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27.11.2020 | Kommentarer

The challenges of working in a multicultural team

 Authors: 

Submitted by :  Daigimole Prince BSc student nurse, Novia UAS

Supervisor     : Anita Wikberg supervisor, RN,RM,PhD, Seniour lecturer, Novia UAS

Abstract

This article is about challenges of working in a multicultural team. The article is written by the help of websites which can indicate different challenges of workers who are in the multicultural teams. Simultaneously articles show some of the positive sides of the multicultural working experience and the challenges which the workers face in the multicultural teams. This article gives a view from different angles of the pros and cons of challenges of working in a multicultural team. The flow of positives and negatives are the highlight in this article. In the end of the article some of the ideas narrated which can solve the challenges in working in a multicultural team.

 

Introduction

Globally international working teams are one of the most important factors in all working environments. In a clinical setting, understanding the colleagues from different cultures will make the work along with other workmates in a better way. This can include a better output like improving the work productivity and efficiency. When the person is in a multicultural team, he or she gets an opportunity to learn from others and implement those into their own nursing practice and to ensure the very best quality care to the service providers. Cultural difference or the acknowledgement of the culture can always create some obstacles or troubles in a healthy working team, when on the other hand, knowing culture is easing or soothing the work atmosphere (Teambuildingincentive 2020).

A multicultural team includes the language challenges as well. It will be interesting to learn how team members solve the challenges in a multicultural working team. Based on universal culture in the organisations there are differences in culture like western culture and eastern culture, in western culture there are individualism, slight distance, great uncertainty, monochromic time, low context when the eastern culture has collectivism, great distance, slight uncertainty, polychronic time, high context. Mostly the organisations are highly influenced by the culture of the workplace (Matveev & Milter 2004, Brett et al, 2006).

Advantages of working in a multicultural team

  One of the advantages is working in a multicultural team can have a chance for the workers to understand various cultural values. This will help in the planning of effective interventions and can solve the problem with an outstanding outcome. This includes various beliefs, methods of behaving, various physical factors and so on but working in a multicultural team will provide a clear idea and an easiness in understanding the culture. This will help everyone to work for the same goal, presented by the organization. Healthy conflicts can improve the ideas of the team. Understanding the culture can make the person lead to having healthy conflicts. Promoting international working space is also one of the advantages. Working in a multicultural team will improve the decency and decorum of the workers, which will be visible in their character. This will also create an impact of working internationally. It will lead to the proper use of resources within a short span of time, with a rise in the productivity. Working in a multicultural team will help the persons with increase in confidence and personality development. So that it will be easy for him or her to work anywhere in the world. On the other hand, it will also provide a security for the worker’s career (Matveev & Milter, 2004).

Creativity is also promoted when working in a multicultural team. In a multicultural team there will be many individuals from various surroundings. One of the facts is that every individual is unique.  There will be many ideas rooting up when different people from different cultures work together, it can have a positive as well as negative outcome but when that happens in a multicultural team, the team workers can discuss it together in various aspects. This will help in taking the most acceptable and creative decisions that increase the standard of service provided by the organisation and boost the satisfaction of the customers in businesses. According to the needs the team, can be divided into different groups, based on the ability and culture of the group members, which can develop the satisfaction of clients (Mateev & Milter, 2004). When the person works in a multicultural team, they should have the ability to plan the interventions by thinking from various aspects. It is sure that the decisions are likely to be productive enough. If the person knows the client’s culture it can help to point out exactly what the client expects. The member of the team will also be able to organize the client`s expectations and implement the interventions along with more advise. As a result, the client’s satisfaction of the service is much higher than the person who deals without knowing the client’s culture. Expectations also will be higher in a multicultural working team. Raising the working atmosphere. Other benefits are that people from diverse cultures have different line of thinking and this will add diverse shades to any project. Working in the multicultural team might increase, the diversity in the organisation. There may be many colleagues from different parts of the world that will be working in the same organisation or company in a multicultural team. This might create a happy atmosphere where people work, which will provide a stressless working ambiance. It might be helping the person to improve his or her knowledge and practices and provide a healthy competition to work. The more diverse ways of approach the more successful project (Matveev & Milter, 2004; Bourke 2014).

Disadvantages of working in a multi-cultural team

There can be various unhealthy conflicts occurring while working in a multicultural team. Especially lack of understanding of culture can be the cause of unhealthy conflicts. The main drawback is communication issues. Language is the barrier for effective communication. Physical attributes also can lead to misunderstanding in the multicultural working team which can provoke the members and even loose the beauty of the working harmony. On the other hand, different viewpoint can improve the quality of the work and in some cases can destroy the synchronisation of the work due to lack of the knowledge of the culture. Teamwork will be difficult especially when the team member feels odd and does not feel to belong to the team or the place. Time laps can occur due to adaptation if the team member have odd feelings. Problems with pronunciation and fluency of the language make big communication problems (Matveev & Milter, 2004).

When talking generally about a business organisation, that have different branches worldwide and see the diversity of their staff as an asset, and asking them to sit down at the table, where they are going to make decisions together, time zone differences are the biggest challenge in the situation. There are many challenges facing in the technological sides, while working in a multicultural team. For example using several applications for communicating with others especially while exchanging confidential data. These types of video or audio communications are not fully secured because of hackers or attacked by viruses. This will result in deteriorating the data. The perception of hierarchy and authority in the organisation can have various influences on the multicultural team such as making sudden internal changes in the structure of the team, also taking decisions without paying attention to the team member`s impressions (Teambuildingincentive 2020, Bourke 2014).

Managing challenges and conclusion

The websites show that the communication and connections are the key words for success of working in a multicultural team. Rapport is one of the situations where the team members understand each other’s feelings and express the ideas between the colleagues and provide a good communication. To clarify expectations, such as internal deadlines for the projects or tasks in the team is important. This can help to meet the goal on time. It is also important to give an idea about what the consequences are, if there are any, if the deadline is not met (Matveev & Milter, 2004). Democratic management in a well-executed style could also be a solution. In democratic management decisions are made by the majority. Developing a maintaining team which can communicate well in the groups, in order to control the issues and convey the ideas without doubts. Clarity of the goal in a team can create easiness to achieve the goals. Arranging training for the adapting staff can also help to reduce the strange, odd feelings. Negative impacts arise from culture are always based on human rights of the country. Since communication and connection are the success key word for the multicultural team, it is perfectly acceptable to ask the upcoming doubts in the team members, especially about cultural knowledge ( Chi 2020; Teambuildingincentive 2020).

Reference