In the traditional cross-cultural literature multicultural teams imply work groups composed of people from different nationalities. However, culture can refer to any category of people that share similarities in traits, behaviors and beliefs. This can include regional groups, religious groups, professional groups, special interest affinity groups, etc. Therefore, any team that is comprised of members of different groups can be multicultural. Since we tend to focus on nationality, this becomes the defining element of these teams; but it should not be the only element considered.
Furthermore, companies only tend to consider teams multicultural when team members are perceived to be very dissimilar. For instance, in our research we found that a US organization which established work sites in Ireland ten years ago and in India three years ago introduced cross-cultural training for US and India workers only two- and a-half years ago. This suggests that the organization did not feel the need for cross-cultural training when the team was composed of American and Irish workers but needed cultural training when workers from India were added to the work teams. In the world of commerce, the phrase multicultural team implies team members come from countries where the visible differences are pronounced (such as language, dress, physical appearance, the majority religion, food, and the like). |
