Lesson 4: Resolution of Team Divergence

Cultural Styles Leading to Conflict

Different cultures approach work in a variety of ways. For example, the way cultures approach work differs. The French have a mandated 35-hour work week. This may lead to an attitude of work infringing on personal time. In the United States, there is the attitude of work before pleasure. In other words attend to the task and complete it before moving on to more social activities. In Mexico, time is always allotted to visiting with friends before beginning work.

When working with teams spread throughout the world prompt response to requests is important. For example, Japanese expect a prompt response to any e-mail as waiting for the response may be critical to advancing the task. As a result e-mail may be checked often and responded to in a prompt manner usually within 24 hours. Other cultures take time before sending a response as they want to consider ramifications of decisions or simply do not check virtual communications more than once a day.

Other cultures treat relations and decision making at work in a different manner. For example one culture may ask a team member for input on a decision. However, the team member may be from a culture where subordinates' opinions are not asked for. There is a formal structure for speaking and interacting with co-workers. For example, Japanese value traditions and rituals that help provide consistency and stability in their culture and may make it difficult to quickly and easily adapt to change and a different forms of decision making. Germans use a more formal approach when interacting with others at work. Other cultures adopt a more casual approach to interacting between employers, managers and workers. Each of these cultural attitudes effect how people communicate with one another. Knowing if a culture prefers to address issues directly or build relationships first will determine how tasks are assigned and completed. It will prevent disagreements and conflicts as a result of expecting one thing and getting another.

On a GV team each of these cultural differences needs to be explicitly stated and understood. If one culture does no work on religious days, other team members need to be aware of that and respect it. Those with a shorter work week will need to be more flexible in when meeting can occur. Team set up should specify protocols for responding to e-mails and requests. Each of these items needs to be clearly and explicitly stated rather than assumed that the other person understands.