The Challenges of Adaptation to Working in a Multicultural Team
Abstract
In the world today, many people with different cultural backgrounds migrate easily from one country to another due to globalization. And some of these migrants find themselves working in multicultural teams as most organizations including healthcare institutions wholeheartedly embrace the idea of di-verse cultural groups working together. These teams are expected to work closely, effectively, and competently to achieve desired goals. There are benefits attached to working in a multicultural team such as the exposure to new ideas and perspectives. However, there are challenges experienced by many team members which makes working difficult most times, like the need to learn a new language. The style of communication used to pass information affects the comprehension of listeners. Accents and fluency affects the non-native speaker’s interaction with colleagues. And the methods of decision-making also affect team members. This article discusses strategic methods that can be applied to tack-le a number of these challenges.
Introduction
Globalization has brought about great changes in the world today. It leads to the movements and integration of people with various cultural backgrounds from one country to another, causing a large population of foreigners to settle in other countries which are either developed or underdeveloped, and with cultures other than those of the migrants, thereby bringing people of diverse cultures closer than ever before (Claval, 2001). Current report shows that there are over 272 million international migrants worldwide, that is about 3.5% of the world’s population (IOM, 2020). Sometimes migra-tion can also be within a particular country.
For many years human beings have viewed cooperating and working together as valuable. Hence, the continuous efforts put in to learn how to cooperate and work with each other which requires that all involved should regularly engage in adequate interaction, and rely on one another to successful-lycomplete any task based on the objectives and goals set out for every member to achieve as a group. Thus, the benefits of working in a multicultural team includes the introduction of new ideas and perspectives which help others view issues from different angles. This leads to order and satis-faction that may not be possible if carried out individually and separately rather than as a team (Claire et al, 2008. p. 3).
Definition of Multicultural team
In many organizations today as well as in the healthcare institutions, individuals from different race and cultural backgrounds work together towards achieving a common goal, forming multicultural teams. The definition of multicultural team have been put forward by different people. According to Cohen & Bailey (1997, pp. 241), it is defined as “a collection of individuals who are interdependent in their tasks, who share responsibility of outcomes, who see themselves and are seen by others as an intact social entity, embedded in one or more larger social systems and who manage their relation-ships across organizational boundaries”.
Challenges of Working in a Multicultural Team
There are a number of advantages of working in a multicultural team in organizations or health insti-tutions. However, there are some challenges encountered by team members that has been identified which can outweigh the advantages by problems springing from cultural differences that can affect the effectiveness of a team. Migrant nurses experience significant barriers such as the process of requalification, the need to learn a new language, and adaptation to other forms of clinical practices (Chandra & Willis, 2005). Patients express their concerns, describe the type or level of pain and symptoms they feel, and also report the changes that occurs regarding their health status. It may be difficult for these nurses to communicate fluently due to the language barrier (Kingma, 2007). Nev-ertheless, nurses are to be able to communicate with colleagues and other members of the healthcare team through oral and written reports, as well as to patients, and their families. There are clear ob-structions to the advancements of nurses and non-health migrant workers in other organizations.
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Onogwa Hope1, (Bsc) Sociology and Anthropology. I am presently a Nurse Student in Novia University of Applied Sciences, Vaasa, Finland.
Corresponding Author: Wikberg Anita, RN, RM, PhD, is a Senior Lecturer in Health Care in Novia University of Applied Sciences. Wolffintie 31, Vasa/ Wolffintie 31, Vaasa, Finland. She was my Supervisor.
Brett et al. (2006), carried out in-depth interviews with some managers including members of a mul-ticultural team around the world, and were able to identify some problems that can stand as a barrier to the success of teams working together. These challenges includes; direct and indirect communica-tion, issues with accents and fluency, and conflicting norms on the pattern of decision-making.
Direct and Indirect Communication
Communication style in a multicultural environment like in other areas refer to the manner at which language is used to pass information across to people. When the exact intentions of a speaker are understood from the verbal message, it is called “direct communication”. In this type of communica-tion, the speaker goes straight to the point. In western cultures, the idea of a speech is usually explic-it, so that in most cases the listener do not need additional explanation on what was meant. On the other hand, indirect communication is when the speaker’s exact intention is not clear. The state-ments are not direct, including the response to questions. This can result to stress, tension and an uncomfortable situation on the part of the receiver. For example instead of saying “yes”, an indirect speaker may say “hopefully” and might say “maybe” or “possibly” instead of saying “no”. Eastern culture practice this style of communication (Brett et al, 2006).
These styles of communication are perceived by both speakers differently. For direct speakers, indirect way of communicating is viewed as been deceptive, dishonest, and false. Whereas, an indi-rect speaker considers a direct speaker to be rude or harsh. It can be highly frustrating for direct and indirect speakers to interact with each other as they are used to their individual style of communica-tion. Both styles have advantages and disadvantages. Direct communication has less possibility of misunderstanding but more possibility of shocking and offending the receiver, while indirect com-munication may hide the true meaning of the message and not everyone can guess to grasp the true understanding of the information passed (Brett et al, 2006).
Problem of Accents and Fluency
The challenges of accents and fluency falls under language barrier, which is not only when people do not understand each other’s language. Even in organizations where workers speak the same lan-guage, there could also be difficulties comprehending different accents and fluency by non-native speakers. These set of speakers most times struggle to find and use the right words at the right time when communicating, and may sometimes make use of the wrong words unintentionally.
Team members who are not fluent at speaking the office dominant language may find it extremely hard to interact or put their knowledge concerning an important matter forward, and their points are in most times not taken seriously due to the lack of fluency in conversation. This can prevent the team from recognizing and making use of their expertise. The accents and lack of fluency may also result in interpersonal conflicts if team members are not tolerant and patient (Brett et al, 2006).
Pattern of Decision Making
Companies, organizations, or institutions with multicultural teams do not follow specific pattern regarding decision-making. There are differences in decision-making as to how quick and how much analysis is needed. In some cultures decisions are made by the head and cannot be questioned even when it is wrong. However, in some other cultures decisions are made slowly, taking time to collect useful information and probably seek the attention of team members so decision can be made in one accord (Brett et al, 2006).
Strategies to Tackle Challenges
There is no one universally accepted way to handle any of the multicultural challenges. When a manager, head of department, or a team member is able to recognize these cultural differences and identify the possible cause of the challenges at the work place, any of the following strategies can be applied, as in the cases of the teams and managers that were studied by Brett et al, (2006). The strategies includes; adaptation, structural intervention, managerial intervention, and exit.
Adaptation
For team members to adapt to the situation effectively, each member should have an open mind. That is, the willingness to be ready to identify and acknowledge the cultural differences among them, and accept the responsibility to work out ways to manage with it. The advantages of this strategy is that it saves managerial time to intervene on the situation, and helps team members learn how to handle similar issues as they take part in this process.
Structural Intervention
Applying this strategy involves the absolute removal of the source of the conflict within the group, and recognizing or finding a new way to handle the interpersonal friction. As a means of structural intervention, teams can be divided into smaller mixed cultural groups to help obtain the required information to handle problems. In Japan, this strategy was used by the manager of the team that were assessing the trade opportunities. The manager repeatedly exchanged workers, and continued to split staffs into subgroups so each member could work with other members. This made team members get to know and respect other members of the team.
Managerial Intervention
Multicultural problems can be mostly solved when this strategy is applied. The issue of accents is one of such challenges that can be dealt with by this approach. In one of the interviews and experi-ences, the staffs were told by the manager that they were chosen based on expertise and not by the fluency of their spoken English. And advised those workers to be ready to work around language problem.
Furthermore, those who had problems with their accents were told to first be aware and accept that they have it, and should be quick to point it out to customers or patients as the case may be. They should also be ready to repeat themselves to those who do not understand what they say. All these require the full participation of managers or team leaders in tackling multicultural workplace chal-lenges.
Exit
Managing challenges by leaving the team was usually the last option for the three approaches dis-cussed. It was observed that team members who were not happy only stepped out in short term situ-ations. Even among permanent staffs, exit as a strategy was a last resort. Although this strategy was used sometimes voluntarily or as requested formally by the management (Brett et al, 2006). The ap-plication of either of these strategies can be determined by the situation itself.
In summary, the research conducted by Brett et al. (2006) shows that, all the managers that were quick to act and set rules; the teams together with their leaders that were interested in and made the move to bring all teams together to work; and the team members who were vigilant enough to rec-ognize the challenges arising from culture and not from colleague’s personality, were successful in resolving the problems in a good disposition along with creativity. And they all enjoyed the benefits of working in multicultural teams.
Conclusion
Today the organizational goals of many multinational companies are achieved through multicultural teams. The same is applicable in the healthcare institutions. In many parts of the world, there is an increasing demand for nurses in the healthcare field due to changes in the socio-economic situations. Nurses are wanted everywhere especially in the elderly care homes as a result of the insufficient supply of nurses within a particular country, giving reasons for the hiring of nurses from other parts of the world. Thereby bringing individuals of diverse cultural backgrounds together, leading to the formation of multicultural teams. However, there are challenges people go through while working in multicultural teams, and the application of some strategies that can help minimize these challenges were discussed in this article.
Finally, language courses that focus on medical language can be taken by migrant nurses. For exam-ple, in Novia University of Applied Sciences, such courses are taken in Finnish and Swedish. This is to further equip migrant student nurses to be prepared to a certain level in advance, so as to avoid some of the challenges of working in multicultural teams in Finland.
Training should also be given to staffs on intercultural communication. There should be repeated feedback programs with nurses that discusses racial and cultural issues. During staff meetings, the need for multicultural team work should be emphasized.
It is important to note that the key to coping with these challenges also includes to embrace all cul-tures and accept their differences, avoid stereotyping, get close to team members, appreciate the skills of others, and be a good listener.
References
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- Brett, J., Behfar, K., & Kern, M. 2006. Managing multicultural teams. Harvard Business Review, 84(11): 84-91+156.
- Chandra, A., & Willis, W. 2005. Importing nurses: Combating the nursing shortage in America. (In Context. Healthcare and Public Policy). Hospital Topics, 83(2): 33-37.
- Claval, P. 2001. Multiculturalism and the dynamics of modern civilizations. https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.196.2269&rep=rep1&type=pdf
- Claire, B. & Tirmizi, A. 2008. Effective multicultural teams: Theory and practice, pp. 3-8. https://books.google.fi/books?id=WERRWf0FSI0C&pg=PA5&Ipg=PA5&dq=marquardt+%20and+horvath&source=bl&ots%20=S9wjgstKHf&sig=ACfU3U1ZTXOPYTHnbz_QAROJ4Uybm6C5tQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjllGquoHqAhV5w8QBHbI4DoAQ6AEwBnoEC%20BAQAQ#v=onepage&q=marquardt%20and%20horvath&f=false
- Cohen, S., & Bailey, D. 1997. What makes teams work: Group effectiveness research from the shop floor to the executive suite. Journal of Management, 23: 239-290. Kingma, M. 2007. Nurses on the move: A global overview. Health Services Research, 42(3 part 2): 1289.
- International Organization for Migration (2020). World migration report. IOM Online Notebook.publications.iom.int/books/world-migration-report-2020 (Retrieved; 09.10.2020)
