Experinces of Working in an International Team

Experinces of Working in an International TeamThis paper tries to trifle unwrap the mortalal views of the source in terms of his experience of adding with an international assort. Being an Indian and coming mint to UK to study, it is a contrary experience in itself. simply the level of inter pretendions with nation crosswise borders and destinations has disposed the author a chance to explore and generalise pile with varied(a) backgrounds. Doing a post graduate program here in UK non only gives the author access to the best education save in like manner immense opportunity to network with bulk across nations. It is a variant experience indeed.With time and increase in moveion, there is change in perception and a complete washout of the pre conceived notions regarding kitchen-gardenings and people. And surprisingly, not only people be lose and act in disagreeent manners across the geography, they withal return very differently. This paper tries to see at the bene assures of much(prenominal) assorted hypothesiseing.With whole the benefits as well as come nigh problems and hindrances. As menti unmatchabled above, conceptualise notions regarding cultures and people is a big issue addressed in the paper. The paper excessively looks at the argument as to how much diversified can the crowd be, and the possibilities of not been able to r to each one consensus easily while working in a pigeonholing and in addition handling conflicts and differences in opinions.The paper too looks at the possibilities of discrimination on the basis of race, gender and culture. The author also tries to give some suggestions to overcome these problems.He talks how these problems can be overcome and how the pagan mix and diversity can actually act as a advantage.The structure of the paper involves the introduction about the issuance and then detailed insights and some experiences. Then about the advantages and disadvantages of working in such grou ps. The author then tries to bring in the concept of ethnic intelligence and how it could solve issues related to problems arising among co workers of diverse backgrounds. So the reports concludes with some suggestive ideas.IntroductionWith the advent of globalization and vanishing of boundaries between the countries, it is very habitual to see people from various geographies, cultures coming down and working or studying. It is a common scenario even at a work go down or a college where we can spot people from various countries interacting with each other, doing businesses, studying or universe part of each others life in a big way.Before going ahead and describing about my experiences lets turn out defining cultural and its grandeur at workplace. Culture could be be anything related to art, culture, lifestyle, music, etc relating to a particular community or a group of people living unitedly or having and following the same plume of beliefs. at present expression at the importance of culture in the workplace, it plays a very vital role. Cultural defines the values, the beliefs of the several(prenominal)s or a community, even their daytime to day behavior is influenced by it. So it has a direct wallop on their working style and relationships with people at workplace, their behavior at workplace, etc. straight off when we talk about this, we should also consider the formation culture and its impact on the individual. Of course, the organization or the institution plays a significant role in shaping the behavior and the culture of the individual at work place, now how does he fit into this is burning(prenominal). Generally people opt for such organizations or institutions where they fit in on or where similar values and culture exists. Now let us look how things are today with the advent of organizations which consists of diverse teams. besides before that let me share some of my experiencesOne thing I was really looking to when I decided to com e to UK was to meet and interact with various people. only if at the same time I was very nervous. I had all sorts of doubts in my mind also. Would I be accepted? Would I fit into the culture? Being lived in India throughout my life and not interacting with anyone from after-school(prenominal) India, I had all notions in my head. Even I had apprehensions regarding the lifestyles and the behavior of the people. exclusively after I landed in UK my perception changed a potful. I was not the only guy who had left his country and had come down here. on that point were thousands like me. And even the people were very receptive. though I mingled with my community and country folks in the source, it was only after I came into college and started working and meeting other students I realized that it was not wild actually. All my perceptions and fears were a complete false.My first interaction was indeed during one of those assignments. My group had perceived me as a geek and someone wh o would be expert at mathematics so would brace got by blood line analytical skills being an Indian. But I really had to tell them that though we have quite a good number of the population who was good at these things back home, but I was a terrible lot at mathematics. This was when we all realized how we had pre-conceived notions about people based upon their cultural and geographical backgrounds. Like I thought, Pakistanis were a closed lot who would be snarled to interact but they were as a matter of position just like me.Of course, people always find comfort in people with similar interests or similar community and background. Like for example, I was only with my Indian friends for almost a month after I came to UK. I was just too shy and scared to interact or make friends with any one else. And I had so many Indians that I didnt find the need to also. But soon I realized that by doing so I am stopping myself from expanding my horizons in knowledge also. I got to know abou t a lot of things through my series of interactions with various people.Benefits of Cross-Culture TeamsWith the team being more and more diverse, the thinking will be different and it will result in really different perspectives and ideas underway in. The team would not just reach consensus but really think of many solutions or different answers. This would encourage creativity and innovativeness. It makes the group brainwave effective.Mutual benefits The whole team being diverse would fulfill the suddenly comings of each other to some extent. And also it is a tuition experience. getting to know about other cultures, languages, and people is always interesting.Enhancement of inter someoneal skills.Working with such a team, broadens your thinking and you come across bare-assed avenues and perspectives.Makes you more adaptable to any environment and people.Continuous improvement groups with such diversity always questions, thus making it more and more gainsay and striving to g et the best out of the group.Sometimes people in homogenous groups do not participate much thinking anyone thinks the same. But in such cases comparatively the participation levels of the group is high. Because everyone bring in a different thinking and perspective before the group.If I have to talk about my experiences, well I must say I have gained immensely. At first I used to be close and non-participative. But now I feel I can spill over in very important points because I think very differently from the rest of the group, so I bring in a different set of thinking. This actually benefits our discussions. I have really developed massive interpersonal skills also. Now I feel free to talk to anyone and from anywhere. I am not shy or scared anymore. Even being in a diverse group, we use each of our individual strengths and unite them to form the strengths of the group. For example, one of my team members is good at identifying and collecting the data, I am good at analyzing it, some one else is good at presenting it and the other at identifying errors. So all these strengths are combined together so that we finally present the masterpiece.Problems faced with cross-culture teams Language This is one of the study issues. though side has emerged as the common International language but there is a lot of difference in British English and American and of course Indian. Even the pronunciation and the spoken language differ a lot. This can sometimes cause miscommunication. Language barriers can also behave to non-participation or inability to express ideas freely.Apart from verbal and create verbally communication, a major part of communication happens through Non-verbal communication. Now across various cultures we have different communication styles and also different meanings to real things. Now it is extremely important to better know before we surpass anything as others might get offended if we do not check properly.Cultural clanges Sometimes, there can be a total clash in the cultures and their beliefs. Such things should be spread overd properly and not just ignored. while this is a very important factor while working in groups. The attitude of the team members towards time is very important. Sometimes few of them group members emphasize on time a lot but others do not consider it that important or neglect it because of their old beliefs and practices. This could lead to a conflict of interest.Pre-conceptions and stereotypes People have a lot of preconceived notions in their minds regarding people from some cultures and places. Now that could be totally wrong. The person might be totally different. So it is not good to test anyone just because they belong to a culture or a location. diversity in execution of work.False Consensus effect Sometimes people think that others also think exactly like them or they feel that everyone would have the same set of beliefs.Ways to overcome difficulties faced when working in an internat ional team Effective communication This is one of the most important aspects. The members should check if their points are properly understood. And check for any miscommunication.Adhere to received rules, which can be framed accordingly, so that everyone sticks to it. For example, we talked about the importance of time. Now its better if the group decided that time has a lot of importance and no one is late for the meetings, etc.Having a global learning ability always helps rather than carrying those old beliefs to the group.Every member of the group should workout on their strengths and weakness so that we can work out of the boilers suit strengths and weakness.Avoiding preconceptions and stereotypesThe whole energy of diversity is good if used positively and for the approach of the group. But we have to be careful and avoid any negativism or conflicts.Now let me come to my personal experiences. I have already mentioned about the benefits I had got working with such a group. But I too faced many problems. Like for example, in the beginning I was not so good at understanding the language. Though I had learnt English throughout my education in India, but sometimes the level of vocabulary and the pronunciation was very difficult to grasp in the beginning and I used to sound funny with my Indian accent. Those were my tough times when I sometimes kept shut so that I dont embarrass myself or even I didnt understood anything I would not repeat it. But then of course during the course of time, things settle down. There was a similar experience with time. Being a lazy Indian, I was not used to the punctuality in my school or college. backbone home it was a sort of a relaxed environment. But here every second counts, hence I had to really change myself to adapt to the current values and beliefs of the group.One of the effective ways of overcoming such problems is by change magnitude the Cultural Intelligence of the team members.Now what is this Cultural Intelli gence? It is nerve-wracking to understand others behavior and trying to understand his values and beliefs so that to interact with him in a way he is comfortable. People can be classified into 6 categories of Cultural Intelligence The Provincial Such person is effective only when working with people from a similar culture and background of his own. Lacks the ability to work with others.The Analyst He is the person, who would analyze the culture of his fellow mate and try to get the strengths and frame strategies accordingly.The Natural Relies solely on intuition and is not interested in analyzing or learning new beliefs and about new cultures.The Ambassador He is nice and friendly. Though he is not aware much about the people or individuals from other cultures and backgrounds, but he is confident he can handle them.The Mimic He gels in very well and has tremendous government agency and he knows he will fit into the role.The Chameleon Changes his colors accordingly. He is sometime s even confused about his origin. He fits into very perfectly.Now the work would be classifying all the members into the above category and work out how to handle them.ConclusionWe have seen through this paper and through the insights and experiences of the author about the cross-culture teams and their benefits and challenges. But these days, with the advent of globalization such teams are unavoidable. Hence, we should work to overcome the challenges and use the strengths of the individuals to build up the strengths of the team. It is important to really understand individuals and their cultures and work accordingly so that there is no miscommunication or conflict.