Multi-Cultural Teams in Germany

Establishing a good multi-cultural team with engaged and interactive employees, ensures a strong culture with an organisation. German teams tend to use a deductive, top-down thinking approach (Browaeys & Price, 2019). In their team approach, Germany is seen as deductive as they anticipate predictability and linearity of time, learn by memorising, they have clear boundaries and structures, and they see reality as objective absolute

(Browaeys & Price, 2019). Whilst this is good for working with other countries that adopt the western work approach, this may pose as an issue for countries who do the opposite. Studies show that German corporations are more likely to have top management teams (Trompenaars & Hampden-Turner 2021). This can be problematic as this type of teams consist of senior leaders that focus on strategic decisions which does not include other employees. This can result in employees feeling left out or unheard which can increase the number of resignations and the productivity level within the corporation (Whitler, 2021). In order to prevent this from happening, German HRMs can encourage employees to get to know one another on a personal and professional level, encourage meetings to raise awareness of issues such as language barriers and culture differences and asking team members what they believe can be done to encourage communication within the teams (CIPD, 2021).

How Germany Can Benefit From Cross-Cultural Teams

In a global organisational structure, employees are hired in many places around the world based on their training and skill requirements (Briscoe et al, 2016). Therefore, global organisations would be more likely to rely on the use of cross-border teams which have similar characteristics to virtual teams. Cross-border teams are beneficial as it saves money on travel and technology makes it easier for those within these teams to communicate, regardless of the time differences (Briscoe et al, 2016). Global HRMs can follow best practices to ensure that cross-border teams work successfully.

This can consist of ensuring emails are sent frequently to communicate any issues, meetings or deadlines, assist the team in identifying who will be the leader, provide cultural mentors to educate the team on how to deal with cross-cultural issues, identify who members of the team should reach out to when an issue occurs and most importantly, ensure that there is a dedicated IT team in place as technology issues may happen frequently (CIPD, 2020; Briscoe et al, 2016).

However, there are some issues with cross-border teams, such as the lack of physical interaction between the employees and the unreliability of technology can hinder the progress of these teams (Briscoe et al, 2016). According to Hoftstede’s insights, Germany’s high uncertainty avoidance and individualism score can be a hinderance to successful cross-border teams. This is because German’s prefer to work on their own and they are highly resistant to change which can impact social integration (Gilli et al, 2022). However, the benefits of cultural integration can outweigh the negatives as it encourages, innovation, creativity and problem-solving (Gilli et al, 2022).

References

Briscoe, D.R., Tarique, I and Schuler, R.S (2014). International human resource management: policies and practices for multinational enterprises. 5th edition. New York: Routledge: New York.

Browayes, M and Price, R (2019). Understanding cross cultural management. 4th edition. Harlow: Pearson.

CIPD (2020). Developing effective virtual teams: An evidence review. Available at: https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/fundamentals/relations/flexible-working/developing-virtual-teams (Accessed: 19th May 2023).

CIPD (2021). Managing multicultural teams. Available at: https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/fundamentals/relations/diversity/managing-multicultural-teams#gref (Accessed; 12th April 2023).

Gilli, K., Veglio, V. Gunkel, M and Taras, V (2022). In search of the Holy Grail in global virtual teams: The mediating role of satisfaction on performance outcomes in Journal of Business Research 146. Pp. 325-337. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.03.056

Hoftstede Insights (2023). Country Comparison Tool. Available at: https://www.hofstede-insights.com/country-comparison/germany/ (Accessed: 30th March 2023).

Trompenaars, F and Hampden-Turner, C (2021). Riding the waves of culture: understanding diversity in global business. 4th edition. New York: McGraw Hill.

Whitler, K.A (2021) What Is The Executive Leadership Team? 33 Board And C-Level Leaders Explain https://www.forbes.com/sites/kimberlywhitler/2021/06/05/what-is-the-executive-leadership-team-33-board-and-c-level-leaders-explain/?sh=42901db06dbf (Accessed: 17th April 2023).