1. Write an original and unique reaction paper.

This should be no more than 1 page with 12-

point font and 1 inch margins. (2 points)
As the globalization deepens, many companies are expanding their business and recruiting
talents globally. There are several benefits of having a multicultural team. For example,
multicultural team will boost different style of creativity and wisdom into the company, enabling
solving problems from multiple perspective and solutions. However, multicultural team will also
cause a managerial problem, that is how to effectively manage a multicultural team with
members from different cultures and geographies.1
Most people think the challenges of managing multicultural team often comes from ineffective
communication. However, it is not as simple as that. As mentioned in the paper by Brett et al., 2
there are four categories of challenges including direct and indirect communication, trouble with
accents and fluency, differing attitudes toward hierarchy and authority, and conflicting norms for
decision making. The same concepts also mentioned in a paper by Kristin Behfar et al. 3  Besides
these four more culture-based challenges, Vickery et al.4 mentioned the manager of a
multicultural team also needs to deal with the more mundane, technical issues.  He states that
team members from different culture may use different kinds of software and work environment
and that will cause some technical differences between different members.
To solve these culture difference related problems, there are several strategies that can be used
including adaptation, structural intervention, managerial intervention and exit. 2 Among these
strategies, adaptation is always more effective since it takes less resources. There is no universal
way to solve all kinds of problems, however, identify the type of problem, assesses the
circumstance and find out which strategy works. In the, Kat et al. 5 mentioned the most
important for manager is to build emotional intelligence, understand the difference of your
employees, make them check-ins holistic and be an advocate. It is important for managers to
recognize the difference, talk about the culture difference and take advantage of them. The
managers need to give employees with different cultures equal opportunity to success. Only in
this way, we can decrease the employee turnover rate and increase the job performance.
1. Hasan Tutar (2014), A Study on Cultural Difference Management Strategies at Multinational
Organizations, Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 150, 345 – 353
2. Jeanne Brett (2006), Managing multicultural teams
3. Kristin Behfar (2017), Advice From the Trenches: How to Lead Multicultural Teams
4. Nate Vickery (2017), Managing Multicultural Teams: Challenges and Solutions
5. Kat Boogaard, How to Be a Better Manager (When Your Team Members Are All Different)

2. A quick and short summary of the purpose and main thesis of the paper. (No more than a
paragraph). (2 points)
From the interview of managers and members form multicultural teams, this paper summarized
the challenges that a multicultural team may face. These challenges include direct and indirect
communication, trouble with accents and fluency, differing attitudes toward hierarchy and
authority, and conflicting norms for decision making. Cultural differences can create substantial
obstacles to effective teamwork. The authors also give the possible strategies including
adaptation, structural intervention, managerial intervention and exit that can be used towards
solving these problems. There is no universal strategy can be used to solve all the problems.
Managers need to find right strategy, avoid to use single-culture-based approach on multicultural
situations.

3. List two ideas from the paper that grasped your attention. (2 points)

1) On the first day, we agreed on three points and on the second, US-Spanish side want to
start with point four. But the Korean side wanted to go back and rediscuss points one
through tree. My boss almost had an attack.
2) Adaptation works when team members are willing to acknowledge and name their
cultural difference and to assume responsibility for figuring out how to live with them.

4. Relate the two ideas above to a) course material or b) work experience and/or c) current
events in the business world. (2 points)

1) This is in fact the challenges between Western culture and Asian culture. Americans
with Western culture like direct thinking and making decision fast. In Asian culture,
people like to make decision slow and be more carefully on the appoint they would agree
on.
2) A lot of companies are looking for their new hires with a culture fit and they believe
employees with a good fit in the culture will have less turnover rate and better job
performance.
5. End with a critical question for in-class discussion. (2 points)
Multicultural team has obvious benefit and concerns. How to take advantage of these benefits
and avoid these disadvantage will be an important lesson for managers to learn.
How employees with different cultures see their assertiveness and display their assertiveness is a
good research top to learn.