Cross-Cultural Teams and Projects: Issues and Trends in the ‘80s

The decade of the 1980s ushered in the era of large, multinational corporations. These corporations desired a stronger position in the global marketplace. In these companies were people from many different cultures, who were suddenly compelled to work in teams and work groups that were quite representative of this cultural diversity. The purpose of this paper is to first examine the implications of globalization, then to examine several issues that aided and abetted this process. These topics include the impacts of individualism and collectivism among team members, the role of motivation in a team environment, the influence of Japanese team culture, and the effects of bias and discrimination on cross-cultural teams. Although these topics are quite diverse, the effects of these particular cross-cultural issues during the formative years of globalization are quite profound