The value of intercultural competence for performance of multicultural teams

Abstract

If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractManagers working in multinational companies carry out their organizational goals through multicultural teams. Performance of multicultural teams can be examined from an intercultural communication perspective. Executives, managers, management consultants, and educators interested in improving multicultural team performance need to know about intercultural competence and how it affects team performance. This article provides a working definition of high-performance multicultural teams and outlines the challenges multicultural teams face. These definitions along with extensive interview data and detailed self-reports of American and Russian managers working in multicultural teams emphasize the high importance of intercultural competence in improving the performance of these teams. This article also serves to highlight the characteristics of high-performance multicultural teams, the common challenges of multicultural teams, and the sources of these challenges. Electronic access

The impact of cultural diversity on the effectiveness of construction project teams

“…However, such teams are more likely to face difficulties such as miscommunication, low performance, lack of transparency, ineffective team development, lack of cultural awareness, and poor management of conflict (Adler, 1991;Shenkar and Zeira, 1992;Iles, 1995;Proehl, 1996;Matveev and Milter, 2004). Such conflicts may be task related or relationship related (Chuang et al 2004).…”

Intercultural Sensitivity and Cross-cultural Adjustment among Malaysian Students Abroad

“…al., 2005;Shaftel, Shaftel & Ahluwalia, 2007) where cultural exposure, knowledge, information and experiences build sufficient affective responses among Malaysian students when encounter cultural differences abroad. The results also show that Malaysian students have certain magnitude of intercultural competency (Matveev & Milter, 2004) that facilitates their cross-cultural adjustment internationally. This finding sustain studies by William (2005), and Chen andStarosta (1996, 2000) where intercultural sensitivity determine the ability of a person to identify the similarity and differences of cultural context and contact.…”

“…Furthermore, having adequate cultural knowledge and skills stimulates intercultural competency (Matveev & Milter, 2004). For example, mianzi (face-saving) and guanxi (relationship) are key concepts in Chinese culture to ensure the effectiveness of business connection in China (see Buckley, Clegg & Tan, 2006;Chen, 2006;Friedman, Dyke & Murphy, 2009).…”

Multicultural Awareness and Urban Communities: Validating a multicultural awareness scale

“…However, most of studies on the intercultural awareness (example, Friedman, Dyke & Murphy, 2009;Ingulsrud, Kai, Kadowaki, Kurobane & Shiobara, 2006;Krainovich-Miller, Yost, Norman, Auerhahn, Dobal, Rosedale, Lowry & Moffa, 2008;Matveev & Milter, 2004;Rew, Becker, Cookston, Khosropour & Martinez, 2003) were qualitative in nature which identified dimensions and factors to intercultural awareness. Abilities to be aware of the cultural differences lead the transformation from ethnocentrism into ethnoreativism status (Bennett, 2004).…”