Management Fundamentals

Question: Discuss about the importance of team management in international management. Answer: Part 1 Team work is very important for a business. In the case of international business, interaction within the employees is very important as it is the pillar of efficient teamwork. Efficient teamwork is the key to organizational success in global business (Turner 2012). In this paper the team management would be discussed which is required for managing team in an international project. In this context, some management theories would be discussed here which are important for managing international and diverse team. In addition, the reason for which these theories are important in international management would also be discussed here. In this paper, the Maslows hierarchy of needs theory would be discussed along with the necessity of the managers to know about this theory. In an international team, there are different kinds of team members with different culture, beliefs, values and perception. Therefore, the leader or manager should motivate the team mates to work in a group. This theory was established by Abraham Maslow in 1943 (Boussebaa et al. 2012). This theory highlights the basic needs of the employees for being motivated and work as a team. The needs have been arranged in a form of hierarchy. At the base of the hierarchy, there are the basic physiological needs, then the safety needs, love and belonging or social needs, self esteem, self actualization. It has been revealed that in an international team, there can be team members from various age group and their perceptions and values would not be similar (Sung and Choi 2012). Thus, this theory states that the manager or team leader should give the team memb ers to grow from the beginning level to understand how to adjust with other team members to work successfully in a team. Here, providing the basic psychological needs is the primary responsibility of the team leader which would encourage the employees to reach the next level (Deresky and Christopher 2011). In the next level, the employees would be provided with safety needs. In this stage, the team leaders would help to achieve team work skills and would provide the safety needs. Once the team members feel safe, they would be encouraged to participate in the teamwork with more efficiency. It would also help to reduce the level of internal tea, conflicts within the team members. In the next stage, they would be provided with social support, needs related to love and belonging (Bhabha 2012). The team leader would attempt to build a positive and trustworthy relationship with the team member who would allow the employees to share their values and beliefs with the team leader and others team member, it would help to build the team strength and reduce the onset of team conflicts. In the next step, the self esteem of the team mates would be enhanced through proper guidance (Christopher 2012). One of the important aspects in international team management is managing change implementation. It i s because, some people might resist change and others may support the change. Thus, through effective mentoring, their self-esteem could be enhanced and with enhanced self-confidence, the team mates would have more confidence to accept change in the organizational context (Cascio 2012). Finally, to work in a diverse team, the self actualization is very important which is at the top of this hierarchical theory. Motivation would lead to this step, when people would be able to explore their internal strength and competencies, therefore, they would be able to manage the internal conflicts (Lientz and Rea 2012). Mary Parker Follett was a social worker as well as political theorist who was known as the pioneer of management theories. In her organizational theory, she pioneered the understanding of lateral processes in a hierarchical firm (Well et al. 2012). She discussed the importance of informal processes in the organization and promoted the perspective of authority of expertise. In her management theory, she advocated the pull approach in spite of a push approach to the employees. She showed the difference between power over and power with (Berry and Bell 2012). While discussing about her management theory, she depicted the insightful perspectives on negotiation, power sharing and conflict resolution for shaping the modern management theories (Motohashi 2012). The Mary Parker Follett Theory of Management is marked by some principles which are as follows: The conflict resolution via integration usually results in a win-win position. Here integration is referred to the identification and achievement of compatible needs of each respective party, as opposed to attempt to achieve the frequent-incompatible expressed desire of each party. In the sub-theory, Mary Parker Follett leadership theory, the genuine power is highlighted as coactive in spite being coercive. According the Folletts theory, true leaders establish group power, in spite of expressing or exploiting personal power. While implementing Mary Parker Folletts theory in managing an international team, there are various types of online tools available which would help to gain more in-depth awareness about this theory and related principles, based on which the internal steps could be taken (Lemaire et al. 2012). The leadership theory depicts the importance of group dynamics and the features required in a group. According to this theory, the approach of power with would be applied in the group in spite of power over. IT would help the employees to explore and share their power in management functions done by the group (Daly et al. 2012). In addition, while implementing the Mary Parker Folletts theory for conflict resolution, integrating employees needs in the conflict situation would lead to a win-win situation (Jormanainen and Koveshnikov 2012). According to this theory, the power sharing of the team members along with the leader would help the team to perform in a systematic manner which would help to gain success more rapidly and the perception, authority of expertise would be followed as a result of power sharing which would help the team members to identify their area of expertise which would be explored at the right time and right place for improving the teams performance (Menz 2012). Part 2 Managing an international team is quite difficult, as here we need to manage different types of people, who have diverse cultural and social background. Thus, the cross cultural conflicts may arise. While managing the team, the team leader should motivate them. Two most sensitive areas in a team which are the common concern of team leaders or managers are managing communication and cultural diversity within the team mates. In a cross cultural or international team, as a manager, we should interact with the team members through the provision of a supportive environment. While working as a leader of a team, I have dealt with people from different age group, someone from 25 years age and someone from 45 years old age group. In this context, I have seen that difficult behavior of one team met can affect the productivity of the entire group. One of the major issues which I have faced was the inappropriate communication within the team mates. The 25 years old young team mate did not suppor t the ideas provided by the 45 years old middle age woman. In addition, the 25 years old young man was so arrogant and used to be his own boss in spite of interacting with others. The other team members also reported to me about his inadequate behavior. In this context, I used my problem solving skills and arranged a face to face meeting with them individually. While talking with the individual, I allowed him to tell and listen to his problem with positive facial expression. He highlighted that he is not comfortable with others from different age group as they have different types of thinking. I attempted to politely make him understand that why he needs to cooperate with team mate from other age group. Then assured him that with his positive response in the team, he would be rewarded. It promoted him to enhance his interaction with others, once he started to interact with others, it became easier for him to work with his team mates and I assessed that it also enhanced our teams productivity significantly. Another difficult area to manage the team was the cultural diversity of a team. I have worked with a Japanese man who was 35 years old. While implementing change in the organization, he was always against the change. As the Japanese management culture support slow process of decision making, he was not familiar with quick decision making and change process. In this context, i heard that he was having clash with others in the team regarding the thought process. Therefore, on the basis of my critical thinking skills, I arranged a training program, for him which would help him to adapt in different corporate environment. The result led to enhanced interaction with others and enhanced team performance. Reference List Berry, D.P. and Bell, M.P., 2012. Expatriates: gender, race and class distinctions in international management.Gender, Work Organization,19(1), pp.10-28. Bhabha, J., 2012, March. Talking the Talk and Walking the Walk: International Management, Human Rights, and Domestic Politics. InASIL Annual Meeting Proceedings(Vol. 106, pp. 61-65). American Society for International Law. 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