Learning from Indian Premier League (IPL)

IPL was the best example for cultural management. In each IPL team four foreign players and others local player are there and coach may be from different country. It seemed the team that came last (Knight Riders) in the tournament had among many other reasons the rift between foreign players and Indian players. Technical this team was among the top on paper, having some of the best players. The lesson from this is that whether it is sports or business when teams are formed with diversity (from different culture in this case) they should understand each others cultural bias and differences and work around it to be successful.

What does intercultural awareness do?

From a study that we have done on the impact of intercultural awareness the following are some of the key findings-
We realized that building awareness is a very powerful way to bridge the cultural differences. Many forms of awareness building was done, the most effective one seems to be the exchange program. It has helped to understand cultural differences at the individual and team level. It has helped in generating knowledge on different cultures and how they operate. It has lead to looking for cultural clues and providing explanation for misunderstandings, reduced judgemental behaviours from either party.
We have seen that cultural awareness has lead to open mind among the teams. By nature there are far more interactions and the quality of interactions are improved. There is a shift in the interactions from formal and business like to the informal-collaborative with a focus on the end gaols to be met.

Time perception and gathering information in various countries

· Linear-actives: Germans, Swiss, American
· Multi-actives: Latin Americans, Arabs
· Re-actives: Chinese, Japanese, Finns

Is there cultural differences in companies doing global distributed work?

There exist cultural differences across national borders, so we need to be aware of the problems due to cultural differences, which can bring about communication problems and thus can affect knowledge sharing and also create misunderstanding. Hence, it seems logical that one needs to study and be sensitive of the cultures at national level.
Like to know if this is true also in the context of companies involved in global distributed work having people from different cultures and companies working together on projects?