My Reflection on Working with Globally Diverse Team this Semester

Introduction

Teamwork is the most admired aspect, especially when projects are too huge to handle a single individual. According to Cole et al. (2016), teamwork creates a physical setting that enables the members to be at ease to share their views, knowing that benchmarking will solve any discrepancies that might be seen. Groupwork with a globally diverse team is an aspect that has taught me a couple of things. Collaboration in group work is vital since it is considered the backbone of any successful teamwork. Besides, communication is also considered vital, considering that during this time of the coronavirus pandemic, most learning practices are online. The aspect requires individual participants to be time-conscious and always adhere to the minor rules put forth (Cole et al., 2016). Even though I had a bad experience with the team members, I learned that I need to have a couple of skills to steer the group toward success as a team leader, thus, in this reflection paper, I will discuss my experience and reflect on the members' contribution to the project's success at the start of the project.

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My Experience as a Moroccan

Members of group work usually have diverse experiences, whether good or bad. The experience is usually affiliated with communication as well as the culture of the team members. As a Moroccan who grew up in Canada, I had a bad experience working with my team. As it is well known, group work requires sharing ideas and always being available to do something as a team (King et al., 2008). Most of my team members did not bother contributing to the project, and they mostly did not respond promptly. The aspect is mostly affected by the fact that most of the members live in different time zones. Having to wait for an appropriate time for a member to respond is a challenge. My Experience with Different Cultures and Online Learning

I have learned much that used to be unknown to me due to my culture behavior and life. As much as learning online is the most promoted aspect after the pandemic started and savagely affected human social life, I do not enjoy learning online since it does not motivate me. I used to enjoy physical learning, but now all aspects have to be done online. It is also the challenge that is also affecting how I view teamwork and dealing with globally diverse teams. Most of the members are from diverse cultural groups. Thus, they have a different view of teamwork and sharing ideas. When we were working on a project to make a poster about Hyundai, it was a complicated experience since our team was composed of people from diverse backgrounds; a Nigerian, two Indians, a South Korean, and me, a Moroccan. Indeed, it was a struggle to understand each member's view on time management and working towards the same goal. One of the greatest challenges was commenting on the lessons regarding culture every week. It was more challenging to talk about cultural challenges considering that each group member was from a diverse cultural background. I was from a Moroccan background; it was hard to understand each other's concerns about time management contribution towards achieving common goals.

Members' Contribution

I also realized that teamwork contributes to high-quality research considering that it substantiates the delivery of concepts from different group members but has to be moderated because group members are from diverse cultural backgrounds. As much as I realized that most of the members were unwilling to participate in group work, he also enjoyed brainstorming ideas and sharing cultural values with different team members. At the start of the course, the instructor introduced all students to senior design projects and outlined that they would be letting students work in groups to achieve a common goal. However, I never realized that working with individuals from diverse cultural backgrounds would be challenging. I learned that I have been dealing and coping with hitchhikers whenever teamwork involved each participant's contribution and participating according to the stipulated time. Each team member had a different view of culture and its influence on leadership. Organizational culture significantly differed from each member due to the fact that each culture has diverse views about time management and role-playing during teamwork.

How Diversity Affects Teamwork

Individuals from diverse backgrounds have unique ways of expressing themselves during group or teamwork. For that reason, I realized that most of the members provided ideas from typically distinct perspectives. They also show that they have diverse experiences that alter their way of sharing ideas with the team. I was affected somehow, and as much as I realized their flows, I was always inspired to act accordingly and ensure that the team's common goals were achieved. Team performance is significantly altered by focusing on members' flaws (Stahl et al., 2010). The multicultural teamwork enabled me to experience experiential learning with a theoretical consideration of global teams and ways of finding a solution to a particular problem through a cooperative and collaborative learning approach. Even though practically it was not easy to enhance the communication between group members it is worth noting that the components of intercultural competence enhanced the success of the teamwork (Dinh et al., 2014). I learned the relevance of establishing an atmosphere of cooperative learning and focusing on the team members' competence, knowledge, and skills. Most team members communicated about social, economic, team members political, technological, social-economic, and cultural aspects of communication and interactive learning. I also had an opportunity to learn the team members' circumstances and viewpoints with regard to teamwork, collaborative learning, and achieving a common goal. As much as I faced several challenges in understanding group members' views and perspectives regarding achieving a common goal, I learned the relevance of establishing a communication plan that favors every team member or allows team members to find an appropriate time to discuss the elements of the group. Working with a globally diverse team requires time and dedication since it is not easy to converge and achieve the goals smoothly while tolerating members’ mismatch aspects.

I realize that working in global teams provides an opportunity for an individual to learn from experience that is derived from the economy, cultural values, space, money, and time, and focusing on common grounds required in the creation of workgroups. Cultural diversity is an aspect that affects teamwork, which is affiliated with multicultural team members (Nishii, 2013). I learned that there is a need to establish a balance between two distinct cultural backgrounds and team players regarding multicultural transnational or global teams, especially when the participants come from three or more communities. My team members come from Indian, Nigerian, and Korean and I am from Moroccan cultural backgrounds. The aspect challenged me to learn how to handle each team member's diverse characters as a means to know what to do to ensure that the group project was successful.

Commonalities Needed for Teamwork

Teamwork requires group members to have commonalities and always focus on the final goal of achieving success. However, I realized that several aspects require group members to deal with the teams' variables and complexities so long as they are working across cultures. I was personally affected by cultural diversity since I realized that it has positive and negative effects on achieving a common goal. The primary aspect is that I realize a wider community and behavioral patterns that affect my interpersonal domain depending on the level of social group interaction that I have. Most team members did not display a specific attribute of competencies vital in enhancing successful group work. Most team members demonstrated that they have personal or individual development plans that do not align with the stipulated aspects of group work (Timpte et al., 2018). However, I had an opportunity to learn that there are several competencies that any global teamwork leader should have or learn to enable the group members to achieve the required aspects of teamwork. They include learning about the way team members communicate, having cultural empathy, demonstrating communicative competence, portraying their style in a manner that respects each team member, and having generic managerial skills possibly needed to champion the achievement of group work goals.

Conclusion

Indeed, teamwork involving members from diverse cultural backgrounds requires the participants and, most importantly, the team leader to demonstrate an array of skills. I have noted down that my experience with a globally diverse team is one of a kind since it determined the project's success. Even though I had a bad experience with the team members, I learned that I needed to have a couple of skills to steer the group toward success as a team leader. The skills include; having knowledge of how team members communicate, having cultural empathy, demonstrating communicative competence, portraying their style in a manner that respects each team member, and having generic managerial skills. One of the greatest challenges was commenting on the lessons regarding culture every week. I also learned that working with global teams is a perfect opportunity for an individual to learn from experience that is derived from the economy, cultural values, space, money, and time. Working with a globally diverse team is challenging since it made me realize that it was hard to understand each other's concerns about time management and team collaboration. I also realized the way I was used to in-class learning, unlike online learning. As aforementioned, I do not enjoy learning online since it does not give me any motivation. Considering the challenges that I have faced while dealing with team members from diverse cultural backgrounds, I can ascertain that I enjoyed physical learning more than the current online learning approach.

References

Cole, D. C., Johnson, N., Mejia, R., McCullough, H., Turcotte-Tremblay, A. M., Barnoya, J., & Falabella Luco, S. (2016). Mentoring health researchers globally: Diverse experiences, programmes, challenges and responses. Global public health, 11(9), 1093-1108. https://dx.doi.org/10.1080%2F17441692.2015.1057091

Timpte, M., Montana, J., Reuter, K., Borie, M., & Apkes, J. (2018). Engaging diverse experts in a global environmental assessment: participation in the first work programme of IPBES and opportunities for improvement. Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research, 31(sup1), S15-S37. https://doi.org/10.1080/13511610.2017.1383149

King, E. B., Kaplan, S., & Zaccaro, S. (2008). Metaperceptions in diverse work groups: Intrapersonal perspectives and intragroup processes. In Diversity and groups. Emerald Group Publishing Limited. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1534-0856(08)11006-4

Stahl, G. K., Maznevski, M. L., Voigt, A., & Jonsen, K. (2010). Unraveling the effects of cultural diversity in teams: A meta-analysis of research on multicultural work groups. Journal of international business studies, 41(4), 690-709. https://doi.org/10.1057/jibs.2009.85

Nishii, L. H. (2013). The benefits of climate for inclusion for gender-diverse groups. Academy of Management Journal, 56(6), 1754-1774. Doi: 10.5465/amj.2009.0823