Why and how building multicultural team in a multinational company?

Résumé du document

Today, globalization has increasingly become a watchword by which companies swear by and they accordingly install subsidiaries on foreign markets and relocate resources. An important issue in this process is the question of intercultural management and human resources within the global perspective. We are widely allowed to think that the teams are growing more and more multicultural. We all know the difficulties working with differences hence multicultural teams are built. They are created in order to understand the new markets better or in order to create a new corporate dynamic.

The conditions of multicultural teams' implementation in a firm raise questions such as the conditions involved in order to choose the members of different nationalities that will work together on common projects.

In order to find some answers to these questions we have made some hypotheses regarding their numbers. It appears that there are not so many multicultural teams in big multinational companies as opposed to the little firms.

There are different reasons for building a multicultural team for a project. The most likely is the research on new markets. A multicultural team can be built with managers from the parent firm and from a subsidiary in order to conceive new products. The first ones know how the parent firm works and what the parent firm has planned whereas the second ones are aware of the norms, the laws, the practices of the country in which the firm wants to create new products.

The second reason could be to create a dynamic in the firm by opening the minds of managers to other problematics and others ideas.

The condition of building a multicultural team differs in each firm and depends on the terms and goals of the project. But one common way to set up a multicultural team is to use training courses. Actually some schools offer such programs to managers in order to be efficient in intercultural situations. The HR Manager can have great responsibility in the process.

Extraits

[...] Nom : Thierry VEILLON Nom de l'entreprise : Telecom Argentina Age : 52 Nationalité : Française Fonction : responsable département LE CONTEXTE Pouvez-vous nous décrire la composition culturelle de votre équipe (origines/nationalités ) ? Equipe argentine pour l'essentiel, mais présence également d'experts italiens Comment s'est formée l'équipe ? pouvez-vous comparer avec la formation d'une équipe non multiculturelle ? Quel est/était votre rôle dans l'équipe ? responsable de département à Telecom Argentina Sur le plan professionnel, dans quel but a été créée cette équipe ? Le contexte ? Prise de contrôle de telecom Argentina par France télécom en 1991 Sur le plan personnel, était-ce un choix ou une obligation ? [...]

[...] Equipe performante, répondant dans l'ensemble aux demandes du groupe dans un contexte peu facile (réduction de coûts). Bénéfice professionnel principal : intérêt renouvelé en permanence par la variété des réactions / réflexions auxquelles on est exposé. Handicap : perte de temps occasionnée par les incompréhensions entre direction et employés, d'autant plus perçues à la position que j'occupai (en porte-à-faux tant professionnellement que culturellement entre les deux parties de l'équipe) Quels sont/ ont été les bénéfices obtenus sur le plan personnel ? Richesse des rencontres / Intérêt linguistique Le referiez-vous ? Et si oui, qu'aimeriez-vous changer ? [...]

[...] The second day is more specialized in the role of manager inside a multicultural team: first, a manager has to overcome languages barriers. He can do that by promoting creativity inside the team with a brainstorming for example or by putting the relations between members in a more relax situation (out of business and pressure). Then he must define the abilities required by the project but he has to be aware of different kinds of management and always ask for his co-workers' expectations. [...]

[...] Are they specific criteria to build efficient multicultural teams? How do employers proceed? There is not one solution for those questions. In fact, the build of multicultural teams can appear in various environments and for different reasons and goals. The selection of members Today, more and more job offers mention the necessity to be able to work in a multicultural team; yet, it is difficult to evaluate this ability. According to Joseph Aoun in his book Manager une équipe multiculturelle, a recruiter is often inclined to choose people who share the same values and culture as him rather than a foreign person who will eventually not understand his references. [...]

[...] Bonne, mais il est bon de connaître les particularités des autres cultures. Quels sont les bénéfices professionnels principaux de travailler dans une équipe multiculturelle ? Votre équipe a-t-elle été performante ? Voir d'autres manières de travailler, de voir les choses. Mieux armés pour comprendre les différents clients selon leurs nationalités. Quels sont/ ont été les bénéfices obtenus sur le plan personnel ? Apprentissage d'autres façons de faire, d'aborder les problèmes . Le referiez-vous ? Et si oui, qu'aimeriez-vous changer ? Bien sûr QUESTIONNAIRE 5 : RENSEIGNEMENTS PREALABLES ? [...]