4. You are a corporate culture specialist. Highlight the challenges a company operating in multinational settings may face is likely to encounter.

You will have to effectively overcome language barriers, and overcome cultural and educational barriers. Employees often misunderstand the behavior of people from other cultures and, therefore, spend their valuable time on clarifying misunderstandings and setting expectations.

1. Language Barrier. The main language spoken at the office might be the second or third language for some employees, so they might not understand colloquialisms. Team members who are not fully comfortable in the language spoken at the office may feel out of place and less inclined to share their opinions.

Solution:You can incorporate multilingual translators onto your teams.Make use of functional translation software an apps. You can also offer ongoing language classes. The objective is to ensure every single team member feels included and valued.

2. Cultural differences. People from Eastern cultures will differ from those in a Western culture. For instance, a Western manager may seem too assertive, loud or direct for a team member from Japan or other Asian countries where requests are made more politely and indirectly.

These cultural barriers can lead to confusion among team members and a lack of cohesion.

Solution:Take the time to learn about the different cultural norms of your team members, understand how they perceive assertiveness and communicate appropriately. Furthermore, encourage your employees to learn about their colleague’s cultures, as well.

3. The decision-making process. Cultures have different styles of making decisions. Americans make decisions quickly where in other cultures managers take their time for due diligence, gathering more information and often consult team members to make sure that the decision is arrived at unanimously.

Solution:You can ensure every member of your multicultural teams understands your process when making decisions.

Learn about the differences of each of your team members, and then determine how decisions will be executed.

4. Styles of communication: Aggression and tone. Cultures have different styles of communication. American managers tend to be more aggressive and straightforward than their Easter counterparts. For some team members, this can come across as too direct.

Solution:You can ensure every member of your multicultural teams understands your process when making decisions. Then, talk to each employee individually to ask how they feel about your management style and if they can feel comfortable with it.

5. Challenge of motivating a culturally diverse team. The perception of motivation may vary from one culture to another. What can be motivating for you may be regarded as de-motivating for people from another culture.

Solution:Speak with people from different cultures individually to discover what motivates them and what extent of manager intervention is acceptable to them. Come to common grounds with them on the expected results if their suggestions are implemented and observe the impact.