Leading Multicultural Teams in Creativity and Decision Making

Leading Multicultural Teams
Author's Name
Institutional Affiliation
Course Code and Name
Professor's Name
Date

Leading Multicultural Teams
A culture is a specific character displayed by an individual or group, including values, beliefs, assumptions, ideologies, norms, political, economic, and social structures (Thompson, 2018). Based on the iceberg culture model, when one meets a person from a distinct culture, an individual does not see beliefs, assumptions, and values. Still, instead, one sees the appearance and behaviors. In that light, the only way to understand an individual well is by knowing a person's culture, which defines one's characteristics (Thompson, 2018). Leaders of multicultural teams should have cultural intelligence so that they can adapt to new contexts easily. They should be familiar with the culture of each team member to enable them to solve communication issues within the team.
Sirkka Jarvenpaa and Dorothy Leidner assert that culture influences the way team members communicate and their behaviors. Additionally, it motivates disclosure of individuating information and engagement in self-categorization. In an individualistic culture, an individual's values, needs, and goals precede those of a team (Jarvenpaa & Leidner, 1999). On the contrary, in a collectivist culture, a team's goals, values, and needs are more emphasized than those of individuals. Market globalization has facilitated the significance of multicultural team formation. Notably, leaders of such teams should understand the culture of each team member to work together effectively, create ideas, make decisions, manage projects, and solve problems (Levitt, 2015). The most significant dialectics are direct-indirect communication strategies, autonomy-connection, ambiguity-certainty, s...