You are the team leader at a Call for You. Your organization deals with customer service issues from companies that have outsourced that task to your call centre in Edmonton, Alberta. Your team handles calls from all over the world, but most customers are from Canada and the United States. Your team at the call centre is quite diverse. You have men and women ranging in ages from 19-62. Your team is also quite multicultural, with agents who were born in other countries including the Philippines, India, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam. While your team mostly works independently at their cubicles, you often get to spend a lot of time together in the break rooms. Your team gets along really well and people are always bringing in different foods from their home countries to share with each other. Your team also gets more contracts than other teams because although the customers are primarily from North America, your team can speak in variety of different languages, which expands your customer base. Recently, you have gotten many calls from the head office saying that your team is not performing up to their standard. Customers have called to complain about the service your team has provided. Some complaints have included that they do not feel like their problems were understood, the agent was rude and/or they could not understand what the agent was saying. You are under a lot of pressure to work with your team to ensure that they are providing the best service possible.

How do you think the diversity of your team is impacting their performance? You can address both benefits and challenges.

What strategies would you teach your team to enhance their intercultural effectiveness and communication techniques. 

How would you teach them?

 How would understanding the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity help you as a leader in this scenario?

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