Discussion One What are the cultural variables that influence multicultural teams? Which is most important to you? Why? Define stereotypical expectations
Discussion 1
Multicultural teams are influenced by cultural variables. One of the cultural variables is individualism vs. collectivism. Individualism is a culture where a person likes to act alone and be recognized as an individual. Individualists like work alone and take credit as individuals. Collectivism is a culture where people like to work as a group. These people consult colleagues before making any decision (Dyer Jr et al., 2013). Collectivism is most important to me. People with collectivist culture can easily work in a team than individualistic individuals. Team members will be more valued by leaders who are collectivists than individualists. The second culture is power distance (high distance vs. low distance). High distance prefers and accepts that power is not distributed equally while low distance prefers and accepts that power is distributed more equally.
The third culture is uncertainty avoidance. Some people are high-uncertainty-avoidance; they avoid ambiguity and prefer more structured tasks. They do not like to take risks. Low-uncertainty-avoidance is people who are risk-takers and have a high tolerance for ambiguity. I love risk-takers because they are people who can initiate change (Dyer Jr et al., 2013). They can take on change. The last culture is tasks or relationship orientation. People from long-term-oriented cultures spend extra time on building trust and socializing with other people. They often work together towards their long-term goals. Short-term-oriented people put more focus on the task at hand. Their main focus is to complete the tasks at hand. For me, long-term orientation is vital because it helps people work towards long-term goals.