Multicultural Team Essay

With any team, there can be potential problems and synergies that can occur. Some of these occurrences can relate to team leadership, communication styles, timelines and deadlines, the group decision-making process and consensus building, as well as group performance measurement and rewards. Every country is unique and has its own culture, which is important to acknowledge when working in a multicultural team. The three countries that have members within this team are the United States, Chile, and Sweden.

A potential problem that could occur within the team, in regards to team leadership is that members may resist working in teams if they live in an individualist culture. Individualism is essentially the amount of interdependence a culture

Sweden is a country that is very feminine, scoring a 5 on Geert Hofstede’s model for the masculine dimension (https://geert-hofstede.com/sweden.html). A characteristic of a feminine culture is that the decision-making process is done through involvement from team members. Another characteristic is that Swedes will work very hard during their discussions, in order for a consensus to be reached. Chile is another feminine culture and possesses many similar beliefs to Sweden, by having supportive team members and aim for consensus. However, the United States is a masculine culture scoring a 62 on Geert Hofstede’s model for the masculine dimension. A characteristic of a masculine culture that could create a problem for the team is the belief that a small amount of conflict will bring out the best in people, as well as American members who want to be better than all of the other members, while still sharing values. (https://geert-hofstede.com/united-states.html). One of the main reasons that teams are formed is to come to a decision, so it is important to acknowledge how different cultures come to a

One challenge specific to this multicultural team composed of members from the United States, Chile, and Sweden is the different value each culture has is in regards to leadership styles. Since the United States and Sweden are both individualistic cultures, they resist working in teams, in addition to wanting to be the leader. There may be some conflict that occurs between these members in the beginning, as these members are competitive and want to be the best member in the team. However, since the Chilean members prefer working in a group, and do not really care about leadership roles, they may be able to step in if conflict