Diversity in Multi-Cultural Teams Creates Potential Advantages

MMM028

COMPARATIVE AND INTER-CULTURAL MANAGEMENT

'Diversity in multi-cultural teams creates potential advantages'. Discuss.

In the recent years, the movement of the modern business are very much according to the globalisation of the world's economy, which resulted in the increasing amount of international businesses, global economic competition, and the difference/divergence within the organisations. Globalisation creates international business environment that requires businesses to be more competitive. And in order to be more active and competitive, companies have to be able to adapt themselves to the constant change, which can be driven by cultural diversity (Salas, Goodwin and Burke, 2009). In the future, the skill to cooperate with diverse cultures is a significant device for a successful business (Thomas and Inkson, 2004). Yet, divergence within multicultural teams may create some drawbacks as well. Therefore, this essay aims to demonstrate whether the diversity in multicultural teams creates potential benefits.

The essay will initially give the definition of 'culture' and 'multicultural teams', then explore the advantages and disadvantages of diversity in multicultural teams. Examples of failure and success due to multiculturalism in teams will be present next. Hofstede’s theory of Cultural Dimensions will be used in order to analyse why multicultural teams can sometimes cause catastrophe to businesses.

Diverse multicultural teams are considerably important for international firms in the 21st century as most businesses require the creativity, mental flexibility, and ability of employees with various and different ideas working together to address their organisational challenges (Johnson, 2013). It seems to be crucial to provide the definition of 'culture' and 'multicultural teams' in order to further understand the essay proposition. The term 'culture' has many definitions because it is an intricate concept and is constantly

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