Question

Q1. To what extent do you think is it necessary for the leader of a multicultural team to be familiar and accustomed with the culture of each member of the team ?

Q2. To what extent do you consider that Transcultural competence is crucial when managing and leading a multicultural and diversified team. Are we born with or we can acquire this competence. Discuss.

Q1. To what extent do you think is it necessary for the leader of a multicultural team to be familiar and accustomed with the culture of each member of the team ?

Q2. To what extent do you consider that Transcultural competence is crucial when managing and leading a multicultural and diversified team. Are we born with or we can acquire this competence. Discuss.

Q3. People tend to use Stereotypes in different situations (Meetings, Negotiations with people from different cultures ...). Explain the reasons and how this may lead to conflicts.

Q4. How culture is affecting the way the countries are coping with the current pandemic.

Choose a country and use the cultural values / dimensions to analyze how the country is dealing with Corona Virus?

Answer 1

1. A leader of a multicultural team needs to be familiar and accustomed with each member of the team in order to lead the team successfully. The leader should make basic research of the culture of each member in order to avoid awkward situations. He or she should have a basic understanding of the values of each member's religion and society. For example an employee belonging to Muslim community will need to go to Masjid on Firday. So the team leader should let him go, understanding the importance of Friday prayer for his team members.  

2. Transcultural competence is defined as the ability to reflect on the world and themselves through the lens of another culture. Some get this quality by birth. At the same time transcultural competence is a quality that can be developed through learning and understanding others culture and lifestyle. Transcultural competence is crucial when managing and leading a multicultural and diversified team. In multinational companies a leader or a manager will have to work with employees from diversified culture and regions. For the smooth functioning of the team or the company, the leader/manager should be aware of the culture of the employees. For example, people belonging to Sikh community (Sikh community is basically from India), wearing a turban is an important thing in their culture. If the company has a dress code and it doesn't allow one to wear a turban, the sentiment of the employee from Sikh community will be hampered.  

3. Stereotyping means having widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing. Stereotyping has proven to be creating issues in the workplaces, meetings, negotiations etc especially when interacting with people from different cultures. For example some people consider female employees to be weak and they cannot be given any important and challenging tasks. This is a notion shared by many men. So if we are in a project meeting and are sharing tasks, imagine a manager says 'don't give that task to her, give it to a male staff'. This will create conflict in the meeting while all female staff may question this.

4. The culture of a region has a lot to do with whatever challenges they may face. This will be very much evident if we look at the United States and the spread of Coronavirus there. American culture gives emphasis for making money. They believe in financial well being more than anything else. So they were not able to sit down at home at the time of the spread of the virus. While countries like China and Italy are showing positive data in defeating the virus, America is yet to reach that stage.

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