1. TEAM, ORGANIZATIONAL, AND INTERNATIONAL CULTURE Chapter 14

2. TEAM, ORGANIZATIONAL, AND INTERNATIONAL CULTURE  The shared values, beliefs, and norms of a team, organization, or nation are known as its culture  A team’s culture affects how team members communicate and coordinate work  The success of work teams depends on the level of support they receive from their organization, which in turn depends on the organization’s culture  The use of teams changes an organization’s culture as well

3. TEAM CULTURE  A team’s culture is the shared perception of how the team should operate to accomplish its goals  Team norms, member roles, and patterns of interaction are included in the team culture  Teams do not develop their culture from scratch, they incorporate cultural norms and values from their organization and society  Agreement about the team’s culture reduces anxiety and improves communication in a team

4. TEAM CULTURE  Behavior patterns that emerge early in a team’s life define how the team will operate in the future  The leader also plays a key role in the development of a team’s culture  Leaders should try to establish an appropriate culture early in the team’s life, because it is easier to start a culture than it is to change an existing one

5. TEAM CULTURE  A collaborative team culture includes mutual trust, leniency in judging others, courage to state opinions, and willingness to help  When a collaborative culture exists, the team is better able to use the resources of its members  Teams that are group oriented and less status oriented provide more team support  The level of team support relates to the leader’s behavior and the team culture

6. TEAM CULTURE  Team culture has an impact on whether or not training is used by a team  Team culture relates to the degree to which the team expects and supports attempts to try newly learned skills  Culture does not affect what is learned in training but does affect whether the newly learned skills are applied

7. DEFINING ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE  Organizational culture refers to the shared values, beliefs, and norms of an organization  All members of an organization share its organizational culture  Culture provides structural stability for the organization because its influence is pervasive and slow to change  The varied aspects of culture are integrated and form a consistent pattern

8. DEFINING ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE  Culture reflects the shared learning by organization members that contain cognitive, behavioral, and emotional elements  Organizational culture affects both the internal operations of the organization and how it relates to the external environment  The use of teams changes the ways people work with and relate to one another, which changes the organizational culture

9. ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND TEAMWORK  An organizational culture that encourages employee involvement and participation is a necessary support for teamwork  Organizational culture is one of the largest predictors of the successful use of teams by companies

10. ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND TEAMWORK  Walton and Hackman identify two distinct types of organizational cultures that affect the use of teams:  Control cultures (status and power drive this strategy, relations among people are untrusting)  Commitment cultures (reduces the number of organizational levels of authority, focuses on quality, and adopts methods to encourage open communication and participation, uses teams and gives them the authority to operate successfully)

11. ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND TEAMWORK  Most organizations fall somewhere between these two approaches  Teams operate better in a commitment-oriented culture because they are given the resources, training, and power they need to succeed

12. DIMENSIONS OF INTERNATIONAL CULTURE  Individualism versus Collectivism  In an individualist culture, people have loose ties with one another and expect to be responsible only for themselves and their immediate family  People seek individual achievement and recognition and might have trouble committing to team goals  In a collectivist culture, people value the ties between people  People are expected to look after one another

13. DIMENSIONS OF INTERNATIONAL CULTURE  Collectivists value compliance because the harmony of the team is considered vital  Conformity is expected and open conflict is discouraged  Individualists often enjoy conflict, competition, and open controversy  They seek argument for its own sake

14. DIMENSIONS OF INTERNATIONAL CULTURE  Power and Status  The power dimension is the degree to which people in a culture accept unequal power  High power cultures are status oriented, low power cultures are more egalitarian  In high power cultures, large power and status differences are acceptable

15. DIMENSIONS OF INTERNATIONAL CULTURE  In low-power cultures, people are less willing to accept the authority of others on the basis of the positions they hold in an organization  Team members take initiative and do not automatically accept management directives

16. DIMENSIONS OF INTERNATIONAL CULTURE  Uncertainty and Risk Avoidance  People want to have rules and norms that define appropriate behavior, and they prefer things to stay the same so they know what is expected of them

17. COMPARING THE UNITED STATES AND JAPAN  US organizations tend to display individualism, low power, and risk taking  Japanese organizations tend to display collectivism, high power, and risk avoidance  There is less use of teamwork in the US than in other industrialized countries  Japanese teams are viewed as less creative and less willing to take risks than US teams

18. INTERNATIONAL DIFFERENCES IN TEAMWORK  Differences among cultures are likely to cause communication errors  People communicating in a second language are more likely to make spelling and grammar errors  Cultures have different communication norms that can lead to misinterpretation (how emails are written)

19. INTERNATIONAL DIFFERENCES IN TEAMWORK  Communication problems can also occur because of differences about the expression of emotions  Cultural display rules for emotions make it acceptable for Western, individualistic cultures to amplify emotional expressions  Eastern, collectivist cultures tend to limit or suppress the expression of emotions, especially negative emotions

20. INTERNATIONAL DIFFERENCES IN TEAMWORK  Team decision-making practices are impacted by culture  In collectivist cultures, team members are more cooperative, more likely to support the opinion of the leader, and more likely to use equal allocation to resolve dilemmas  Individualist cultures may make higher quality decisions because they are more willing to tolerate and be influenced by minority opinions during a group discussion

21. TRANSNATIONAL TEAMS  Transnational teams are composed of individuals from different cultures working on activities that span national borders  They are formed in a global company or through alliances among companies in different geographic areas  The main challenge for such teams is to learn how to integrate this cultural diversity into a functioning team

22. TRANSNATIONAL TEAMS  These teams must deal with cultural differences that affect communication and power dynamics while relying on technology for communication  Successful transnational teams tend to spend more time initially developing social relations and team practices