Cross Cultural Behavior and Negotiation

Subject Code: 4.710

Assignment Case Study Focus:

Imbibing the Costa Rican & American Communication culture

Prepared for: Ms. Mariska Mannes

Prepared by:

Suresh, Nikhil (20150404)

Somanath, Padmini (20150642)

Hengbo, Cai (20151788)

Jingshu Gao, (20151293)

Date: 25 June 2015

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Executive Summary

This Case Study comprises bi-cultural working force and its subsequent consequences. In this study, the subordinates are not well-versed with effective communication and cultural norms which appear to have led to a team conflict. In order to bridge the Gap between the Costa Rican and American Culture, we have tried to orchestrate a Team building strategy by focusing on key parameters which would lead to effective adaptability thereby maximizing business output.

The report emphasizes bridging the communication and cultural barriers through the four dimensions of team forming process, as formulated by Bruce Tuckman in 1965. This explains the processes that are imperative for successful team collaboration and efficient output of the task to be achieved. In order to keep up the motivation of peers in the team, overall team assessment process are conducted by the leaders.

Using the Hofstede’s cultural dimension (2010), as a bible, we were able to plot the differences between the working culture of Americans and Costa Ricans with respect to the case study.

To explain the intricacies of the team building and communication process we have used certain theories which would best fit as a catalyst in the problem solving capabilities and collaborative work. On course of this report we have analyzed the steps that can be implemented by Ames in order to streamline the cultural differences and enable her force to work together as a unit.

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Contents

1.0 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 3

2.0 Discussion .................................................................................................................................... 3

2.1.1 Differences in the American and Costa Rican Cultural Value Systems ...................................... 3

2.1.2 Hofstede’s (2010) Cultural Value Dimension Continuum .......................................................... 4

of Ames’ Four Team Members ........................................................................................................... 4

2.1.3 How these Dimensions affects the productivity ........................................................................ 5

2.2 Creating an Effective Multicultural Team Plan: ............................................................................ 7

3.0 Conclusions ............................................................................................................................... 11

4.0 Recommendations .................................................................................................................... 11

Reference List ........................................................................................................................................ 13

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1.0 Introduction

Jennifer Ammes’ observed that Baby Product Corporation’s (BPC) customer support center subordinates comprising of 3 Americans and one Costa Rican, had a contrasting working culture during customer interactions.

Quite noticeably, the Americans were very target oriented in terms of restricting the call timings on average to 5.5 Minutes, which was well within the 7 minute of stipulated timeframe for each call. In contrast the Costa Rican associate was more inclined towards complete customer satisfaction, which resulted in a call time of over 14 minutes, double the average time by an American associate.

Things took a unpleasant turn when the professional integrity was at stake as a team, reason being there was a cut of 1$ penalty for exceeding the stipulated timeframe. This creeped a mutual dispute between the Latin American and the Americans, as the team had to face the consequences.

It was observed that the Costa Rican Lady was more focused towards winning the customer’s heart and maintain a relationship glue whereas the Americans were professional in adhering to the corporate rules of effective cost management. To summarize, this report would explain the factors and possible alternatives Ames can implement in order to effectively manage her Bi-cultural team by creating a healthy work environment in which cultural sensitivity and awareness are prevalent.

2.0 Discussion

This section primarily analyses the four major cultural differences between the Americans and the Latin Americans towards the cultural value system. Using the Hofstede’s (2010) and plot the cultural barriers between the two nations.

2.1.1 Differences in the American and Costa Rican Cultural Value Systems

*Hofstede,G. (n.d.). Costa Rica in comparison with United States. Retrieved from http://geert-hofstede.com/costa-rica.html

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2.1.2 Hofstede’s (2010) Cultural Value Dimension Continuum

of Ames’ Four Team Members

The above mentioned chart describes the four primary differences between American and Costa Rican Cultures.

Direct Speech : { Hall Dimension } The American’s are more direct in communicating, relying heavily on the factual meaning of words, while Costa Ricans are more towards the overall meaning of words and intended meaning.

Personal Touch: The Costa Ricans believe in having a more personal communication involving talking about one’s family. The American’s speak lesser and do not waver from the actual purpose of the conversation {Hofstede’s Dimensions of Individualism – Collectivism}

Inclusiveness: American’s tend to think of the self ahead of the group. Costa Rican culture endorses “we” before I {Hofstede’s Dimensions of Masculinity - Feminity }

Imagination: Costa Ricans use perception to solve a query, customizing solutions, while the Americans use globalization to resolve queries

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Direct Speech Personal touch Inclusiveness Imagination

Chart Title

American Costa Rican

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2.1.3 How these Dimensions affects the productivity

Power Distance: A high power distance would ideally be suited for an industrial unit, in which

performance is globalized and not customized. However, it is safe to say that a reasonable measure

of power distance is required in a call center environment too, as this would ensure that there is a

method of hierarchy while resolving customer issues.

While Jennifer and Sonia tilt towards the low power distance, Jordan and Jill are placed towards the

high power and Jeff somewhat in between. This could be an issue to productivity because, when

there is a large gap between the managers and subordinates, it does not allow for free flow of

communication and feedback. For any organization to improve, feedback from the front end teams

are very important,

Uncertainty Avoidance: Jordan, Jill and Jeff rank high on the continuum scale on the uncertainty

avoidance parameter, in that order. Jenifer shows a greater degree of tolerance and Sonia ranks

least. The ability to respond positively to an ambiguous situation would affirm smooth functioning

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and quicker solutions in the given situation. The customer satisfaction scores of Jordan, Jill and Jeff

average at 5.63 while Sonia scores a 9.5.This indicates that Sonia’s response to the various queries

by customers has largely been acknowledged, resulting in an excellent customer satisfaction level.

Employees high on uncertainty tend to exhibit stress, and this in turn negatively impacts

performance. This can be a serious concern to long term organizational aspirations.

Individualism - Collectivism: While Sonia and Jenifer rank high on collectivism, Jordan Jill and Jeff

rank low on individualism. Employees who tend to be more collective have an advantage while

working in groups, as it increases group harmony. Individualistic employees will often find it

challenging to work in groups and this factor will hamper productivity.

Masculinity – Feminity : Masculinity present in a lesser measure would increase performance, as

individuals at large are competitive in a masculine environment. However, a greater measure of

feminity in an organization would increase the quality of work and thereby the quality of life.

Keeping in mind long term benefits and aspirations, masculinity would prove to be disadvantageous

as it would lead to higher stress and individualistic growth as opposed to organizational growth.

Jeff, Jordan and Jill are more masculine in their approach, while Jenifer and Sonia are more feminine.

Particularistic - Universalist : Jeff scores highest followed by Jill and Jordan. Jennifer and Sonia are

more Universalist in their approach. While relationships are of paramount importance, it is also

important to have a slightly particularistic approach, as an organization will not flourish on

relationships alone. In the case scenario, team members showing dominant particularistic attributes,

would not be able to work effectively in a team as they would not consider relationships as a

justifying factor. Team work as such would become impossible. Most organizations depend on team

work predominantly and a severe particularism view would adversely impact teamwork

High Context – Low Context: Jordan, Jill and Jeff use a lower context approach while Sonia uses a

high context approach. Extremes of either high context or low context will definitely hamper

productivity. Communication with a higher element of high context can be ambiguous if the

receiver is more adept to a low context approach and vice versa

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2.2 Creating an Effective Multicultural Team Plan: The below template highlights the parameters we believe are important to team management and transformation of the business to new heights through

effective coordination and collaborative thoughts. (Ann-Marie Nazzaro, 2009)

1. Entry Stage: This is the commencing stage of any team development process. Teams generally never come together by coincidence. This is the stage where leaders try to bring the teams from different cultures into a strong bond before commencement of any project or targets. Leaders become the central point or the backbone towards effective communication and coordination between the team. Leaders of the team work towards understanding each soldier in the team in order to create trust and belief on the jobs they perform in future.

Identify steps and briefly discuss why the step is important.

Discuss how you will implement the step.

Briefly discuss two theories for each step that support your action.

Step 1:- Getting to know the insight of individuals.

Forming : It defines the process and identifies individual role and responsibility and develops mutual trust

Identify team members basis skill set, specialization and geographical background

Provide adequate training to the team

1. Dr. Bruce Tuckman-Tuckman’s four stage model fits perfectly and is suited for implementation of this step. It is the leader’s responsibility to identify the roles and responsibility of an individual and map the particular role that is associated to his specialization and skill set. Hence the leader should ensure that adequate training has been provided to create a sophisticated working environment and improvise the productivity of the company (Tuckman, 1965).

2. A 6 hats based team formation –– As part

of the forming process it becomes the leaders responsibility to provide consistent feedback to an individual as part of his assessment of skill set and ideas exchanged. In this process he should ensure that the individual is well aware of this strengths and weakness so that the

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same can be transformed towards better team results. (Dan Jensen)

Step 2: Relationship Building process

Storming : It is important because it is a free flow of possible solutions from different team members/ different perspectives and helps to streamline business objective

Video Conferencing daily meetings

Group email/networking forum

Blog

Rick Loves four stages of Team Development Model as it elaborates on the five stumbling blocks of storming and it talks about how we bring in the hidden potential of a peer within a cross cultural circuit. As a step forward we had come up with networking forum and blogs that would enable the team members from different geographies to come together in a single platform and exchange their ideas and create an open communication network. This would allow the fellow team members to adjust to different communication lingoes and mould themselves to adapt and learn about cross cultural differences in thought process and ideas (Love, 1996). Hofstede’s Uncertainty avoidance theory – Since most of the members belonged to America with reference to the case study we have observed that some of the common traits was that the workforces are little diverse because of the continuous migration of immigrants. Since this culture in Costa Rica are more localized people are very attached to their culture and find it difficult to adapt to other cultures. For introducing a healthy mixed cultural environment we had thought through implementation strategies like video conferencing, networking forum to engage people from different cultures to communicate and get to

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the insight of differences in behavior and communication, thereby being a flexible and adaptable team player (Jackson, 2014).

Work Stage: This stage is characterized by problem description and finding a solution. This stage deals with adaptability to different cultural differences, mould one’s feelings, ideas and attitudes and get accustomed to the team’s environment. It primarily deals with problem solving and issue analysis and dwells on questions of individual roles and responsibilities and reward system. Most importantly the team works in an open atmosphere where they feel that they are part of a unit and focus on target. Hierarchy is of little importance in this stage and teams work together in a trusting environment. There is adequate assistance in solving the problems.

Step 1: One mission –Goal –Culture

Norming: It is important because there is a consensus of process flow and acceptance of individual roles within the team. Also, it lays out the detailed process maps towards achieving the goal

Comprehensive training, which includes

Technical know- how

Cross cultural training

Functional training

1.)Kiteleja S.C. (2012) – it focusses on giving effective consultation and training to the fellow peers in order to upscale their performance to the next level (Quappe & Cantatore (2005). Cross cultural sessions would improve the insight of an individual towards effective cultural communications.

1. Action Stage: This is the penultimate stage which deals with problem solving and implementation. The team conducts an assessment of the year and implements a plan to execute and plan for the transitioning roles and recognizing the contributions. The higher management thinks of rewarding the individuals for their excellence and commitment towards achievement of the set targets.

Step 1: Building an Organization of Integration and Timely Feedback

Performing: It is the primary purpose of the organization. Future strategies of business are dependent on successful implementation of existing business plans

Usage of Task Management tools to ensure that all team members are performing on pre decided key performance indicators

1.)Kiteleja S.C. (2012) Effective Management of Multicultural Team- mentions constant feedback and “periodic work environment reviews” can be a good tool for managers to keep abreast with their team and avoids “stonewalling” from its members. Finding out what motivates each individual can also be used as an effective reward system. 2.) Quappe & Cantatore (2005) Cultural Competency Continuum- Through building common ways of

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Delegation and corresponding monitoring to ensure customer satisfaction

working, the team will be able to implement the formula they created from the previous two stages and put it into action.

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3.0 Conclusions It can be concluded that to achieve business goals it is crucial that we reach given targets, as in this

case, the targets of 7 minutes of an average call time, and compliment it with high customer

satisfaction ratings. A more comprehensive conclusion follows in the recommendations.

4.0 Recommendations

As we know that building a successful multicultural team is crucial for productivity in a cross cultural

business. Managers are supported to not only be aware of the difference cultural background of

employees, but also pay a attention on the values of team members to ensure they work together

effectively.

In this case study scenario, three of team members focused on their specific position of providing

technological information to support customers against the Costa Rican who concentrated on creating

trust with customers. It is hard to say either side is incorrect, but if Ames wants to build an integrated

organization, it becomes necessary to bridge the gaps between her staffs.

According to analysis above, what Ames needs to first do is making the integrated training for all of

the team members to ensure they realize each other’s background involving their culture and their

work experience. Such as Jill, Jordan and Jeff had spent the past few months working to create the

web-based training videos so that they had more knowledge about how the videos can provide step-

by-step product use information as well as testing competitor products. Sonia however also came

from sales office worked with product development team but focused on her outstanding sales before

so that might result in more valuing relationship with customers which produced the different

orientation comparing with others.

Additionally, it is crucial to let team member understand the fundamental implication of their job

while building this team. From company side, the management team wanted to provide the quick

communication with quality control and also creating reliance with customers which indicated that

the call-centers need do satisfy both purposes rather than either one. So three Americans cannot turn

a blind eyes to Sonia’s concern and vice versa.

On the other hand, Ames believed it was important to keep calls short because that can avoid long

customer hold times in order to create greater ease for them and the call-centers compensation had

been limited with a fixed percentage from company profit which lead her have to figure out the explicit

rate with an extensive analysis. Therefore letting team members know the importance to make the

unified objective via managing the misunderstandings plays a pivotal role to effective productivity.

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Besides that, the conflict appeared among team also because they did not establish a zero tolerance

attitude on the team for discrimination. It is apparent that those Americans had a stereotyping to

Costa Rican, they showed by not only linguistic but also emotion on the meeting which strongly

enhanced the contradiction between them. Building multicultural team is to some extent about

shedding old stereotypes to make way for a new team identity that gives each member an equal voice,

and promotes both diversity and productivity, to guide the interactive respect.

Finally, Ames should give team members the sense of belonging which makes all of them feel they are

an important part of the team and contributing to the team’s success. That point needs to be reflected

through the whole process ranging from team establish, action, problem solve to feedback.

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Reference List

Ann-Marie Nazzaro, J. S. (2009, May). Group Dynamics and Team Building . HEMOPHILIA

ORGANIZATION, p. 3.

Dan Jensen, J. F. (n.d.). A 6-Hats Based Team Formation Strategy:. A 6-Hats Based Team Formation

Strategy:, 2.

Jackson, T. (2014). Is cross-cultural management studies morally mute?Cross-cultural management

and ethics. International Journal of, 2.

Love, R. (1996). The Four Stages of Team Development. The Four Stages of Team Development,

page_id=153.

Tuckman, B. (1965). tuckman forming storming norming performing model. tuckman's forming

storming norming performing four-stage model.

Kiteleja, Sarah Christopher. (2012). Effective Management of Multicultural Team. Retrieved from

www.pestalozzi.ch/fileadmin/empower

Hofstede, Geert. (n.d.). Costa Rica in comparison with United States. Retrieved from http://geert-

hofstede.com/costa-rica.html

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