CASE-MULTICULTURAL MULTINATIONAL TEAMS SOURCE: Organizational Behavior (2015), by Robbins & Judge, Prentice Hall. As work has become more global, companies are realizing the benefits of composing teams of employees who not only have different cultural backgrounds, but also who live in different countries. These multicultural, multinational teams are extremely diverse, allowing companies to leverage widely different points of view about business problems. One company known for using multicultural, multinational teams is IBM. Although at one time IBM was famous for its written and unwritten rules-such as its no-layoff policy, its focus on individual promotions and achievement, the expectation of lifetime service at the company, and its requirement of suits and white shirts at work, times have changed. IBM has clients in 170 countries and now does two-thirds of its business outside the United States. As a result, it has overturned virtually all aspects of its old culture. One relatively new focus is on teamwork. To foster appreciation of a variety of cultures and open up emerging markets, IBM sends hundreds of its employees to month-long volunteer project teams in regions of the world where most big companies don't do business. Al Chakra, a software development manager located in Raleigh, North Carolina, was sent to join GreenForest, a furniture manufacturing team in Timisoara, Romania. With Chakra were IBM employees from five other countries. Together, the team helped GreenForest become more computer-savvy to increase its business. In return for the IBM team's assistance, GreenForest was charged nothing. IBM firmly believes these multicultural, multinational teams are good investments, because they help lay the groundwork for uncovering business in emerging economies. IBM is not the only company to use multicultural, multinational teams. Intel Corp., for example, has teams of employees located in the United States, Israel, and Ireland. To manage these types of teams effectively, leaders must possess certain characteristics. These include obvious factors like openness to cultural diversity and cultural intelligence. And according to a survey conducted by Miriam Erez, a faculty member at the Technion- Israel Institute of Technology, it is better for leaders to have a global rather than a cross- cultural perspective. What's the difference? A global perspective means integrating culturally different and geographically different individuals into a single, unified team. Leaders with a global perspective develop a global identity in addition to their local or national identity, while leaders with a cross-cultural perspective do not perceive themselves as belonging to more than one culture. Sources: Based on C. Hymowitz. "IBM Combines Volunteer Service, Teamwork to Cultivate Emerging Markets." The Wall Street Journal (August 4, 2008), p. B6, S. Gupta, "Mine the Potential of Multicultural Teams," HR Magazine (October 2008), pp. 79-84; H Aguinis and K. Kraiger, "Benefits of Training and Development for Individuals and Teams, Organizations, and Society," Annual Review of Prychology 60, no. 1 (2009), pp. 451-474, and K. Gurchiek, "Global Training Sought for Leaders of Multicultural Teams." Society for Human Resource Management (September 15, 2011), downloaded on June 5, 2013, from www.shrm.org. QUESTIONS If you calculate the person-hours devoted to IBM's team projects, they amount to more than 180,000 hours of management time each year. Do you think this is a wise investment of IBM's human resources? Why or why not? 2- Would you like to work on one of IBM's multicultural, multinational project teams? Why or why not? 3. Multicultural project teams often face problems with communication, expectations, and values. How do you think some of these challenges can be overcome?