Success of most international organizations

Success of most external organizationsINTRODUCTIONInternational protrude squads has been argued to be a key factor out in the success of most international organizations(Heimer, 1994). Many factors have been attrisolelyed to this and they let in Rich heathen diversity leading(a) to contrasting ideas been generated by the respective squad members thus take together know directge and skills from the different countries that make up the police squad. In this paper, we will attempt to define an international experience squad up up, the advantages and limitations of such a team, conflicts that may hoist, and final examinationly we will propose the main lessons derived from workplaceing in an international team employ a case study.Definition Makilouko(2003) suggested that for a team to be called an international project team, it must fulfil either of three main conditions which atomic number 18 its members must have different backgrounds working in the same country, or i ts members may work in different countries but amass on a face-to-face arse, or its members may be based in many countries but coordinate their meetings through electronic media. Heimer(1998) proposed that the difference between an international project team and other teams is as a resultant of the cultural differences present in such a team. These cultural differences result in differences in the process of communication, lead and the guidance the team members work together(Snow et al, 1996)Group 4 is an ideal multicultural team made up of four team members from four different countries i.e. Nigeria, Malaysia, China, and Thailand, who be managing presentation projects in the same country.CHOICE OF LEADERSHIPThe role of a leader in an international project team involves managing not only the hard aspects of the project i.e. technical details, but alike the soft aspects of the project i.e. the adult male resources aspects. The management of these two objectives interchanges t hroughout the project lifecycle(Snell et al,1993). In an international project team, no one various(prenominal) may possess all the necessary attributes needed to lead the team, hence the concept of collective leadership has been proposed by Freidrich et al(2009). Collective leadership process means that each member of the team showcases their skills and expertise at different aspects of the project lifecycle. This concept was corroborated by Hanschild and Kirchmann(2001) who alluded to the benefits of collective leadership.The Group 4 team adopted the linguistic rule of collective leadership in the management of the assigned projects. One member of the team volunteered to be the executive director in charge of organizing team meetings while the other members led the team in project areas they where heartfelt at. A member of the team led in information technology aspects, another member led in presentation slide design, while a third member was in charge of proof-reading the fi nal slides for errors. This process of collective leadership ensured the collective confederation of all project team members in leading the team and reduced the friction involved in choosing a particular person as a group leader.TEAM PROCESSIles and hayes(1997) suggested that unlike other teams, international project teams require greater team building processes as a result of the cultural diversity present. These difference in culture empennage lead to the success or failure of the project if not well managed. Dreachshin et al(2000) proposed that two major aspects of the team process that is affected by cultural diversity are communication and conflict management.CommunicationMaznevski(1994) overcompensate that effective communication is the key to ensuring that a culturally diverse team is well integrated. Iles and Hayers(1997) also suggested that for cohesiveness to occur in an international project team, the individuals who make up the team must develop strategies to get a cross their differences. Heimer and Vince(1998) also agreed with this notion by proposing that multi-cultural teams that ensure that non-native speakers of the teams language can contribute are to a greater extent effective on the long term even though initially they may work slower.At the preparation stage of the different presentations, we where able to address the challenges of communication by developing a communication system with the contribution of all team members. The strategy addressed the questions of When, What, and How do we communicate?. The basis of the strategy involved the use of multiple modes of communication in order to ensure understanding from non-native speakers of side of meat. In order to do this, we deployed the use of information technology e.g. regular emails that provide a summary of the minutes of the meetings, and also utilized language translation websites like Google Translate for language translations. We also ensured that during meetings, we gen erate feedback from non-native English speakers in order to confirm that the points discussed have been understood.Conflicts Bercovitch(1983) proposed that conflicts in multicultural teams tends to occur when 2 or more parties have personal objectives that are not compatible with each other hence leading to them behaving differently. This gaze alluded to that proposed by Thomas(1976) which suggests that conflicts are inherent in every team process. Thomas(1976) also proposed that conflicts within teams are inherently bad and should be avoided at all costs. Jehn(1994) disagreed with Thomas(1976) negative perception of conflicts and proposed that conflicts that occur as a result of cultural differences in the way a task should be managed genuinely do lead to an advancement in team performance. The main reason why conflicts tend to occur in international project teams has been proposedto be as a result of mistrust and miscommunication among the team members(Trandis et al, 1965)In Gr oup 4, the process of end making was a participatory mood in which every project team member is wedded equal time slots during meetings to make his/her suggestion to the project plan. This style helped to address conflict that may burn down from depending on a undivided or few dominant team members. The disadvantage of having the participatory style is because it gave rise to another conflict in choosing the particular members opinion that should be adopted by the Group. The way this was managed is by adopting a collaborative conflict management style as proposed by Thomas(1976). The aim of using this technique is to be able to merge aspects of all the different opinions and perspectives of the different team members into a single project plan.STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF GROUP 4 The key strength of the Group 4 team rests on the cultural diversity of its members. This diversity led to a large amount of different ideas been generated on how different tasks should be managed, th e varied nature of the ideas occurred as a result of the unique cultural experiences of the individual members of the team and it provided a rich pool of information to source from. Another key strength of the team is the collective leadership style adopted which ensured participation of all team members and removed the destructive tendency of having a single leader dominating other members of the team. Finally, a third strong point was our adoption of the multimedia glide slope to delivering presentations as compared to the traditional slideshows. Our main objective for using this strategy was to promote understanding of the message and also to entertain the audience. The key weakness or bad points of Group 4 was exhibited during the last two projects whereby team members showed signs of complacency as a result of previous successes recorded. The efforts put into research was lower than the initial duet of presentations but rather, a lot of subjectiveness was used in developing t he final projects. The reasons proposed for this included current assignments from other modules, as well as family and job constraints.NEXT TIME In the event of my participation as a team member of a multicultural team, I would suggest that rather than displace emails of the proposed project plan back and forth among team members, we should have an Online repository/Store in which team members can log in independently and have access to/modify the project plan. In adopting this system, what we are trying to achieve is to have a rudimentary project plan which is continuously been updated by team members irrespective of their current location or language differencesLESSONS LEARNEDTuckman(1965) proposed that groups typically go through a series of changes in development which he termed Form, Storm, Norm, Perform. My participation in this international project team enabled me to actually visualize and appreciate this stages taking place.The Hofstede(1980) study highlighted that cultu ral differences among project team members is a major factor which if not managed properly can lead to the success or failure of international projects. He proposed that conflicts that arise among international teams should be investigated from within the cultural context. The lesson learned in this case is that we are all culturally different and this differences leads to different perceptions about the way issues are managed.The effective use of multimedia during project proposal presentations help to promote understanding. This is achieved because it appeals not only to the brain of the audience but also to the emotions. Hence, an ideal project presentation will be one that effectively challenges the audiences to see, feel, hear, smell, and touch what the presenter is talking about. This is a strategy I intend to adopt in future presentations.