Talking about specific advantages of working in global teams includes learning of different ideas, and aspects of solving a problem for the success of a project. For example, you can work in collaboration with each other on a global problem doing research on malaria and study the experience of researchers from different regions for the eradication of the disease. Fun side of working in the team includes learning interesting facts about the cultures of others and making new friends and cherish that experience for whole life.  

Importantly, the success of a global team depends on good leadership where the team leader must lead with empathy. The members irrespective of their cultural background must be motivated to work with comfort and should be treated without bias by the teammates and the leader. The leader of the global team should possess the qualities of being a quality listener and have the tendency to adjust as per the requirement of the team members from different cultural backgrounds to succeed as a team.  

While working in global teams I feel following subjects should be given in account by all the members for the success and work-life harmony:

 

1.     Misunderstandings, opportunities, and appreciations: People from different ethnic backgrounds are not being educated and given living opportunities the same way as received by the people from mostly the developed nations. 

As mentioned by Erin in her video the people from Malaysia are being considered as shy, not expressive, and not contributing much to the meetings by Americans. But on the other hand, the Malaysians think American being too talkative, interrupting others talking and not letting other people to speak. 

This is the same what I felt at my workplace, the Americans and Britishers does not stop talking and provide any chance to the other members of the team from China, India, and Thailand to speak. The other members must chase for their turn to speak and when they speak, they speak very intelligently in a short and concise manner instead of telling big irrelevant stories. Irrespective of whatever they speak they are not truly appreciated by the peers and sometimes thought that they are not extrovert. 

My learning has taught me to let other person finish first and then convey your thoughts. Unfortunately, in most of the American workplaces this is not considered as acceptable. This ultimately results into the buildup of extra pressure for non-native members to change themselves and learn American culture.

The person gets hired in the team because that person must have stand out from the others. Now, it is the responsibility of both the team and the member to speak out and learn to acclimatize as per the requirement and at the same time making others to realize about his/her expectations from the team (be direct). Explain, and teach them about your culture and differences about the workplace environment form the country they belong. In this manner, others will know how they can adjust there talking times so that others can get chance to speak up during meetings and express their thoughts. 

 

2.     Respect to each other’s culture and beliefs: At my workplace some do respect and take into consideration each other’s culture and religion while others don’t even give a thought about that. This has happened with me at some occasions but on the other hand because of my dietary restrictions I have been always given full consideration and respect to my beliefs and practices by my mentor and other team members which I really cherish.

 

 

I think people these days are more open to learn new things about other cultures. I didn’t have a habit of interrupting people while they are discussing during the meeting. But later, I found it as an interactive way of a discussion which could help in accelerating thought process.

 

Managers should first understand and respect the culture of others. Further, managers can construct a team who along with their expertise should respect and perceive the culture differences. 

 

Nonetheless, we do and will have cultural differences, we should give time to all the teams to share their ideas and should ask their suggestions before finalizing anything. If we do provide specific time slots along with general discussion during meeting that will help people to bring out their ideas. 

 

The world is changing and so do the needs. In this world, we are manufacturing or developing products for everyone. Compared to global team, a classic and monocultural team has a tight niche and scope of its expansion is limited. A monocultural team won’t be able to understand the demands of a culture to whom they don’t understand. Even a company won’t develop medicine or therapeutics for a single race. We need to collaborate with teams around the globe to understand the science and develop solutions. - Archit

Managers should learn the cultural diversity through history to understand people in various backgrounds.  And open-mindness is important.  If you are ready to listen and be open-minded, the meeting with all team members would work well.    People who live in hot area do not know about people and  life style in cold regions on Earth.  People who has only one child do not have idea about big family way.  Global team have much more view and opinion than a classic, monocultural team.