Cultural gap bridging in multinational teams

How composition and compilation of international experience in groups influences knowledge sharing: a theoretical model

“…Defined as exposure to or interactions with members or elements of a different culture (Maddux et al, 2021), international experience stimulates knowledge creation through innovative problem-solving (Bantel and Jackson, 1989), enhanced creativity (Maddux and Galinsky, 2009) and superior leveraging of organizational knowledge (Oldroyd et al, 2019). It facilitates knowledge sharing because internationally experienced individuals have better and more flexible communication skills (Backmann et al, 2020;Jang, 2017;Hong, 2010), exhibit increased levels of interpersonal trust (Chua et al, 2012;Cao et al, 2014), display reduced outgroup bias (Tadmor et al, 2018) and have greater tendency toward facilitating knowledge flow (Wang, 2015). However, despite these important insights indicating that international experience enhances individuals' capabilities for creating, disseminating and absorbing knowledge, the role of group or team dynamics in affecting knowledge sharing in global environments is undertheorized and understudied (Foss and Pedersen, 2019).…”

Beyond the double-edged sword of cultural diversity in teams: Progress, critique, and next steps

“…Stahl et al's award-winning paper has benefitted the field by pushing researchers to consider both positive and negative effects from cultural diversity within teams. For example, diverse teams clearly stimulate creativity and innovation (Backmann, Kanitz, Tian, Hoffmann, & Hoegl, 2020;Jang, 2017), paralleling similar findings related to multiculturalism at the individual level (Tadmor, Galinsky, & Maddux, 2012;Vora, Martin, Fitzsimmons, Pekerti, Lakshman, & Raheem, 2019). Further afield, the X-Culture project's rich data have spawned a new research community interested in global virtual teams that commonly takes the same double-edged sword approach (Jimenez, Boehe, Taras, & Caprar, 2017;Taras et al, 2019).…”

“…One trend that emerged in the later part of the decade was, as Stahl et al advocated in 2010, a focus on the intra-team processes through which team diversity can be leveraged to attract more process gains and limit process losses. For example, a study published exactly one decade later explains how multicultural individuals bridge gaps among their multinational team members (Backmann et al, 2020). An earlier study explained how a similar mechanism of cultural brokering promoted creativity within diverse teams by eliciting or integrating knowledge from diverse team members (Jang, 2017).…”

“…For example, we know more about how diversity climates (Hajro et al, 2017) and diversity mindsets (Nederveen Pieterse et al, 2013;van Knippenberg & Schippers, 2007) moderate the team diversity-performance relationship, such that relationships tend to be stronger when the organizational context or individual mindsets accurately recognize and espouse the benefits of diversity. As described above, diverse teams also benefit through the mediator of individuals brokering or bridging across cultures, languages, and global distance virtually (Backmann et al, 2020;Jang, 2017;Jimenez et al, 2017;Taras et al, 2019).…”

Unraveling the effects of cultural diversity in teams: A retrospective of research on multicultural work groups and an agenda for future research

“…Research shows that multicultural individuals have a positive impact on several processes important in multicultural teams, including boundary-spanning communication (Yagi & Kleinberg, 2011) and social capital development (Fitzsimmons, Liao, & Thomas, 2017). In a recent study, Backmann and colleagues explored how cultural identity plurality is related to bridging processes in multinational teams (Backmann, Kanitz, Tian, Hoffmann, & Hoegl, 2020). They confirmed that individuals with more cultural identities engage in these bridging behaviors, with cultural intelligence as a mediator.…”