The reading is taken from Harvard Business Review, 2006. Please access the reading from the reading list under Session 8: Working in multicultural teams. The title of the article is Managing Multicultural Teams.

Please do the following:

1. Read the entire article. The article contains the challenges facing multicultural teams, and the strategies that can be employed to overcome issues created by cultural differences. Take time to understand the learning from the article

2. The case study we want you to consider is found in the first paragraph of the article. Below is the case study:

When a major international software developer needed to produce a new product quickly, the project manager assembled a team of employees from India and the United States. From the start the team members could not agree on a delivery date for the product. TheAmericans thought the work could be done in two tothree weeks; the Indians predicted it would take two to three months. As time went on, the Indian team members proved reluctant to report setbacks in the production process, which the American team members would find out about only when work was due to be passed to them. Such conflicts, of course, may affect any team, but in this case they arose from cultural differences. As tensions mounted, conflict over delivery dates and feedback became personal, disrupting team members communication about even mundane issues. The project manager decided he had to intervenewith the result that both the American and the Indian team members came to rely on him for direction regarding minute operational details that the team should have been able to handle itself. The manager became so bogged down by quotidian issues that the project careened hopelessly off even the most pessimistic scheduleand the team never learned to work together effectively.

3. Based on the learning from the article you read, please respond to the following question:

a. What cultural challenges the Indian and the US team members faced?

b. Why was the Project Manager not effective in resolving the tensions within the multicultural team?

c. What strategy/strategies should the Project Manager employ?