We developed a model illuminating team knowledge exchange processes as a key link between organizational diversity climate and the effectiveness of multicultural teams (MCTs). Our analysis is based ...on 143 in-depth interviews and extensive observations of team interactions that occurred in 48 teams from 11 companies. Our findings revealed that teams that oscillated between assertive and cooperative knowledge exchange processes were more effective. We also found such dual processes were more prevalent in organizations that had an engagement-focused diversity climate characterized by utilization of diversity to inform and enhance work processes based on the assumption that cultural differences give rise to different knowledge, insights, and alternative views. Based on our findings we developed specific propositions about optimizing MCT knowledge-exchange processes to guide future research and practice.
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•Increased individual satisfaction with the team’s effort and performance is negatively associated with individual performance.•Average satisfaction within the team leads to higher team and ...individual performance.•Satisfaction positively mediates the effects of team motivation and technical expertise.•Satisfaction negatively mediates the effect of conflict and individual performance.•Satisfaction negatively mediates the effect of conflict and team performance.
Although the satisfaction–performance relationship has been well-established in the context of traditional face-to-face teams, prior research has largely overlooked the context of global virtual teams (GVTs). As the COVID-19 pandemic has given virtual teams a further boost and increased their relevance, it is unclear whether findings based on traditional teams are generalizable to GVTs. Our multilevel analysis, based on a sample of 2,756 participants working in 689 teams, examines the relationship between satisfaction and both individual and team performance in GVTs. Our results show that increased individual satisfaction with the team’s effort and performance is negatively associated with individual performance in GVTs. In contrast, average satisfaction within the team leads to higher team and individual performance. The results show that satisfaction positively mediates the effects of team motivation and technical expertise, and negatively mediates the effect of conflict and individual and team performance. Our study contributes to the “Holy Grail”-literature by extending the satisfaction–performance relationship to the contemporary setting of GVTs and enriches the current literature by examining the mechanisms contributing to high individual performance in GVTs.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Nowadays managers need knowledge of current technological trends in order to be able to make strategic decisions, accurately predict the future, and make the best use of the existing opportunities ...for the development of their companies. Industry 5.0 poses new challenges in the area of people management, including those related to workforce skills required by employers and necessary in the near future in the efficient management of companies, their effective operation, and a competitive advantage in the market. The concept of Industry 5.0 requires companies and managers to change their attitude to employees. Their new modus operandi should cover new requirements regarding workforce skills and new ways of attracting and retaining human capital equipped with adequate skills.
The aim of this article is to present workforce skills identified by managers from three European countries (Portugal, France, and Greece) as particularly important in Industry 5.0. The research methods used in the study are a literature review and 12 individual in-depth interviews conducted in 2023 (four interviewees from each country covered by the study).
The analysis of literature and the interviews conducted by the author reveal that workforce skills in Era 5.0 are moving in the direction of soft skills and can be divided into four groups: problem-solving, working with people, technology use and development, and self-management. Workforce skills in Industry 5.0, especially those related to managing multicultural teams, is a research area which has not been extensively studied so far. Even though the study described in the article is only qualitative and conducted on a small sample, its results justify recommending further in-depth studies and can be used by companies to improve their search for employees who possess skills which correspond to the requirements of Industry 5.0.
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•We explore why teams with the same level of cultural diversity can differ in their level of creativity.•Building on paradox theory, introduce the notion of multicultural paradox mindset to research ...on multicultural teams•The presence of team members with a high multicultural paradox mindset fosters team creativity.•This creativity boost is due to the fact that the presence of these members fosters team information elaboration.
We explore why teams with the same level of cultural diversity can differ in their level of creativity. To this end, we introduce the concept of paradox mindsets to research on multicultural teams. We argue that team members with a high multicultural paradox mindset are accepting of and energized by intercultural tensions, both emphasizing cultural differences and finding common ground. Their presence thus enables multicultural teams to embrace these tensions and leverage their cultural diversity toward team creativity. Specifically, we hypothesize that teams with members that have a high multicultural paradox mindset are more creative because these members promote information elaboration at the team level, which in turn fosters creativity. We test our hypotheses in a study of 217 individuals randomly assigned to 63 culturally diverse teams. Results provide support for our overarching theory.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
This paper presents a novel theoretical framework of how members of multicultural teams leverage their diverse knowledge to produce creative outcomes. I develop and test a model of
cultural brokerage
..., which I define as the act of facilitating interactions between actors across cultural boundaries. I find that team members with multicultural backgrounds engage in cultural brokerage on behalf of monocultural team members. Among multiculturals, “cultural insiders” (those whose cultural background overlaps with other team members’) brokered by
integrating
knowledge from different cultures, whereas “cultural outsiders” (those whose cultural background has no overlap with any other team members’) brokered by
eliciting
knowledge from different cultures. Both integrating and eliciting significantly enhanced creative performance at the team level. These findings advance our understanding of the process of creativity in culturally diverse teams.
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Social competences in the workplace have been of interest to researchers for years. They are among the key competences for lifelong learning and relate to all types of behaviour that enable ...individuals to participate and cooperate effectively – both socially and professionally – in various environments (European Parliament, 2006).
Employees’ social competences play a vital role in the workplace as they influence relationships within teams. These relationships affect team effectiveness, thus are particularly significant in culturally diverse work environments. In the theoretical part of the article, the author explains the term “social competences,” describes their elements, and discusses their role in the effective functioning of multicultural teams. In the empirical part, she presents the methodology of her study, the results obtained, and the conclusions derived
from them.
The study described in the article (two in-depth group interviews) was conducted in 2022, and its participants were managers of different nationalities who work in multinational companies and have been managing culturally diverse teams for a minimum of three years. The Author assumed the preliminary nature of the study and intends to continue it in the future within the area analysed in the article. Based on the review of the literature and the results of her study, the author has demonstrated a vital role played by employees’ social competences in culturally diverse workplaces. In the opinion of the managers who participated in the study, the most important social competences include verbal and non-verbal communication, social intelligence, and building positive interpersonal relations. As far as the most effective ways of developing these competences in members of multicultural teams are concerned, they listed individual trainings, workshops, and coaching.
Previous research on the role of cultural diversity in teams is equivocal, suggesting that cultural diversity's effect on teams is mediated by specific team processes, and moderated by contextual ...variables. To reconcile conflicting perspectives and past results, we propose that cultural diversity affects teams through process losses and gains associated with increased divergence and decreased convergence. We examine whether the level (surface-level vs deeplevel) and type (cross-national vs intra-national) of cultural diversity affect these processes differently. We hypothesize that task complexity and structural aspects of the team, such as team size, team tenure, and team dispersion, moderate the effects of cultural diversity on teams. We test the hypotheses with a meta-analysis of 108 empirical studies on processes and performance in 10,632 teams. Results suggest that cultural diversity leads to process losses through task conflict and decreased social integration, but to process gains through increased creativity and satisfaction. The effects are almost identical for both levels and types of cultural diversity. Moderator analyses reveal that the effects of cultural diversity vary, depending on contextual influences, as well as on research design and sample characteristics. We propose an agenda for future research, and identify implications for managers.
The intensity of the culture shock when an individual moves from one environment to another depends on the cultural differences between the two environments. It also depends on the individual's ...experience and multicultural skills and the locals' way of being. Individuals who move to another new environment later may suffer culture shock again. However, experience can help them manage new situations. Culture shock has several stages that vary in duration. Interestingly, when individuals return to their home environment, they may suffer a reverse culture shock. Adapting to a new cultural context involves overcoming culture shock. This culture shock influences the psyche of individuals. This study uses a psychological perspective to explore how foreigners in two culturally diverse sports organizations adapt to a new cultural context. The process of adaptation takes place through the filter of behavior, experiences, and performance, under the influence of motivation. In terms of team performance, a multicultural context can have a powerful influence. This study highlights the variety of factors that deeply affect how culturally diverse organizations perform.
•This article examines how foreigners from different sport organizations adapt to specific cross-cultural contexts.•The article adopts a social change approach and offers recipes for the adaptation of foreign players.•The article employs a qualitative framework to outline the cultural differences between foreign players.•Findings reveal specific themes related to the adaptation of foreign players to multicultural contexts.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
This research investigates a new type of team that is becoming prevalent in global work settings, namely selfmanaging multicultural teams. We argue that challenges that arise from cultural diversity ...in teams are exacerbated when teams are leaderless, undermining performance. A longitudinal study of multicultural master of business administration study teams found that in the early stage of team formation, teams with a low average level of, but moderate degree of variance in, uncertainty avoidance performed best. Four months post formation, however, teams with a high average level of relationship orientation performed better than teams with a low average level of relationship orientation. Furthermore, a moderate degree of variance in relationship orientation among team members produced better team performance than a low or high degree of variance. These findings suggest that different cultural value orientations exert different patterns of effects on the performance of self-managing multicultural teams, depending on the stage of team formation. We discuss implications for the composition of self-managing multicultural teams and its influence on team processes and performance.
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Current research on multicultural teams tends to exhibit a bias towards studying the negative effects of team diversity more than the positive. This negative bias has limited our understanding of the ...conditions that promote the benefits of diversity and of the mechanisms that foster these benefits. In this article, we highlight a complementary perspective, namely the idea that cultural diversity and cultural differences can be an asset rather than a liability. This perspective has been present in the practitioner and anecdotal literature, but has thus far not received much rigorous research attention. Using a lens of Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS), we draw upon recent research on cultural diversity in teams to explore the positive aspects of cross-cultural dynamics in teams and identify some of the processes underlying these effects in more rigorous ways, proposing a future research agenda.
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