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Management Training – Cross-Cultural Team Training

More and more organisations now have teams which cross cultural and country borders adding further layers of complexity to team management and performance. It used to be solely the realm of the big multi-nationals to have these teams but now it is becoming more prevalent for small to medium sized organisations to also have cross-cultural teams. For SME’s many of the challenges are the same as for any other organisation with teams spread over diverse locations. Some of these challenges are:

1. Differences in national culture
2. Company culture
3. Nature of the industry
4. Stage of team development
5. Personal attributes of the team members

These are just some of the areas which can affect overall performance of the team and that should be considered when completing management training for cross-cultural teams but SME’s may need to face these challenges in different ways than larger organisations and may also incur other challenges.

Time, financial, manpower and other resources are often more scarce for SME’s than in larger organisations. Less people typically means more and varied responsibility per person and sometimes less time to spend on specific projects that usually surround cross-cultural teams. Less people within the organisation may also hinder picking the ‘best’ person for the role. You may have no single person that is the best fit for the role so either you have to compromise the best fit or choose multiple people to complete the assignment. SME’s budgets can also be far less substantial making it more difficult to travel to and communicate with your fellow team members. Limited financial resources may also affect the total time allocated to the length and breathe of the team’s project. Because of this, the early stages of team development may have to be accelerated.

Those are just some of the examples of challenges which must be overcome when developing cross-cultural teams within an SME. For more information, please contact Developing People on 02380 695929 or at enquiries@developingpeople.co.uk.