Leaders of culturally diverse teams require better conflict management skills because there is a mixture in the diverse team of different viewpoints, different cultures, and different ways of values that the team members grew up with that need to be understood and appreciated. Diverse team groups need to be productive, profitable and learn how to collaborate in a harmonious fashion in order for the team to be able to work together and accomplish their goals as a whole group. The team leader needs to act as a bridge amongst all the different cultures and help the group see each other’s similarities instead of concentrating on their differences. Different viewpoints can be refreshing for the group but the key for the team leader is to get everyone in the team on the same page in order to work well together. The team leader must be able to transition from leader into multicultural communicator in order to gap the cultural differences. The team leader must have a broad range of knowledge in order to work past any stereotypes, or preconceived notions of a certain culture, he must be willing to learn why a certain person of a different culture might engage in conflict, the root cause. Building relationships take time; the team leader needs to work on helping the group establish comfortable working relationships with others, especially if they have a different cultural background.
2.) Suppose you have formal authority to allocate performance bonuses to your employees. What contingencies must exist before this source of power will translate into actual power?
I do not think any contingencies must exist before this source of power will translate into actual power because the question already stated that “I have formal authority”, therefore I was already granted the authority to allocate performance bonuses out to employees by the mangers above me in a higher position. A bonus