteristics of good leaders. As a result, a good leader is defined, and suggestions are provided to consider for those who want to become good leaders using just easy ways and simple techniques. In the 21st century, a good leader is someone well-educated and always looks at the past, uses the past as experience, leads what is in the present, and predicts the future so that he can get everything ready and he could solve unforeseen problems. Finally, a comprehensive assessment or investigation could still be made into what makes a sound or effective leader in the 21st century. It is also important to analyze or conduct a comparison of an efficient manager and a good leader. Generally, it is essential to consider how to successfully lead an organization by combining the qualities of a skilled manager and an effective leader.
... Indeed, when an employee integrates a company, he imports with him his socio-cultural characteristics, his own history and a set of socially acquired habits and attitudes that will guide his choices and his representations within the company (Oumarou Harou, 2014). Moreover, as it was stated by Distefano and Maznevski (2000), diverse teams tend to have either better or worse results than homogeneous teams, with more chances to have worse results than better results. The major problem that distinguishes these teams is poor management of diversity. ...
he aim of this paper is to put intercultural management into perspective by trying to explore how a multicultural company in the tourism industry such as Club Med can ensure the management of a diversified workforce.
We argue that the growing diversity of the customer’s characteristics and needs as well as the growing diversity of the workforce in connection with the labor’s changes has contributed to the gradual integration of multicultural work teams within companies, which leads to taking this cultural diversity into account as a central element of management.
To highlight this reality, we have opted for an exploratory research that is based on a single case study of the multinational company Club Med Marrakech. The main objective was to collect the practices already implemented by this entity in order to manage its multiculturalism and to assess employees’ perceptions of these practices. The data for the study was collected through 16 semi-structured interviews conducted with Club Med’s HR managers and employees.
This research concluded that Club Med’s employees are comprised and supportive of diversity and most of the respondents are satisfied with the measures adopted by the company to manage the heterogeneity of cultures. Our findings are expected to provide managers who are leading multicultural teams with managerial practices about how to effectively manage cultural diversity in the workplace so that they can parlay it into an advantage.
... Therefore, it is of vital significance to scrutinize communication and language progressions which make happened globalization. Kassis Henderson, 2005;DiStefano & Maznevski, 2000;Iles & Hayers, 1997;Lagerström &Andersson, 2003 andSchweiger et al., 2003) Claims that due to mutuality of persons engaged within the international and multilingual groups and systems, one specific challenge is building relations with associates. This is particularly complicated during the effective groups working in dissimilar geological places, along with investigate taking place groups in globally working groups has demonstrate that language-associated problems might contain a negative encroachment on interpersonal associations, faith, furthermore place of work background. ...
This study intends to focus on causes and identification of employees' politics and its impact on performance of Banking Industry in Pakistan. Here researcher emphasizes on language and caste, experience and position, cultural animosity, religious lobbies, gender discrimination and referral employment. As employees' politics plays an essential role for an organization and it exists in almost every organization so its impact on the whole workforce can be identified in this research particularly in the UBL, Askari Bank Limited, ABL and generally in Pakistan banking industry. Authoritative power is a major factor that cannot be rejected in any organization and it is key force of any industry. This research is based on the quantitative research. The primary data has been gathered through survey method. Descriptive statistics is used and seven hypotheses are tested. Sample is gathered through simple random sampling method out of target population of 160. The findings entails that there should be focused on Standardize Human Resource Management (right person should be posted to the job, bracing courses, conducting orientation on emerging banking and problem solving). Further administration should conduct the meetings with employees and resolve their problems and also there should be transparency and merit system observed in all matters.
... Each country develops a different set of assumptions and norms under which to operate, and different professions, functions and even genders within an organisation can themselves have different cultures. Consequently, team members from different cultures come to the group setting with very different predefined notions about how a group should function (Distefano & Maznevski, 2012). Militaru et al. (2014) identified that certain cultural differences in distributed teams are beneficial because they can improve performance. ...
Globally distributed teams (GDTs) have become essential tools for organisations to expand, quickly adapt and restructure to remain competitive in the current economic climate. The theoretical literature has been discussing the advantages, but also the barriers, limitations and challenges in GDTs’ internal practices and processes. However, scholars have not yet sufficiently examined empirically the implications of cultural differences when teams operate in virtual contexts. To address this gap, this study aims to explore how different cultures interact and stimulate work collaboration in GDTs. Following the acquisition and merger of Volvo and Renault, we conducted a qualitative study of the collaborative work of GDTs located in Brazil, Sweden and France during the creation of Volvo Group’s VM truck. Our results highlight that the interaction of the three involved national cultures led to better collaboration between members of a GDT. Furthermore, as a managerial contribution, this study suggests that culture can be understood as an agent of transformation to facilitate or improve the collaboration process.
... Working in multicultural teams can be challenging as Turner (2009, p. 248) reports issues include unequal language skills, leadership ambiguity, communication issues, conflict, unequal commitment to time-keeping, differing expectations and over-talking. Notwithstanding this, it has also been shown that heterogeneous teams can be more creative in solving problems and come up with innovative solutions (Distefano & Maznevski, 2000). For universities to be competitive they need to equip students with multicultural skills and this is particularly the case in the field of business education. ...
... Racial diversity means the presence of employees belonging to different races instead of one race (Blau, 1977). The evidence showed that racially heterogeneous groups, in comparison to racially homogenous groups, proved to be beneficial for decisionmaking activities (Maznevski & Distefano, 2000). Additionally, when creating and implementing the strategy, racially diverse groups present a larger variety of ideas and more possibilities than homogenous groups (Watson, Kumar, & Michaelsen, 1993;Cox & Blake, 1991;Cox, Lobel, & McLeod, 1991). ...
The paper aims to review the literature on the effect of workforce diversity including, gender, culture/race, age, and ethnicity, on firm performance. Many empirical papers have been reviewed in which different statistical models have been applied to data of multiple types of organizations across the regions and continents to find the association between the selected variables. The review methodology is selected to survey the literature on the impact of workforce diversity on organizational performance between the years 2000 and 2021. The reviewed literature shows that workforce diversity is significantly related to organizational performance. Moreover, this paper concludes that the positive significant influence of workforce diversity on organizational performance exceeds the negative significant impact. Also, workforce diversity is productive, if it is in appropriate balance. Whereas few studies reported no significant influence of workforce diversity on organizational performance.
... Teamwork activities are in increasing demand in industry and education because modern tasks and products are more complicated than before and companies need effective collaboration in their teams to meet their goals [1]- [5]. Teams whose members are dependent of each other in their goals and tasks perform better than individuals [6]- [8]. Working in teams has the potential to provide a higher level of diversity, and teammates could learn from each other and exchange more opinions [3]. ...
To achieve the benefit of the growing emphasis on teamwork in engineering courses, it is important to improve how student teams are managed. A prominent way to promote social constructive collaboration is the use of peer evaluations, which enable engineering students to learn from feedback provided from other team members to improve their performance in teams. In this work, we studied the effect of repeated use of a peer evaluation system over time in multiple classes on the quality of peer evaluations in a course late in the students’ program. Specifically, we studied the repeated use of the Comprehensive Assessment of Teamwork Effectiveness (CATME) peer evaluation system in a senior level civil engineering course in an Australian University using MANCOVA. Teams whose members had longer team tenure— based on completing more surveys or having more experience in prior teams using CATME— provide more consistent ratings of teammates. This adds to the body of evidence that the quality of ratings improves with repeated use of a peer rating system. We suggest that curriculum decision-makers adapt more widespread use of peer evaluation in courses that involve teamwork to encourage students to develop the valuable skill at providing feedback to peers, which in turn will promote the improvement of team skills.
... As mentioned earlier, project-related group work is a popular pedagogical model within engineering education, and students are often expected to complete group assignments as part of the course grade. Although there are sound pedagogical reasons for group work, it can provide challenges for all students, but even more so, the more diverse the groups become (Distefano and Maznevski 2000;Poort, Jansen, and Hofman 2018). Many studies, predominantly from the UK, USA, and Australia, have outlined the advantages and disadvantages of IGW in higher education (see Spencer-Oatey and Dauber 2017 for an overview), with a general consensus that though it provides students with valuable real-life skills and experiences, there are a number of issues that can arise. ...
Intercultural group work (IGW), where students from different nationalities work together, is one important way to develop intercultural competence, a key skill for engineering students. This longitudinal, qualitative study of five master’s engineering students follows their individual experiences in IGW and the affordances and challenges this way of working provides. In particular, the study problematises the use of the terms ‘home’ and ‘international’, often used to differentiate student experiences in IGW, by highlighting the range of student backgrounds and experiences which can be encompassed within them. The results show that the students’ self-positioning in their group and their sense of belonging to it are affected by a range of factors including previous experience, the nature of the group work and personal aspects such as openness and adaptability. In addition, belonging to the group can be a transient process influenced in part by critical incidents during the group work process.
... According to DiStefano & Maznevski, with today's workforce demographics, the existence of culturally diverse teams is inevitable; and with today's competitive environment, companies cannot afford to forego their value. Therefore, the diversity aspect of management is considered in the presented paper Management activities include education within the team and providing support for the acceptance of and respect for various gender, societal, geographic, cultural, racial, political and economic backgrounds [10], [11]. ...
... Studies have shown that how diversity is managed and the impact of process variables (e.g. creativity, cohesion, conflict) and context factors (e.g., team tenure, complexity of the task, team's geographical cohesion) influence whether and how diversity impacts the group's performance (DiStefano and Maznevski 2000;Stahl and Maznevski 2021). Furthermore, there are naturally several kinds of nuances regarding what the negative or positive impact is depending on the context. ...
Diversity have become a desired value in sport organizations. However, regardless of the aspiration towards more gender diverse leadership, women leaders remain a minority. Diversity and its impact on group performance has also increased interest among scholars. Building on information/decision-making theory and the concept of the right fit, this paper introduces a new theoretical model that sheds light on the contradiction of gender-biased recruitment/selection processes in sports organization boards and the impact of diversity on organizational outcomes. The model is partly tested with survey data from the Finnish National Governing Bodies of Sport (NGBs). This paper shows that, because of the gender-biased recruitment/selection process, the benefits of gender-diverse organization boards may not be fully actualized, which not only affects the functioning of sports organizations, but may also limit women’s inclusion on sports organization boards.
Acculturation is the process through which individuals and groups from diverse
cultural backgrounds come into contact and interact (Dolinská, 2016). This process
encompasses various elements, including language, customs, values, traditions, and social norms. As individuals undergo acculturation, they work to adjust to a new cultural context, often requiring changes in their daily routines and social interactions. Acculturation has several stages, and its progression can be facilitated by enhancing intercultural communication and competence. Successful integration often leads to greater personal satisfaction and social stability. This article explores the impact of intercultural communication and competence on the acculturation experiences of Slovaks returning home from English-speaking countries and individuals from English-speaking countries, who have moved to Slovakia. The research utilized a quantitative approach, involving a survey of 27 Slovaks and 25 respondents from English-speaking countries. The survey assessed intercultural communication skills, language proficiency, social integration, and personal satisfaction in the new setting. Findings suggest that strong intercultural competence and effective communication positively influence acculturation, mitigate cultural shocks, and enhance overall satisfaction with the new environment. Notably, these benefits were especially pronounced among Slovaks returning to their home country. The study underscores the critical role of developing intercultural skills in achieving successful adaptation to a new cultural environment.
This chapter explores the future trends and directions in leadership for innovation, emphasizing the evolving role of leaders in adapting to a rapidly changing business landscape. It explores the essential skills and approaches required for leaders to navigate the impact of automation, artificial intelligence, globalization, and emerging leadership styles. Key points include the importance of technical, interpersonal, and strategic skills; the emphasis on emotional intelligence, sustainability, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI); and the need for human-centric work design and digital enablement. The chapter highlights the critical role of innovation leaders in fostering collaboration, agility, and creativity within their teams to drive successful research and development efforts. By embracing these future trends and directions, leaders can cultivate a culture of innovation, adaptability, and inclusivity, positioning their organizations for sustained success in an increasingly dynamic and competitive business environment.
Public participation plays a vital role in developing and implementing climate policies. However, in practice, it is challenging to organise public participation effectively. In this paper, we compare three main regulatory approaches to public participation, the Aarhus Convention, the Escazú Agreement and the Impact and Benefits Agreements, in light of their ability to implement social sciences insights on effective public participation. By linking the social sciences and law, our analysis shows that the shortcomings of each regime, when individually taken, potentially explain why public participation practices face difficulty fulfilling the envisaged goals.
Effective communication in global teams requires translating meaning across message, relationship, time, and space contexts characterized by members’ distinct, culturally normative communication styles. A review of existing literature reveals that to date, the recommendations for facilitators of effective global team communication are decidedly low context, for example, using a direct communication style, asking clarifying questions, and ensuring meaningful participation. We propose a need for high-context approaches to collaborative multicultural teamwork and offer propositions for future exploration of the four domains of communication context to develop a more nuanced, micro-level understanding of communication challenges and synergies for global teams comprised of both lower- and higher-context communicators.
Few studies to date examined the emotional unrest that results from communication across cultures in multinational teams (MNTs). Through examination of 12 in-depth interviews and a focus group of respondents from MNTs, this study investigates the impact of language-induced emotions in MNTs resulting from a corporate language mandate. Even with highly proficient linguists, MNTs still experience collaborative difficulties caused by language differences and associated emotions. Issues identified include loss of information, ambiguity over equivalence of meaning, variability in sociolinguistic competence, and problems of adjustment to cultural norms. The research also pinpointed several lingua-culturally adaptive behavioral strategies relating to international leadership.
Purpose
The paper aims to investigate the impact of political connections and board ethnicity on the value relevance of earnings and book value in Mauritius.
Design/methodology/approach
This study is based on a sample of 541 Mauritian-listed firm-year observations for 2001–2016. Financial and board diversity data have been collected using the listed firms’ annual reports and from reports published by the Stock Exchange of Mauritius. Political connection data was derived from the directory of Chief of State and Cabinet members. The research hypotheses were empirically tested using a modified Ohlson (1995) price model.
Findings
This study shows that political connections negatively impact the value relevance of earnings and book value. The authors find that firms with Franco-Mauritian directors will constrain political connections’ negative impact. The authors find contrasting results for Indo-Mauritian directors since they form an integral part of the government in Mauritius.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the scarce accounting literature in Mauritius. Firstly, no study has investigated the relationship between the value relevance of accounting information and political connections in Mauritius. Secondly, Mauritius’s capital market is dominated by a non-indigenous ethnic group, Franco-Mauritians, who remain the economic elite. Hence, Mauritius presents an opportunity to bring forth another important aspect in the capital market and corporate governance; diversity on the board of directors. Therefore, the study extends to the political connections and board diversity literature.
The UN Sustainable Development Goals have recently emphasized the importance of diversity inclusion. Motivated by this goal, we examine the impact of employing individuals with disabilities in apparel manufacturing cells on overall team productivity. We formulate a series of deterministic and stochastic productivity maximization assignment problems to study the impact of disability inclusion on a production line. We extend the baseline productivity maximization formulation to study a multi‐objective problem that simultaneously maximizes productivity, disability diversity, and language diversity. Each analysis is performed across two different garments drawn from a real‐world setting. The models are tested using archival time study data collected in partnership with an apparel manufacturing firm where more than 75% of the billed work hours are from individuals with significant disabilities. The following insights emerge from the analyses. First, the productivity of teams which have individuals across multiple, different types of disabilities is higher than the productivity of teams with employees who share a single, specific type of disability. Second, teams that employ both individuals with and without disabilities perform slightly better than teams that consist of only individuals with disabilities. In some instances, contrary to intuition, teams of only individuals with disabilities even have higher productivity than teams of only individuals with no disabilities. Finally, our results from the multi‐objective problem that simultaneously maximizes productivity, disability diversity, and language diversity suggest that productivity is not generally sensitive to increases in disability diversity. However, productivity is sensitive at extreme levels of disability diversity and language diversity. Limitations and possible future extensions of the study are discussed.
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Cultural diversity has often been described as yielding competitive advantages like, for example, innovation resulting from the combination of different cultural perspectives. However, there are also substantial organizational problems related to managing cultural diversity, which need to be overcome in order for diversity to be a useful asset. Based on an empirical study of Danish multicultural companies, this article argues that the understanding of communication processes may reveal important aspects about the obstacles of managing cultural diversity. The main argument is that language-use is linked to social processes that can create boundary creation or social fragmentation within multicultural organizations.
“Intercultural interaction” refers to the behavior (including, but not limited to, verbal and nonverbal communication) that occurs when members of different cultural groups engage in joint activity. Such a definition raises a number of questions, including how to distinguish different cultural groups and what interaction entails. Traditionally, nationality or ethnicity has been taken as the criterion for distinguishing cultural groups, but in fact the situation is much more complex than this. We are all members of multiple different cultural groups (e.g., professional, organizational, religious), each of which can be said to have its own culture in terms of values, norms, and patterns of behavior. So what then counts as “intercultural” interaction? There is no definitive answer to this question, but Spencer‐Oatey and Franklin suggest that an interaction becomes intercultural (rather than intracultural) when the cultural difference between the participants is significant enough for one or more of them to notice its impact. Analysts of intercultural interaction are thus chiefly concerned with the impact of culture on the dynamics of engagement with others. Numerous different approaches can be taken, and in this entry we focus on three issues that are often of concern to the interactants: achieving understanding, managing relations, and analyzing identity and personal growth.
This article proposes a creative approach to cultural intelligence, as an individual’s capability to function effectively under the condition of cultural diversity. Virtual team collaboration, as stimulated by the COVID-19 pandemic, constitutes a novel, culturally diverse context. We explore how cultural intelligence may shed light onto the requirements of post-COVID virtual and hybrid team collaboration. The contribution of this article to cross-cultural management studies is thus conceptual: by using the concept of cultural intelligence creatively and beyond its classic application, we exemplify a way in which cross-cultural management studies remain relevant, in an increasingly virtual world of work wherein people travel less to other countries, wherein collaboration takes place online and remotely, and wherein national cultural boundaries intersect with other cultural diversity factors.
Managers of different genders play an important role in the success of an organization. Little is known, however, about how management gender diversity is associated with employee productivity at different levels of diversity and the context that might influence this relationship. Integrating the knowledge-based view with role congruity theory, we propose a U-shaped relationship between management gender diversity and employee productivity. As role congruity–related gender stereotypes can be salient in male-majority industries, we advance knowledge by proposing industry gender composition as a key contingency. Building on the integration of theories, we propose that the U-shaped curvilinear relationship will be more pronounced in male-majority industries than in female-majority industries. The predictions were tested using data collected from 248 medium- to large-sized for-profit organizations in Australia via a human resource manager survey and an archival source. The regression results indicate a U-shaped curvilinear relationship across industries and provide the first evidence of a U-shaped curvilinear relationship in male-majority industries and an inverted U-shaped curvilinear relationship in female-majority industries. The findings support the integration of the knowledge-based view and role congruity theory, advance knowledge of industry gender composition dynamics, and provide leaders insights into the specific effects of various management gender compositions.
JEL Classification: M12, M14
This chapter first outlines the major changes that have contributed to the complex business environment and the way in which they have changed our work context. This is followed by discussion of the characteristics of culturally complex work settings and their implications for leadership in such settings. When exploring existing theories of leadership, a relational approach to leadership seems to be most appropriate to make the best use of the requirements and the inherent potential of a culturally diverse workforce in such culturally complex settings while, at the same time, minimizing potential challenges. The characteristics of such a relational leadership approach are explicated from a social constructionist perspective and a comprehensive model for leading in culturally complex work settings is proposed and illustrated with a small case. The proposed relational leadership model may serve leaders as an orientation in understanding and navigating the cultural dynamics involved in culturally complex work settings and the requirements including necessary competencies for enabling positive outcomes. In addition, the model may help researchers in making informed choices regarding their research focus when studying various aspects of culturally complex work settings and leadership in such settings. The chapter closes with four questions to ponder.
Background: Teamwork is a commonplace component of engineering practice. Engineering educators have been studying ways to make teams more effective and inclusive. However, students’ interpersonal interactions often create exclusionary experiences. Purpose/Hypothesis: This study investigates how the team formation process and what kinds of teaming practices and behaviors promote inclusive team environments. We were sensitized to Tuckman and Jensen’s (1977) revised theory of the five stages of teaming along with opportunity structures theory as frameworks to study how particular team interactions did or did not promote the inclusion of its members. Design/Method: This interpretive multi-case study used team observations, classroom artifacts, and student interviews in a first-year engineering course to understand the experiences of three teams. The primary data source, student interviews, were analyzed to understand the individual and collective team experience. These results were triangulated with the other data sources to build three team descriptions and a cross-team comparison. Results: Our findings indicate that the process of storming and norming in teams is an essential point in which social inclusion is built into teaming practices or not. While all teams, regardless of inclusive behaviors, were academically successful, the inclusive norms developed by some teams increased student learning and belonging. Conclusions: The emphasis on teaming in engineering education has often focused on the effectiveness of teams for a final project. However, the process of teaming and how peers shape the engineering environment is just as important for student’s belonging and persistence. The results of this work can provide strategies for supporting students’ teaming processes to develop more inclusive teams.
Purpose
This paper aims to understand how these competencies gained will help human resource (HR) leaders become more strategic about when and how to use global mobility for talent development.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper, the author defines the construct of cultural agility and describes the theoretical mechanisms through which employees can gain cultural agility through culturally novel situations such as global mobility. Cultural agility enables individuals to work comfortably and effectively with people from different cultures and in situations of cultural novelty. People with cultural agility have task-management competencies (cultural minimization, adaptation and integration), self-management competencies (tolerance of ambiguity, resilience, curiosity) and relationship-management competencies (humility, relationship building and perspective taking).
Findings
This study aims at focusing on the development of cultural agility, this paper focuses on four cascading features of a culturally novel experience that can help individuals gain this competence: (1) the level of cultural novelty in the experience, (2) the readiness of an individual for that level of cultural novelty, (3) the individual's level of awareness of the cultural norms and values inherent in the culturally novel experience and (4) the level of social support offered to that individual to learn how to understand and respond in that experience.
Originality/value
Each feature is discussed, concluding with the implications for future research and practitioners in global mobility and talent development.
Due to the increasing involvement of enterprises in international markets, the strategic management of the transition of an organisation from purely domestic into a multinational organisation has become increasingly important. The literature shows that a significant number of the organisation that choose to internationalise are SMEs which command little resources to enable this transition. Increased diversity, ambiguity and complexity as well as uncertainty, instability and high levels of competition are considered to be the characteristics of the context of SME internationalisation and the root cause of some of the challenges that SME managers face. This thesis focuses on the ever-growing emphasis on the management of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) specifically by exploring the managerial competencies required for SME internationalisation. It aims to identify the managerial competencies required for SME internationalisation. This qualitative study is informed by the grounded theory methodology. Using semi-structured interviews, primary data was collected from interviewing 52 SME managers who were directly involved in the internationalisation of their respective SME. In contrast to existing thinking in strategic management, which outlines a set of competencies (a functionalist perspective) which can be dynamically arranged (dynamic capabilities/entrepreneurship perspective), this study highlights that managerial competency is a unique, individual and dynamic experience. The study highlights that, in practice, SMEs do not engage in a great deal of systematic strategic planning and their managers have significantly different experiences of the SME internationalisation process. This becomes evident in how they perceived themselves and their different individual experiences during the internationalisation of their SMEs. Additionally, the findings indicate that managerial competency may involve an interaction and interrelation with information and the dynamic arrangement of functional competencies, but the focus of academics and practitioners needs to shift to understanding internationalisation as an experience. This thesis investigates the importance of agency and structure and how competency is a negotiation with the environment that is driven by the SME agent (i.e., the manager) via the managerial experience of SME internationalisation. The implication of the thesis is that there is a need for a paradigm shift in existing thinking from theorising managerial competencies required for SME internationalisation (functionalist perspective) to theorising individual managerial experiences of SME internationalisation i.e., agential experience (agency theory perspective). These are experiences which support SME managers in managing their organisations throughout the transitional period and when their organisation has been fully internationalised and is competing in the diverse international environment. Thus, the study highlights that the ontology of SME managerial competency is not understood in full currently. It identifies the paradigm shift that is needed and has developed the theoretical understanding of managerial competencies as an agential experience. The empirical approach reflects future research.
The current research conceptualizes workplace meetings as socially embedded forms of organizing and proposes that cross-cultural comparisons of workplace meetings offer insights into differences in meeting structures and processes. This provides a deeper understanding of how meetings drive organizing in different cultural settings. Specifically, we build programmatic theory proposing cognitive and behavioral scripts as a promising theoretical lens through which to capture and integrate sociocultural influences on workplace meetings. We adapt Cramton et al.'s (2021) cultural coordination scripts formulation (consisting of the task setting, role structure, temporal structure, and cues) to develop an interpretive framework for workplace meeting processes that orients future research on cross-cultural meetings. We further integrate existing research on cross-cultural meeting differences to develop a generic prototype meeting script and two illustrative examples of culturally specific meeting scripts (for German and U.S.-American meetings) to demonstrate the practical usefulness and usability of this programmatic theory.
Women are minoritized in U.S engineering programs and most engineering classrooms, and a variety of evidence indicates that they face inequities in team interactions. To reduce the impact of these inequities, some research indicates that instructors should avoid isolating women in engineering teams. While there are studies of mixed-gender teams in engineering education, most have focused on team performance and the team's final product, peer evaluation ratings, leadership self-efficacy, and the mode of collaboration. No comprehensive study of the dynamics of mixed-gender teams could be identified in the context of engineering education. This study investigates multiple measures of team dynamics holistically in mixed-gender teams: peer ratings, task interdependence, conflict, psychological safety, and satisfaction. Further, this research explores the extent to which women's satisfaction improves if their male teammates have similar characteristics (e.g., race/ethnicity and citizenship status) and how the women's satisfaction is related to the GPAs of their male teammates. The participants of this study were enrolled in a first-year engineering course, who provided information about various team dynamics four times during their teaming process. Mann-Whitney U tests were used to explore differences in team dynamics between mixed-gender teams and all-male teams. A multiple regression model was used to predict the women's team satisfaction based on their male team members' characteristics. Mixed-gender teams reported higher levels of task interdependence, but reported similar levels of conflict, psychological safety, and satisfaction. Women tended to be more satisfied when they worked with men who have similar citizenship status (based on class demographics, domestic women are more satisfied if their male teammates are also domestic). The results of this study include recommendations for instructors to improve team formation and facilitation.
This study was designed to investigate the relationship between leadership behavior and employee performance in Mogadishu. Emphasis was put on trying to establish the relationship between leadership behavior and employee performance in Mogadishu-Somalia.
The study employed the use of both descriptive and correlation
research design to establish the nature of the relationships. To analyze the data, the spearman correlation statistical tool was used with the aim of establishing the relationship between above variables. This formed the basis of the detailed analysis, conclusions and recommendations.
The findings revealed the existence statistically
significant has a positive relationship between leadership behaviour and employee
performance, the study also indicate that there is a statistically significant moderate
positive relationship between leadership behavior and employee performance. The
basis of the findings, the researchers made the following conclusions.
Telecommunication companies should provide good leadership behavior to their employee that will improve performance of employee. Telecommunication companies should provide the performance appraisal of their employees that based on their
system of their promotion to better satisfactory. Telecommunication companies should promote their employee performance in order to satisfy it.
Finally, telecommunication companies should supposed to not only think about resource or money but take into account that there are other factors that can effects their employee performance. Further research on human capital and employee performance.
Teacher training courses need to pay much more attention to cultural sensitivity, to the student’s personal needs and cultural orientation. Sensitivity will help teachers to understand each student’s barriers to learning and the emotions that they go through throughout their journey. Focus on language and language teaching methodology with a short session on cultural principles (Hofstede et al) is insufficient to prepare teachers to be aware of and responsive to students’ issues.
Chapter 6 discusses several situations requiring knowledge about an organization’s culture to deal with them effectively and avoid an untended culture drift. These situations may originate from an organization’s internal or external environment. Internal situations discussed are fast growth, stagnation, strategic alliances, and entering new markets. Given their importance, the focus of internally triggered situations is on two types of strategic alliances: joint ventures and mergers and acquisitions (M&As). The chapter explores the cultural challenges involved when different cultures meet as well as various kinds of M&As and their impact on culture. External situations discussed include societal changes, technological changes in terms of digitization, and politics. The focus of exploration concentrates on societal changes in terms of values, their change over time, the value pattern of different generations, and those represented in today’s increasingly diverse workforce. These situations pose challenges to an organization’s culture, requiring management attention to avoid organizational problems and an untended culture drift.
The chapter aims to reflect on the management of intercultural organizational relations. It explains the transition of homogenous organizations into the culturally heterogeneous organization and compares multiculturalism with cross-culturalism in its ability to harmonize the principles of cultural diversity with universal ethical principles. It explores the process of creation of a third culture to foster understanding and acceptance among diverse teams. It attempts to establish the impact of intercultural interactions/relations on the effectiveness of a diverse team of individuals interacting in concert to achieve common goals. The work also underpins some analysis of the creation, development, and management of organizational intercultural capital. Finally, the emergence of the model of strategic management of an intercultural organization focused on learning and training for proper operationalization and implementation is proposed, and some challenges that could antagonize the teams are looked into and proposals are formulated.
Interorganizational boundary spanning between multinational enterprises requires substantive internal “lateral collaboration” and “lateral alignment.” However, how actors coordinate laterally between multiple nodes and across multiple boundaries for interorganizational boundary spanning is unclear. This qualitative study of a large multinational demonstrates how actors collectively build and maintain interorganizational relationships through collective boundary spanning. To coordinate this activity, actors strategize and map contributors for collective action and then synchronize their communication and problem-solving to ensure lateral collaboration and alignment. This article contributes to the extant literature by a providing a framework depicting how boundary-spanning coordination leads to lateral collaboration and lateral alignment.
In this article, we summarize and review the research on teams and groups in organization settings published from January 1990 to April 1996. The article focuses on studies in which the dependent variables are concerned with various dimensions of effectiveness. A heuristic framework illustrating recent trends in the literature depicts team effectiveness as a function of task, group, and organization design factors, environmental factors, internal processes, external processes, and group psychosocial traits. The review discusses four types of teams: work, parallel, project, and management. We review research findings for each type of team organized by the categories in our heuristic framework. The article concludes by comparing the variables studied for the different types of teams, highlighting the progress that has been made, suggesting what still needs to be done, summarizing key learnings from the last six years, and suggesting areas for further research.
The authors report on their two-year study of successful transnational teams, in which they examined how such teams are designed and managed to help their firms pursue global business strategies. Based on this study, they present a comprehensive model of team effectiveness that includes the key characteristics differentiating a transnational team from other types of work teams. The model shows how transnational teams operate—how they are staffed and led, communicate across great distances, and cope with cross-cultural issues. In closing, they describe how a company's human resources department can help an “international” or “multinational” team become a “transnational” team—one that has successfully transcended the cultural, geographic, and managerial barriers to team effectiveness.