Intercultural Management

Are the employees in your organization task oriented or they focus more on building and sustaining relationships in the organization? Do you consider different ways of making team members feel valued as an important part of the team? Universalism vs. Particularism: Rules versus relationships?

In  this  team  most  of  the  employees  had  a  prior  international  experience  and  Zsófia  used  the  same  approach  to  deal  with  them  although  was  composed  of  different  cultures.  The  reason  justifying  this    approach  was  because  that  the  employees  had  prior  international  experience  as  GE  is  a  multinational  company  and  it  is  not  uncommon  to  see  a  diversely  equipped  workforce.  Being  a  multinational  organization  companies  like  GE  design  their  strategy  to  accommodate  an  international  workforce  and  this  must  have  been  a  driving  factor  which  allowed  the  sustenance  of  a  common  approach  to  facilitate  communication  among  the  various  cultural  backgrounds  of  people.  Also,  since  the  individuals  working  in  the  organization  must  have  imbibed  an  acquired  sense  of  international  culture  which  is  rhythmic  to  the  organizational  culture.  When  an  individual  gains  international  experience,  his/her  ability  in  dealing  with  culture  on  a    global  perspective  becomes  enhanced  and  that  could  be  a  reason  why  the  manager  did  not  face  many  problems  in  terms  of  communication.

Have you ever had hard time with you colleagues or subordinates who were neutral or too affective in terms of relationships (not revealing what they were thinking/feeling, no emotions showed off versus too extensive nonverbal and verbal display of thoughts and feelings, sometimes vehemently)

Zsófia states that there were instances in her team where a certain member had a higher portrayal of emotion. In terms of culture this could be explained by the fact that she belonged to a lower context of culture when compared to her peers where showing excessive emotions even in the workplace was regarded to be something normal. When dealing with individuals who are excessively emotional even in their workplace, it becomes difficult for a person who especially from a higher context of cultural background to empath with this behavioural characteristic. On the other hand, Zofia also mentions that there was a certain team member who was very placid in the terms of behaviour and it becomes difficult to know whether he is satisfied with his work environment, etc because of his inexpressiveness. This could be an obstacle many HR managers could face during performance evaluation where effective communication between peers and line managers are key elements towards strengthening a team’s integrative spirit.