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Nowadays, teams and projects are becoming more and more relevant in the business industry. The increasing internationalization and globalization of the economy leads to a more interconnected and globalize business and therefore also increasing competition. This requires new approaches for a more faster, flexible and innovative way to finding solutions. For this reason, there is an increase of international cooperation that can open up new opportunities, as well as generate challenges.
The purpose of this assignment is to identify the cultural differences between Germany and China and to determine the key aspect, which has to be considered in performing project management in a multicultural context. Furthermore, this assignment should demonstrate how cultures can affect the cooperation and if there is a potential way to standardize a multicultural cooperation to reduce the challenges that arise in multicultural teams.
The work is based on literature research using secondary data. In addition, an empirical study has been carried out to create a case study of an executed project with German and Chinese team members in China. The empirical study has been carried out as an expert interview with the German project manager who is currently working as an expatriate in China. This interview has been used to collect information about the plant relocation of a German-based company located in China.
The literature research has shown that political, technological, cultural, as well as communication aspects have to be considered in performing project management in a multicultural context. Also cultural difference affects leadership style. Therefore, the knowledge of different leadership styles is beneficial. Standardization for a multicultural cooperation is not possible due to the different situation in different context with different people. However, the knowledge about the effects of cultural values on the mindset and behavior can ease the teamwork. The case study confirms the findings as the project manager also had to deal with cultural, communication, and leadership issues, as well as dealing with cultural differences and the respond to it encourage the teamwork.
When translanguaging, individuals use and combine all their available language repertoires in order to increase comprehension. The use of different languages together
implies that there is no strict language separation. First studied in a school context, the primary purposes of this concept are the complete understanding of subject matter and the simultaneous development of additional languages. Recent studies in different business contexts show the concept’s transferability to other environments. This brings forth questions about, firstly, the implementation of translanguaging in a workplace and, secondly, the possible effects of translanguaging on interpersonal relationships in work teams. The focus of the analysis hereby lies on work teams with intellectual and creative
tasks. The transferability of International High School’s eight core principles, which are meant to improve students’ translanguaging skills, into a business context is discussed. The theoretical analysis results show that the eight principles are, in theory, all applicable
to creative and intellectual teams, but further challenges may arise. No definite answer is presented regarding the effect on interpersonal relationships; both positive and negative effects are possible. Results are all context-dependent, and further empirical research is needed to study the theoretical assumptions made in the present paper.