Executive Summary

Multicultural teams play vital role for the success of any organization in international markets. First part
of the paper explores the differences of management styles in Japan, US and Russia, there are some
Cross Cultural Management 1
similarities as well but differences accounts major part of the paper. Differences are explored using
cultural profiling models. These cultures are extremely different in some aspects such as
communication. A team of these three cultures will face different conflicts, but if managed effectively
can produce greater results. In second part of the paper success of this team is analyzed using data from
first part and using theory and models from multicultural communication. Its success is seems to be very
difficult but can be possible if good strategies are used which are described in recommendations.
Contents
Cultural Profiling..........................................................................................................................................3
Introduction:............................................................................................................................................3
Differences in Cultural Dimensions:.........................................................................................................3
Cultural profiling by Edward T. Hall.....................................................................................................3
Cultural Profiling by Geert Hofstede....................................................................................................4
Trompenaars Cultural Dimensions:.....................................................................................................5
Recommendations:..................................................................................................................................7
Success of Multicultural team.....................................................................................................................8
Communication:......................................................................................................................................9
Communication model by Robert Gibson:.............................................................................................10
Recommendations:................................................................................................................................10
References:............................................................................................................................................11
Appendix:..............................................................................................................................................12
Cross Cultural Management 2
Cultural Profiling

Introduction

A cross cultural[1] team can be described as the team whose members are from different cultures of the
world. In today’s globalized world use of multicultural teams is very common. These teams are success
or the devastation. They lead to high performance or they diminish efficiency. The influence of culture
makes the communication very complicated in multicultural teams than a single national team, those
who represent their organisation in multicultural teams not only have to adjust them in different
culture, but they have to manage them with different people within and outside the organisation. These
reasons and the growing business in international markets make it inevitable to make multicultural
teams. (House et al.2004) emphasizes that to be successful in international business, managers needed
to be flexible when interacting with colleagues from different cultures. Therefore sensible management
from different cultures would be much important for successful international project teams.

This paper is divided into two parts; first part will study about the managerial behavior of multicultural
Cross Cultural Management 3
team consisted of USA, Japan and Russia, the differences present in their management style and the
second part of the paper will illustrate the probability of success present in this multicultural team.

Differences in Cultural Dimensions:

Differences in work performances exist in different cultures of the world. Many writers of cross-cultural
management have created models for cultural profiling to explore the differences.

Cultural profiling by Edward T. Hall

Model by Edward T. Hall (1959) asserts the concept of “high versus low context”[2] communication. He
believes that cultural differences can be understood by the way different people from different cultures
communicate. Hall states that meaning and communication are contextually linked to each other,
therefore to understand the communication one must understood the meaning and context as well.
(Hall, 1976) ranked the cultures from low context (explicit) to high context (implicit), USA and Russia are
the most explicit countries where communication is direct and Japan is the most implicit country where
most communication is conveyed through body language, physical context, and through non-verbal
communication. It implies that there may be a problematic situation when agreeing on a deal in this
team because Japanese make more deals without written documents. In Japan managers avoid eye-
contact during communication and they prefer to hear the grunts of “eh eh eh” from other party that
they are being heard. Japanese great each other by bowing in contrast to USA and Russia where mostly
they shake hands. (Brett et al. 2006) provides an example of USA and Japanese team was creating a
customer database and several flaws found into the system. American leader of the team pointed out
these flaws in an email to her American boss and the Japanese team members, her boss was happy with
the direct warnings and Japanese members were upset because American leader disrupted their norms
for exposure the problems.

Cultural Profiling by Geert Hofstede

Hofstede’s work is very important in exploring the cultural differences and then working them out to
cope with those differences for the success in international teams. The model he developed (Hofstede,
1984) explores the clear differences on

 Power distance[3]
 Cultural
Cross Management
Individualism/collectivism[4] 4
 Uncertainty avoidance[5]
 Masculinity/femininity[6]

Hofstede (2005) states that the human beings thinking, feeling and their action is greatly influenced by
the learning they have in their childhood from parents, from their school and from the culture they live
in.

Power Distance:

(Hofstede, 1984) placed USA at 16 rank with the score of 40, suggest that there is low power distance,
so a manager from USA will strive for the power equalization, when we analyse japan there is no
significant difference in this respect and the score is 45. In contrast to US and Japan power distance in
Russia is 93 which implies that managers will less likely to challenge the authorities of their bosses and
accept the decisions of their immediate bosses, but (Naumov et al., 2000) asserts that in Russia power
distance is 40 which make it similar to USA and Japan in this respect.
Individualism/Collectivism

USA individualism score is 91, Japan with 46 and Russia has 39 which Russia and Japan collectivistic
countries. In US managers are likely to look out for him/her. Employees are expected to be independent
from the organization. But Japanese and Russian managers are expected to look for their in-group. They
will pay their attention to benefit their in-group. So in this team, US manager will work individually and
Japanese and Russian manager will prefer to work collectively.

Uncertainty Avoidance:

Japanese manager with uncertainty avoidance score of 92 and Russian with 95 will be threatened by the
uncertain situations, members from these countries will be risk averse, will not welcome the creative
approaches and will be strict to the rules and regulations which are lay down, for a manager from US
whose score is 46 will feel very uncomfortable while working in this team.

Masculinity /Femininity

Cross Cultural Management 5

Japan with the highest score of 95 shows the most aggressive style of management in comparison to US
(62) and Russia (36). In this team manager from Russia would be comfortable resolving the conflicts by
compromise whereas managers from US and Japan will like to resolve their conflicts by confronting
moreover member from Japan will have more aggressive style of management and they discriminate
with the genders, that may be the reason that females are not the part of higher management in Japan
and they are not considered best suitable for the higher management and are not given the equal
options for success in Japan.

Trompenaars Cultural Dimensions:

(Trompenaars, 1997) explores the cultural differences more explicitly and his model is built basically
from the work which is based on cultural values and coordination. He asserts that every culture provide
different solutions for solving same problem. And people in different cultures treat the problems by a
different way, and thus he develops seven basic dimensions of culture, which differentiate US, Japan and
Russia below:
Universalism vs. Particularism [7]

This approach tells us what is most important in the views of people in an organization. (Trompenaars,
1997) declares that people from universalist culture apply the rules in every situation and rule is always
preferred, and in a particularist culture the greater attention is paid to the commitments of relationships
and rules are not given the preference. US managers extremely believe on universalism and contracts
and rules are the basis for the business whereas Japanese and Russian managers believe on
particularism where deals are made based on friendship and agreements are unsettled.

Affective v neutral [8]

It relates with the different ways cultures select to express emotions. Managers from US and Russia fall
in Affective culture, Russia is at extreme thus Russian manager don’t control their emotions and show
them plainly, people from affective cultures easily show their verbal or non-verbal expressions. US is low
affective culture and Japanese are extremely neutral which means that they try to keep control on their
Cross
look andCultural Management
hide their emotions, this is the reason why Japanese have lack of physical contact and use of 6

gestures.

Specific V Diffuse Relationships [9]

In a specific culture work and private life is kept different and the public life is very open to others, in
this culture direct communication with your boss is acceptable in the private life. US a high specific
culture where work life and private life is kept different whereas Japanese and Russian culture is
diffused. Work and private life is not clearly different and communication is indirect, people are not very
social and it is hard to enter in their friends list. That is why people in Japan take a long time to trust
anyone before making a business deal.

Achieving v Ascribing Status:[10]

In an achieving culture people are appraised by how good they have performed and how good they are
in their jobs, whereas in an ascribed culture people are evaluated on the basis of other factors than
performance such as age or gender. US culture is extremely achievement as compare to Russian and
Japanese culture. So in this team it wouldn’t be a good idea to use a younger US manager in a senior
management team of Russian and Japanese managers.

(Sequential and Synchronic Time) [11]

This dimension is related with the perception of people they have of time in different cultures. This can
be divided in two ways: sequentially and synchronically. People from sequential culture are happy to
perform one task at a time, as in US and Russia. Whereas people from synchronical culture are incline to
perform more than one activity at a time as in Japan, Which can create conflict when projects duration is
taken into account.

Inner-directed v outer-directed [12]

People from US and Russia tend to control the nature and the environment, whereas in Japanese culture
it Cross Culturalthat
is believed Management
man must have harmony with the nature. That is why the organizations in Japan 7

operate in harmony with the culture and confrontation is avoided against the nature.

Recommendations:

 As we are all different in some respects, there are cultural differences as well. So there is a need
to understand these cultural differences.
 Managers should be aware of different style of communication of team members before joining
a team.
 A leader should talk with all of the members before the start of any meeting and should tell the
basic rules that should be followed in that team.
 Don’t send a young Russian or US member to join the team of senior Japanese.
 Sometimes there are stereotypes which are developed about some cultures, these should not
be given importance and before joining the team every culture should be studied using cultural
profiling models.
Success of Multicultural team

International business demands high professional managers who can understand the cultural diversity
and can work effectively and efficiently with different people from different nations. Scholars argued
that multicultural teams can increase team performance and hence organizations can work more
effectively and efficiently (Kirchmeyer and Mclellan, 1991; Tung, 1993). However the differences that are
presented above, show that a multicultural team between US, Russia and Japanese culture doesn’t seem
a successful team, but if we analyze the past researches, scholars believes that multicultural teams are
more successful than mono cultural team. These teams bring diversity and innovative ideas that leads to
the success of the organization. According to (Evans, 2006) multicultural teams produce more effective
results, it may possible that in earlier stage these teams are not successful but at the end these teams
are more productive than single culture team.

No doubt that in US, Russian and Japanese managers differences of behavior, values, communication
and norms exist and these difference are big hurdles in the way of successful project team and using the
above data we can say that the probability of this team’s success is very low. But if these differences are
not made
Cross the weaknesses
Cultural and used as the strength then this team can be successful. As everyone is
Management 8
different and has some distinctive qualities that can be used in multicultural team to make it successful.
As communication model by (Matveev and Nelson, 2004) asserts that Americans can better understand
different cultural values as higher level of interpersonal skills in American managers allow them to
perform more effectively in multicultural teams. From our first part we can clearly see that Americans
have low power distance and are individualistic as compare to Russian and Japanese, which makes them
good in interpersonal skills, so they can better understand other’s cultural values and norms. Moreover
Americans are individualistic which implies that they travel the world more than Russian and Japanese
so they can better understand the values and norms of other cultures.

In multicultural teams leaders play an important role in the success or failure of the team. If a leader can
clearly communicate the goals, rules and norms to the members then a team can easily be a successful
team. From the first part we get to know that Japanese and Russians are from collectivistic cultures
where people are more concerned with retaining the communal relationships, but in contrast to them
US managers are from individualistic culture and they are more concerned with performance and
outcome of the team. According to the model by (Matveev and Nelson, 2004) US managers are better
leaders for the team.

This model also believes that American and Russian are similar in the case of cultural empathy, they
show a high level. It implies that members from US and Russia can better understand the differences
present in team and can work well in a multicultural team.

Communication:

If we analyze data from the first part we can see that US, Japan and Russia are different cultures and
communication is different across each country. Japan is high context cultures which can create
problems in communication for US and Russian members, conflicts can be arose in the team as
members from US and Russia cannot understand very well the way Japanese communicate, because in
Japanese communication non-verbal communication has a significant role. Moreover there will be a
problem in the language selection. US and Russian can speak English very fluently, and people from US
don’t try to learn other languages and try to dominate other team members, while people from Japan
Cross Cultural Management 9
know more than one language but they don’t have good access in English, thus Russian and US can
dominate and people from Japan cannot actively participate in this team. (Davison, 1194)

High power distance in Russia means that they will be expecting the use of titles with their names but in
US and Japan there is low power distance which can give rise to conflicts in the team. But if the later
study is considered true which says that power distance in Russia is similar to that of US and Japan, this
can make this team more flexible.

In Russia bureaucracy is at the top, which can give rise to corruption and people from US and Japan can
get offended by this situation. In Russia for making a deal you need to give favors to other person to get
your work done.
Communication model by Robert Gibson:

This model by (Gibson, 2002) says that there are different phases in a communication process.
Communication process starts with the sender who sends information to a receiver which can be verbal
or non-verbal. In multicultural communication difficulties can arose as receiver will receive the message
in a different way. As in this team Japanese give more importance to non-verbal communication which
can create difficulties for Russian and US managers to understand. US and Russian managers belong to
low context culture, in their communication they will use the direct words even if they are harsh as
compare to Japanese culture where message with a positive tone is sent to the receiver.

In Japanese culture people make sure that there acceptance of the new idea all through the
organization and they want to communicate new idea with whole of the organization, whereas in US or
Crossan
Russia Cultural Management
idea which is felt good can be launched without communicating with whole of organization. 10

The main conflicts between this team are based on communication problems, which can disrupt the
success of the project. So, there is a need to resolve these conflicts, According to (Brett et al., 2006)
there are number of strategies to resolve the conflicts between multicultural teams based on the
problems. To firmness communication problems the best strategy is the use of Adaptation, if everyone
in the team try to understand the cultural difference and try to make harmony among the team, these
issues can be resolved and a successful team will be underway to build.

Recommendations:

 A cultural training can be provided to all the team members when they are working in different
cultures.
 A good leader should be chosen and leader must motivate the team members.
 A leader must understand the talent of each member and should try to use that in a positive
way.
  Feedback of members should be taken and if there are any concerns, leader should take the
prompt action.
 Strengths and weaknesses of each member should be understood and use for the success of
project team.

References:

Brett, J., Behfar, K. and Kern, C., M. (2006), “Managing Multicultural teams”, Harvard Business Review,
pp.89-96

Davison, C., S. (1994), “Creating high performance international team”, Journal of Management, Vol. 13,
No.2, pp.81-90
Cross Cultural Management 11
Gibson, R. (2002), “Intercultural Business Communication”, Oxford University Press

Hall, E., T. (1959).The silent Language. New York: Doubleday.

Hall, E., T. (1976), Beyond culture. New: Doubleday

Hofstede, G. (1984) Cultural consequences: International differences in Work-Related Values, abridge

edn. Bevelly Hills: sage

Hofstede, Geert (2005). Cultures and Organizations: Intercultural Corporations and its importance for
survival: Software of the mind. London: HarperCollins.

House, R. J.,Hanges,P.J., Javidan, M, Dorfman, P.W. and Gupta, V (eds) (2004). Culture, Leadership and
Organisation. The global study of 62 Societies. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
Kirchmeyer, C. and Cohen, A. (1992) `Multicultural Groups: Their Performance and Reactions with
Constructive Conflict', Group and Organization Management 17(2): 153-70.

Matveev, V., A. and Nelson, E., P. (2004), “Cross Cultural Communication Competence and Multicultural
Team Performance: Perceptions of American and Russian Managers”,International Journal of Cross
Cultural Management, Vol. 4, Issue. 2, pp.253

Naumov, A. and Puffer, S. (2000), Measuring Russian Culture using Hofstede’s Dimensions. Applied
Psychology, Vol.49, pp.709–718.

Trompenaar, F. and Turner, H., C. (1997). Ridding the Waves of Culture. Understanding Cultural Diversity
in Business.( 2rd ed). London: Nicholas Brealy

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Tung, R.L. (1993) `Managing Cross-national and Intra-national Diversity', Human Resource Management
32(4): 461-77

Appendix:

1. Culture: is a body of learned behaviour, a collection of beliefs, habits and traditions, shared by a
group of people and successfully learned by people who enter society.
2. A high context is a culture where most communication is implicit, less verbal and more non-
verbal communication is done and a low context culture is explicit and direct communication is
used.
3. It means the social distance between the people of different rank or position.
4. Individualism reflects the extent to which an individual relies on a group for decisions or take
self-initiative.
5. It reflects people’s attitude to ambiguity in the society or country.
 6. It reflects values which are widely consider more “masculine” such as assertiveness,
competiveness.
7. This approach is defined as whether people are driven by the rules or relationships.
8. This dimension means that how people show their emotions, openly or they control their
emotions.
9. This approach means that either work is part of the private life or private life is kept different
from the work.
10. It is defined as whether status is achieved by skills and abilities or it is attained by other factors
such as age or gender.
11. This dimension is defined as how we feel about the time, either we can work one activity at a
time or we can perform parallel activities at a time.
12. This is defined as how people feel about nature; either they want to create harmony with nature
or they challenge the nature.

Cross Cultural Management 13