The culture as a factor influencing the key processes of the management of the company

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The culture as a factor influencing the key processes of the management of the company

Table of contents

Introduction

1. Theoretical Background. The culture as a factor influencing multicultural team work

1.1 Managerial studies of the culture

1.2 Cultural values: from Geert Hofstede through Edward Hall

1.3 Modification of Robert House

1.4 The culture as a factor influencing the key processes of the management of the company

1.5 Peculiarities of the process of negotiations from a cross-cultural aspect

1.6 Cross-cultural peculiarities of motivation in MNCs

1.7 The culture as a factor influencing multicultural teamwork

1.8 Interaction processes in a multicultural team and possible conflicts

Conclusions Chapter 1

2. Process of innovation in MNCs working in consulting a field

2.1 Consulting business in a context of globalization

2.2 Types of innovation in MNCs

2.3 How does the culture influence the innovation processes

2.4 Process of knowledge-sharing as a factor influencing multicultural teamwork

Conclusions chapter 2

3. Empirical research

3.1 Methodology

3.2 Data analysis and results

3.3 Measures

3.4 Second stage of the study

3.5 Data analysis

Conclusions Chapter 3

Conclusions and directions for further research

Key issues concerning multicultural team work for increasing innovations

References

Introduction

Multicultural team work can be considered as the driving force of international business.

The processes that took place on 20th century, gradually led to the globalization of the world economy, going beyond the traditional national boundaries of markets, resources, work force and ideas. On one hand, there was a gradual decrease of the role of material resources necessary for the production of goods such as raw materials, equipment, facilities, and enhancing the role of intangible resources, amidst which first is to allocate human capital. On the other hand, national companies, who previously held leadership positions in their countries or regions, began to go beyond these boundaries, becoming truly global, for that point that we already call them multinational corporations (MNCs).

Despite the fact that the specificity of international business in recent years increasingly is building up popolarity in the literature, the problems of managing multicultural teams in global organizations are still very little studied.

We always consider globalization as an opportunity for developing a multicultural environment which helps MNCs for increasing the process of innovations and competitiveness on the global market. However, together with globalization some challenges occur in context of development, building, and creation of effective and innovative multicultural teams. Fundamentally, in our global dаy work environment there is a need for a drive that can help mempbers of the team to be more flexible, and as a result to in MNCs there will be members of multicultural teams with competences in a cross-cultural field.

A global environment demands cross-cultural work environment. Moreover the global environment has to benefit from ideas, that are innovative, insights that are creative, perspectives that modify, and development of work ethics. While many MNCs utilize these benefits, building well working multicultural environmnt, increasingly amount of those MNCs understand that such kind of environment demands leaders endowed with vision, strong social skills, and a high level of cultural competence. Moodian (2009, p. 87) argues that "in order to avoid overcompensating, undercompensating, offense, or demonstrating cultural arrogance, organizational leaders must identify the proper balance between cultures and recognize the five global strategic options for employment that include cultural dominance, cultural accommodation, cultural compromise, cultural avoidance, and cultural synergy" Moodian, M. 2009. Contemporary Leadership and Intercultural Competence. Thousand Oaks: Sage.. The leaders of multicultural teams should not only accept the cultural differences, but at the same time they have to work on developing a culture insight the organization that accents on similarities and positivity of different people, that can result in development of cultural norms and ideas.

The question that raised here is how national culture affects the development of organizational culture or how does the company recognize the diversity of national cultures? Cultural differences need to be recognized and the company has to use them as an advantage rather than a liability. The multicultural team does not have to manage cultural differences. The team has to integrate cultural differences and similarities in order to share, create, and implement innovative customer solutions that respond to global and local market needs.

Significance of Research

First of all, as we mentioned above, the globalization caused the formation of teams, with members from different countries. In this work, we consider diversity from two sides. From one hand, diversity helps MNCs to be more creative. From the other hand, MNCs in which multicultural teams are working face difficult for solving problems connected to the differences between the team members. Second, despite the fact that in social psychology the culturally diversified teams` topic has been discussed since the early 60s. In the management field this topic became the center of attention only in the early 80s. Since then, we can see, the trend of increasing interest in the field. However, it should be pointed out that this issue is only in the initial stage in Russian scientific literature. All above this explains the high relevance of this topic for international business, and in the context of MNCs, working in Russian Federation.

Aims of the research paper:

The aim of the research paper is to determine how multicultural team work can be a factor for increasing innovations in MNCs.

The objective of this research in to investigate the theoretical frameworks and to analyze the literature related to multicultural team work, problems, connected to it and innovations in MNCs, particularly in consulting firms. The methodology, which was used was based on qualitative literature review and involved three main steps: first of all, we identified the key words for selecting the articles. After that we created a database; second we made a quantitative research on out database, which means we identified journals, citations, type of firms and academic clusters (project management, knowledge management, innovation studies, strategic management and human resources management) that were the object of research; third, we identify the main trends and streams on the field of multicultural teamwork and innovations in MNCs.

The subject of research is the management strategy used to manage the work of the multicultural teams. Thus, in this study it is possible to allocate the following tasks:

The first task of this research is to identify the most important features of a multicultural teams. As a second task we explored the effects of cultural differences in multicultural teams on team processes as well, and therefore on creativity and innovation. Our third task was to examine the process of cross-cultural teams' interaction and whether it creates a knowledge sharing that contributes to the successful improvement of innovation processes within the company. Concerning the existing theoretical knowledge in the area of cross cultural differences, cross- cultural management innovation management and, knowledge management, various theories and practices have been introduced so far.

1. Theoretical Background. The culture as a factor influencing multicultural team work

1.1 Managerial studies of the culture

There are a number of studies disclosing us the significance of the concept of culture, but in fact, they differ from each other, as the perceptions of the authors are different. For example, Geert Hofstede (1980), a Dutch social psychologist says that "culture is a collective mental predisposition, predetermination part of our perception of the world, in common with other representatives of our nation, region or group and distinguish us from the other Nations, regions and groups." Hofstede G. 2001. Culture's Consequences, Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions, and Organizations Across Nations, Thousand Oaks CA: Sage Publications . Culture can also be described as shared motives, values, beliefs, identity and interpretation achieved from the overall experience of the group from generation to generation. Culture is "collective programming" of minds in the group of participants that are different from other groups (Hofstede 2001) Ibid . Culture is a "collective programming" of minds in a group of participants that differ from other groups. In addition "culture often works on a subconscious level; an invisible control mechanism operating in our thoughts" Hall, E. 1983. The dance of life: The other dimension of time. New York: Doubleday. (Hall,1983). A narrower definition, what exactly does the culture mean, is given by Geertz, American anthropologist and sociologist: "culture - an historically transmitted pattern of meanings embodied in symbols, a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means of which men communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and attitudes toward life." (Geertz 1973) Geertz C. 1973. The interpretation of cultures. New York: Basic Books,. Other authors, like Robert House believe that "shared motives, values, beliefs, identities, and interpretations or meanings of significant events that result from common experiences of collectives and are transmitted across age generations" House R., Hanges P. 2004. Cultural Influences on Leadership and Organizations: Project GLOBE (House, 2004). We can conclude that culture, is shared at least between the people who live or lived within the same social environment. Culture is studied, it is not inherited. It is formed under the influence of the social environment, not influenced by genes.

1.2 Cultural values: from Geert Hofstede through Edward Hall

The first significant researches in the field of cross-cultural differences were conducted by Geert Hofstede (1980) and Edward Hall (1976). They, independently from each other, developed a system of organization and identification of cultures. The purpose of these researches was to identify universal categories of culture, encompassing social community and country. The study of Hofstede described five aspects that are applicable to cultures all over the world Hofstede, G.H. 1980. Culture's Consequences: International Differences in Work-Related Values. .

The initial version of the Hofstede`s model included the following categories: "power distance", "individualism", "uncertainty avoidance", "masculinity". Each category was bipolar. Later, Hofstede add two more dimensions. Term orientation describes how people build the links between their own past while dealing with the challenges of the present and the future. Hofstede argues that societies prioritize a term orientation differently. On its part Indulgence describes society which allows nearly free satisfaction of basic and natural human drives related to enjoying life and having fun.

1. High index of power distance means that members of society who have less power accept their place and accept that formal hierarchical structures exist. Representatives of this culture are China, India and Russia. As for the low index of power distance, people expect and accept democratic relationships with people who have more power, but people from one society are treated equally.

2. For individualistic cultures, it is important to achieve personal goals, usually these are the people from North America and Western Europe. In societies characterized by collectivism, common goals and well-being are above those of the individual. Collectivists are people from East Asia, for example. In developed and Western countries is dominated by individualism, while in less developed and Eastern countries dominated by collectivism.

3. In societies with higher index of uncertainty avoidance, we can notice an intolerance for change and seek to avoid uncertainty. In these cultures, people set strict rules, regulations and laws. Societies with lower index have more open look at the changes and use fewer rules and laws in their lives. Eastern and Central Europe, Latin American and German-speaking countries and Japan are characterized by a high index of uncertainty avoidance, whereas in English-speaking countries, in Northern Europe and in China are characterized by a low index of uncertainty avoidance Hofstede G. 2011. Dimensionalizing Cultures: The Hofstede Model in Context. Online Readings in Psychology and Culture, Unit 2. URL: http://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/orpc/vol2/iss1/8 (Hofstede, 2011).

4. In cultures characterized by masculine type of a culture there is usually a clear distinction between the sexes, and prone to rivalries and goals. Representatives of that kind of culture are Japan and English-speaking countries. The smaller index in this dimension indicates that the culture is characterized by less significant differences between the sexes, and the higher the value of the relationship. In Japan, in German speaking countries but also in Italy and Mexico, and English-speaking Western countries, the degree of masculinity is high. In addition, in the Scandinavian countries and the Netherlands - the degree of masculinity is low. It is low in some other countries, like France, Spain, Portugal and Chile, Korea and Thailand.

5. On one hand, representatives of culture, which is focused on the short term, spending more time development of relationships and generally consider time as "a vicious circle". For them, the future and the past are interconnected, and what cannot be done today can be done tomorrow. On the other hand, long-term orientation, means that time is seen as a vector, and people pay more attention to future rather than thinking about the present or the past. These people focused on achieving goals and appreciate the results. Long-term orientation have the countries of East Asia and the countries of Eastern and Central Europe. A medium term orientation is found in the countries of the South and the North of Europe, and also in South Asia. Short-term orientation have a culture of the United States, Australia, Latin America, Africa and Muslim countries Hofstede, G.H. 1980. Culture's Consequences: International Differences in Work-Related Values. .

6. The dimension of indulgence Hofstede, Hofstede & Minkov. 2010. Cultures and organizations: Software of the mind is the ability of people to meet current needs and personal desires. In societies where restraint Hofstede, G.H. 1980. Culture's Consequences: International Differences in Work-Related Values. is a value, dominate strict societal rules and norms within which satisfaction of personal desires are constrained and are not encouraged. High index the indulgence of desires, common in South and North America, in Western Europe and in some parts of Central Africa. In Eastern Europe, in Asia and in the Muslim world is dominated by restraint. Mediterranean Europe takes a middle position on this dimension.

At that time, independently from Hofstede, another prominent scientist Edward Hall invent his model of cultural differences. He believes that culture can be described using three variables: Time, Context, and Space Hall, E. 1976. Beyond Culture. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group (Hall, 1976).

The dimension associated with the context, Hall determines through communication style in different cultures.

1. In highly contextual cultures, communication is characterized by a major role of non-verbal communication and lack of open expression of discontent, no matter what will be the results of communication. In contrast, in low-contextual cultures such as the USA, communication is characterized by direct speech, including basic information. We can conclude that the low-contextual culture, the greater need of documentation, as for this culture it is important to work under conditions that are precisely defined.

2. Space Hall defines as the dimension that defines the boundaries of personal territory of a person. For example, in Indian culture, personal space is much smaller in terms of physical contact than in the US (Hall 1976) Ibid.

3. Each culture perceives the time in different ways. Hall investigated this dimension, because it is extremely important for intercultural communication. Hall divides this dimension into two opposite types: monochrome culture, who believe that the time is distributed in such a way that in the same period there is only one type of activity or actions that are performed in sequence, one after the other within a certain time. This type of time used typical of people from Germany, USA and the Nordic countries. The second dimension type that Hall described is polychrome culture. People from that kind of culture believe that in the same period there will be several types of activities. They believe that in one period many actions occur simultaneously. The representatives of this culture do not attach much importance to punctuality. Typical polychromatic cultures are the culture of Latin America, the Middle East, Mediterranean countries and Russia.

1.3 Modification of Robert House

In 2004, Robert House together with outstanding specialists in the field of cross-cultural differences conducted a study on "Cultural influences on leadership and organizations: project GLOBE" House, R. J., Hanges, P. J., Javidan, M., Dorfman, P. W., Gupta, V. (Eds.). 2004. Culture, Leadership, and Organizations: The GLOBE Study of 62Societies. Thousand Oaks CA: Sage. , in which they extend the Hofstede`s list of dimensions. They distinguish between two types of collectivism - institutional collectivism and group (in-group) collectivism. Moreover, instead of Hofstede`s dimension masculinity they were invented two dimensions: Gender Egalitarianism and Assertiveness.

1. Gender egalitarianism describes the extent to which an organization or society in general minimize the impact of gender differences. In cultures where this index is high, there is a large proportion of women in senior positions, who have more rights in making decisions. While in cultures where this index is low, on the contrary, women have fewer rights or they just do not have any.

2. Assertiveness, for its part, represents the degree to which individuals or society are assertive, confrontational and aggressive in their social relationships. In cultures where this index is high, people usually are direct, they say unequivocally, require their subordinates to be proactive. Opposite, in cultures where this index is low, the representatives of this culture are usually trying to create a good warm relationship with their partners, they may not be so straight during the communication, but at the time require from their subordinates to be loyal.

In the same study, House agrees with the Kluckhohn`s opinion that long-term orientation by Hofstede, can be divided into two dimensions (Kluckhohn, 1961): "We focus on the past (the time before now), and on preserving and maintaining traditional teachings and beliefs. Present: We focus on the present (what is now), and on accommodating changes in beliefs and traditions. Future: We focus on the future (the time to come), planning ahead, and seeking new ways to replace the old." Kluckhohn, F. R., & Strodtbeck, F. L. 1961. Variations in value orientations. New York:HarperCollins. (Kluckhohn & Strodtbeck,1961).

Furthermore in his study, House added two more Hofstede`s dimensions that he described, together with Bond in their early work, "The Confucius connection. From cultural roots to economic growth"(Hofstede, Bond, 1988). One of them - orientation on results. This dimension includes the component oriented the future within the long term - short term dimension proposed by Hofstede and Bond in 1988. The essence of this dimension lies on the degree to which an organization or society encourages a group member to improve the efficiency and quality of business. Human orientation, for its part is the degree to which individuals in organizations or societies encourage and reward people for honest work, people who are altruistic, friendly, generous, caring, and kind to others.

Table:1

Cross cultural dimensions (Hall, Hofstede, project GLOBE)

Source: Authors research

In our view, five common themes have occurred from this comparison: Distribution of power and authority in society, Centrality of individuals or groups as the basis of social relationships, People`s relationship with their environment, Use of time, Mechanism of personal and social control.

As we can see from a Table 1 below, the cultural dimensions are undergoing some modifications during the time. However, we can see that the main idea and the importance of the values are remaining the same. At first glance, these five variants seem to be mostly closed to the Hofstede's five dimensions model, but deeper analysis suggests that the other models help to modify, clarify, and, in some cases, reposition dimensions so they are more relevant for the contemporary workplace. As a next step, we described how exactly, these differences influence on the major process of management in MNCs.

1.4 The culture as a factor influencing the key processes of the management of the company

Leadership in the context of cross-cultural peculiarity

In an increasingly globalized world, there are increased requirements for effective leadership. Hofstede and his cultural dimensions helped researchers to determine how the business leader needs to understand, what are the main requirements of his job, so he can manage better a global organization. The role of a global leader in MNCs becomes more difficult. It is necessary to consider, what leadership is and how the authors understand the importance of a leader. The leader is a member of the group, which has an impact on the group's position, performance decisions, to a greater extent than a regular member of the group. According to Robert House, "leaders influence others to achieve group or organizational goals" House, R.J. Javidan, M., Hanges, P., and Dorfman, P. 2002. Understanding Cultures and Implicit Leadership Theories Across the Globe: An Introduction to Project GLOBE, Journal of World Business, 37 (1) 3-10. . In addition, "the ability of an individual to influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute toward the effectiveness and success of the organization of which they are members" Ibid, p.5 (House et al. 2002,). The author believes, that people have beliefs and assumptions, characteristics and behaviors that distinguish leaders from ordinary people, effective leaders from ineffective, and spiritual leaders from the evil one. These beliefs and assumptions people have about leadership is influenced by what values people think is right attributed to the leadership behavior and what motives they have for taking this leadership behavior. The leader has to understand cross-cultural differences, because it is crucial to establish trust inside the company between different workflow participants. The classical concept of leadership reveal the authors Lewin, Lippitt, and White, which in 1939 identified three main leadership styles Lewin, Lippitt, & White. 1939. Patterns of aggressive behavior in experimentally created "social climates." Journal of Social Psychology, 10, 271- 299. : "democratic", "authoritarian" and "laissez faire" leadership. The Authoritarian leaders usually take most of decisions by themselves. For their part, "laissez faire" leaders allow subordinates to make all the decisions (style not suited for business organizations). Democratic leaders usually decide jointly with their subordinates.

In the GLOBE project (House, 2002) the authors, who participated in the project identified six cultural dimensions (CLT), which more deeply characterized the leadership styles House R., Hanges P. 2002. Understanding cultures and implicit leadership theories across the globe an introduction to project GLOBE . Charismatic leader is characterized by a high level of demonstration of honesty, determination, and productivity. This type of leadership characteristic of the leader of the sacrifice and inspiration of its employees. On the other hand, this kind of leadership can be "toxic" and lead to "autocracy" (autocratic commanding). Several features characterize a leader focused on teamwork (Team oriented): diplomacy, collaboration and integration. A Self-protective leadership is characterized by egocentricity, above all. All these characteristics of different leaderships can lead to conflict. "Participative" is a specific (non-autocratic) leadership, which can be characterized with a collective behavior, the leader, who encourages employees (members of the team). The leader focuses on people (Human orientation leadership) possess such qualities as humility, compassion, and selflessness. "Autonomous" - a leader who makes decisions without consultation.

The author of this research considered three of the Hofstede`s dimensions: Index of power distance, individualism - collectivism and uncertainty avoidance. It is scientifically proven, these dimensions "are the most widely used in the field of cross-cultural leadership" (Triandis, 1995; Adler, 2002). The power distance index refers to "the degree to which a society accepts the fact that power in institutions and organizations is distributed unequally" Hofstede, G.H. 1980 Culture's Consequences: International Differences in Work-Related Values. (Hofstede 1980) . The power distance index exists in all cultures. It is important to know that it describes how people of a given culture perceive a vertical power distance. For example, representatives of culture with high power distance index require more, and at the same time, they are used to the control system from top to down Javidan, M.; Dorfman, W.; de Luque, M. 2006. In the eye of the beholder: Cross cultural lessons in leadership from project Globe, Academy of management perspectives Volume: 20 Issue: 1 Pages: 67-90 (Mansour, 2006). Representatives of the individualistic culture focus more on their personal interests than the interests of a group or organization Hofstede, G.H. 1980 Culture's Consequences: International Differences in Work-Related Values. (Hofstede,1983). As a rule, members of individualistic cultures and members of cultures with a low index of uncertainty avoidance can be more adventurous. In a contrast, collectivist culture "characterized by an emphasis on cohesive group of people who support and care for one another" Franke, R., Hofstede, G. and Bond, M. 1991. Cultural Roots of Economic Performance: A Research Note, Strategic Management Journal, 12, 165-173 (Franke, Hofstede, & Bond, 1991). The third dimension, which is strongly linked to leadership is the index of uncertainty avoidance. Hofstede, argue this index indicates how much the members of the group feel uncomfortable, if there is this uncertainty. Cultures with a high index of uncertainty avoidance, trying to get around obscure situations, providing a stable environment and clear rules Hofstede, G.H. 1980 Culture's Consequences: International Differences in Work-Related Values. (Hofstede, 1980). Accordingly, leaders with a high index of uncertainty avoidance are representatives from Germany, Japan, Spain, because they are aggressive people and they are the drivers of the company's achievements. Therefore, they also have long-term orientation for the future. At that time the leaders from Denmark and the UK, in contrast, are more relaxed. Usually, these are representatives of cultures with a low index of uncertainty avoidance. in addition we can assume that they have short-term orientation for the future Hodgetts, M., & Luthans, F. 2003. International Management: Culture, Strategies, and Behavior, McGraw-Hill, New York. (Hodgetts & Luthans, 2003).

On the other hand, the authors of the GLOBE project also explores how different types of cultures, according to Hofstede's dimensions and modifications of the House consider a certain behavior of the leader. For example, leaders who are representatives of a culture of high power distance index usually forced their subordinates to make their own decisions. On the other hand, the leaders focused on the people usually are tolerant of the mistakes of their employees. In collectivist cultures, leaders encourage loyalty among the members of this team. In cultures of gender egalitarianism, most of the leaders are males, because they usually have higher education. The authors of the GLOBE project believe that the most successful leaders are people from cultures with high gender egalitarianism.

Problem solving decision making in a multicultural environment

As it was already found above, leadership is the ability to take responsibility for others. Therefore, an important factor in the company's management is the decision-making process. There are several types of decision-making that are bound to different culture Heller F. 1969. Participation, Managerial Decision-Making, and Situational Variables, Organizational behavior and human performance 4, 227-241 . An independent decision, without explanation accepted by the manager without any prior consultation with his subordinates, the characteristic style for individualistic cultures with a high index of power distance. High index of power distance from power means that you have less powerful members of society accept their place and realize the existence of formal hierarchical structures. Another type is independent decision, with an explanation of decisions made without prior consultation with subordinates. After that, a thee manager formally explains the reasons why he made this decision Bass, B. 1967. Some effects on a group of whether and when the head reveals his opinion. Organizational Behavior and Human Performances, 2, 375-382. (Bass, 1967).

The so called "Pre-advice" type is a form of decision making, which occurs only after consultation with one or more subordinates. The Manager takes the decision, but influenced by the opinions of his subordinates. The last type of decision making process is "Joint decision making". This process occurs when there is a consensus - team meeting in which one or more subordinates are involved in the decision-making process. This type of decision making process is typical of collectivist societies and cultures with a low index of power distance. Low index of power distance means that the culture expects and accepts democratic relations with the managerial body of the company, and members of society are treated as equal. Conflicts often impede the decision-making process. They arise due to misunderstanding of the partners within the team. The conflict, according to Kaushal and Kvantes (2006) is "a common facet of our everyday lives. Seen as a perceived incompatibility of interests, conflict is often caused by a misalignment of goals, motivations, or actions between two parties that can be real or only perceived to exist Kaushal, R. & Kwantes, C. T. 2006. The role of culture and personality in choice of conflict management strategy, International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 30, 579-603 .

Therefore, the authors (Brett J, Behfar K & Kern M, 2009) believe that the cultural factor has a great impact during decision-making, especially when decisions must be made quickly or when the situation needs to perform in advance. They believe that American managers usually make decisions quickly and with relatively little analysis in compression with managers from other countries. Brett. J., Behfar K., Kern M. C. 2009. Managing multicultural team, Eight Unique Perspectives on Becoming a Stronger Leader, Harvard Business Review, 85 - 96

1.5 Peculiarities of the process of negotiations from a cross-cultural aspect

Every person who has experience in international business knows that negotiation practices differ around the world. MNCs often work with different price lists for different regions of the world. They know, for example, that at a time when buyers from Germany want to know exactly how much is this product, the Arabs need to bargain to lower the price. In order that the company managed to sell at the same price at which they want it, companies need to adapt its offer to different practices of negotiation. All this means that there is no single model of negotiation, because culture plays an important role.

Any negotiations are part of management (Leadership); however, the social impact in the process of negotiation is described in the literature as a separate subject.

The participants during the process of negotiation are representatives of a particular culture, whether national, ethnic, professional or any combination of many other types of crops (Horst, Lieutenant Colonel, 2007) Horst P., Colonel J.L. 2007. Cross-cultural negotiations, A Research Report Submitted to the Faculty In Partial Fulfillment of the Graduation Requirements.

Cultural background of these participants, which includes values related to a common culture, will play a significant role during the negotiations. It is particularly important factor, because "negotiation is a notion that seldom holds the same meaning within different cultural groups. Is negotiating defending a position and sticking to it (a traditional French view); is it looking for an agreement, even if sometimes detrimental to content (a more British attitude); or is it getting to know one another and aiming for harmony in execution (Japan)? In any case, it is certain that two groups who negotiate without agreeing on the finality of what is bringing them together have very little chance of reaching a satisfactory agreement." (Jeanne Brett, Behfar K & Kern M, 2009) Brett. J., Behfar K., Kern M. C. 2009. Managing multicultural team, Eight Unique Perspectives on Becoming a Stronger Leader, Harvard Business Review, 85 - 96 .

A negotiator from one culture may view the negotiation process as a power struggle, while his partner may see the same process of negotiation as the possibility of cooperation. Reflecting the cultural differences of Hofstede, we can say that there is a demonstration of the differences between a high IDV (individualistic), and low IDV (collectivistic) culture. Graham and colleagues (Graham, 1994) Graham, J. L., Ivenko, L. I., & Rajan, M. N. 1992. Explorations of negotiation behaviors in ten foreign cultures using a model developed in the United States., Management of Science, 40, 70-95 found in his study that if one party adheres to the approach focused on problem resolution, the other party usually does the same. The data that Graham and his colleagues received, evidences of an explicit connection between the results of the negotiations and the parameters of Hofstede. On one hand, negotiators representing individualistic culture, have lower rates of use of approach-oriented problem solving. On the other hand, collectivism leads negotiators to participate in more integrative and less distributive negotiations. Representatives of collectivist cultures are negotiating that actually does not look competitive. This is because in the collectivist culture the success center is a group (team) and its work. Collectivist societies consider that communication always leads to a great exchange of information (Drake L.E., 2001) Drake, L.E. 2001. The culture-negotiation link: Integrative and distributive bargaining through an intercultural communication lens. Human Communication Research, 27 (3): 317-349. .

Hofstede believes that the negotiators who are representatives of cultures with a large power distance Hofstede GJ, Jonker CM, Verwaart, T. 2010. Cultural Differentiation of Negotiating Agents, Group decision and negotiation, 79 are not used to serious negotiations.

When people from cultures with high index of power distance are in a process of negotiations, they are usually in the same position as their opponent. They expect that their partners in this process have lower rank than theirs. If one of the participants in process of negotiations is from a culture with a high index of power distance, there will not be any problems during negotiations. The demand of the negotiator, who possess a higher rank, will be accepted, and his opponent will be modest and soft.

For their part, negotiators from a culture with a low index of power distance will not yield to pressure.

Hofstede (2010) Ibid and his colleagues Jonker and Verwaart argue there is a correlation between the index of uncertainty avoidance and negotiation process. Negotiators who are representatives of a culture with a high index of uncertainty avoidance have an emotional style of negotiation, they are doing everything to ensure that their business partners understand this. They are not willing to adapt to the style of their opponents. They focus on quality and avoid risks in business, especially when they are communicating with strangers. Members from cultures with high index of uncertainty avoidance, reckon that the time is money. They want to go straight to his goal, and impatient during the negotiation. On the other hand, the representatives of cultures with a low index of uncertainty avoidance prefer the process of negotiations to go faster. They try to adapt their behavior to their opponents, although they are not willing to come to an agreement at any price. They do not show their emotions.

For the members from collectivist cultures negotiation must precede the formation of informal relationships. If something goes wrong, then there will be no negotiations. During the talks, representatives of collectivist cultures distinguish "in-group" and "out-group" partners. They feel obliged to be more flexible with partners belonging to the "in-group", more hesitant to interrupt negotiations with partners "in-group" and try to maintain harmony as long as the partner follows the rules of "in-group".

In response to the offer sent by "in-group" partners, negotiators will be modest, but if they are negotiating with "out-group" partners, they will be more confident. If "out-group" partner does not make any concessions during talks with the representatives of collectivist cultures, negotiations are likely to fail. Responsible for "in-group" welfare and compliance with the rules of the group always play a big role in collectivist culture.

The representatives of the individualistic culture is not very modest during negotiations. If they retreat or refuse they are not doing it with the purpose, to maintain harmony.

The comparison of the masculine and feminine culture can be interpreted as a preference for cooperation. The representatives of masculine culture are interested that the deal was concluded quickly and the products themselves were high quality. They are also impatient, and if the proposal sent by the partner, they do not like, they quickly would have avoided it. Every subsequent negotiations will be considered without regard to the fact that the participants in the negotiations are already familiar. Each new contract is created from scratch. Close cooperation between the negotiators (women's culture) is interested in relations with partners, and building trust is important. The amount of goods or level of quality is not the greatest of interest, because the relationship built during negotiation might pay off in future negotiations. Given the interest in the relationship with a trading partner, a first negotiation with a partner takes time.

Representatives of culture with a long-term orientation to the future, are often tend to see the negotiation process as a small step in a long process, and their decisions depend on their estimates of the profitability of these negotiations. In addition, they show great patience in negotiations, so they do not stop the negotiations. Representatives of culture with a short-term future orientation, on the other hand, are reliable partners, because they follow the standards of appropriate behavior. They are inferior and patience are the partners of higher status, do not show distrust of him. Cateora (1990), interpreting ideas Hall says that, "communication with representatives of high-context culture depends heavily on the context or approaches of non-verbal communication, while representatives of low context cultures pay more attention to explicit verbal communication" Cateora, P. 1983. International Marketing, 5th ed. Homewood, IL:Richard D. Irwin.

1.6 Cross-cultural peculiarities of motivation in MNCs

Motivation initiates behavior of a person, which is focused on the success of the result McCormick, E.J., Ilgen, D.R. 1980. Industrial Psychology. 7th Edition.Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J. . If a multicultural team is motivated to do a better job, then the workflow will be easier, more fun and more active. Cultural values influence how an individual perceives and interpreted the situation, and therefore influences his behavior and motivation (Erez, 2008) Erez, M. 2008. Social-Cultural Influences on Work Motivation. Оn G. C. Ruth Kanfer, Work motivation: past, present, and future 501-538. New York: SIOP Organizational Frontiers Series. Culture not only affects our behavior but also it influences reasons why we choose to behave in a given situation (Hofstede, Hofstede, & Minkov, 2010) Hofstede, G., Hofstede, G. J., & Minkov, M. 2010. Cultures and Organizations: Software for the Mind, Third Edition. McGraw-Hill.

There are at least two sources of motivation. People work for monetary rewards and for the positive assessment of their work and the support of colleagues. In order to achieve success in team motivation, the leader must be strong and should give people both individual attention and to perceive them as one team. There are a number of theories related to motivation in international companies. In 1950, the year Frederick Herzberg creates a two-factor theory of motivation. According to her in the workplace, there are set of factors which determine the degree of satisfaction of the employee. The first type of factors that at work (hygiene factors), factors such as administrative policies of the company, working conditions, salary, interpersonal relations with superiors, colleagues and subordinates. On the other hand it highlights factors that motivate (motivators) -- achievement, recognition, responsibility, opportunities for career growth. From the point of view of culture theory Herzberg corresponds with the culture, which is characterized by low index of distance from power and low index of uncertainty avoidance. In countries in which the index distance from high power observation should not be seen as a hygiene factor, because in this culture there is a great dependence on powerful people and people who are members of this culture, these strong personalities are their motivators. (Hofstede, Hofstede, & Minkov, 2010) Ibid..

Another theory related to motivation of people in MNCs is the X-and Y-theory. Theory X assumes authoritarian management style of the organization, and theory Y, on the other hand implies the democratic management style of the organization. People, who are representatives of the masculinity culture value wealth and additional income, while people who are representatives of the femininity culture, pay attention to working conditions and employee engagement (Greckhamer, 2011) Greckhamer, T. 2011. Cross-culturalDifferences in Compensation Level and Inequality across Occupations: A Set-theoretic Analysis. Organization Studies , 85- 115 . This suggests that different practices of motivating, influencing in femininity culture will be less effective or ineffective in the process of motivating people who are representatives of masculinity culture.

The relationship between cultural dimensions of Hofstede and motivation was studied by Schein (1992) Schein, E. H. 1992. Organizational culture and leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Inc.. Employees in the organization who are members of a culture with a high index of power distance, expect from their superiors to tell them what they have to do and what not to do. That means there is lack of satisfaction of work and less impact on overall performance in comparison with cultures with low index of power distance. On their points, cultures that value wealth (masculinity culture) a positive attitude to work creates a motivation of the people to do their work, because happy employees will devote much time and energy to complete the tasks with the purpose of obtaining money or to climb the corporate ladder. On the other hand, in cultures that value harmony and human relations (femininity culture), satisfied employees may prefer to dedicate more time to social activities that do not necessarily affect the productivity of employees Ng, T. W., Sorensen, K. L., & Yim, F. H. 2009. Does the Job Satisfaction--Job Performance Relationship Vary Across Cultures? Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology , 761-796.. In the collectivistic cultures, the second source of motivation could be so important that high-performance workers often prefer to share their results from work with colleagues, rather than to capitalize on this extra money. In the Western cultures (individualistic culture) motivation of individuals, based on the immature, and therefore primitive, social needs, strive for self-expression, the purpose of which is the top of the hierarchy Trompenaars, F. 1998. Riding the Waves of Culture Understanding Cultural Diversity in Business .

1.7 The culture as a factor influencing multicultural teamwork

Multicultural teams have a number of advantages for international companies, including in-depth knowledge of different markets and skills, a culturally-sensitive customer service. But what exactly does team mean? According to Cheng (2003) one common special feature among all definitions for a team, which is related to the individuals who interact with other people - achievement of the collective goals Cheng, Y. 2003. An examination of the moderating effect of person-team fit on the relations between team heterogeneity and team performance. (Ph.D. dissertation), Southern Illinois University Carbondale.. This feature differentiates the "team" from simply informal groups Stout, R. J., Salas, E., & Fowlkes, J. E. 1997. Enhancing teamwork in complex environments through team training. Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice, 1, 169-182.. On the basis of this definition Vliet and Amelsfoort (2008) offer a clear definition of what does the team mean van Vliet, A. J., & van Amelsfoort, D. 2008. Multinational military teams. RTO Technical Report on multinational military operations and intercultural factors, TR-HFM- 120, 4-1/16. NATO Research and Technology Organization.: the team consists of two or more people united by a common goal, who are taking some decisions which is related to the ultimate aim. Each member has a specific role and has special knowledge and skills that help to solve relevant problems. Moreover, he suggests that team members are interdependent Ibid. We define a multicultural team as a group consisting of "three or more people who have different nationalities." Hence, we take into account that there might be differences in cultural values even within one country Kirkman, B., & Shapiro, D. 2005. The impact of cultural value diversity on multicultural team performance. In Managing Multinational Teams: Global Perspectives, DL Shapiro, MA von Glinow and JLC Cheng (eds.) (Kirkman and Shapiro, 2005), for instance in Russia. Adler, pointed out that multicultural teams consist of "three or more ethnic backgrounds or ex- united nations" Adler, N. 2002, International Dimensions of Organizational Behaviour. Kent Publishing Company.

Cultural differences among collaborators are to be known and well understood before innovation is created. This means that cultural competence is required from the team members which according to Cross (1989) comprises set of congruent behaviours, attitudes and policies that are integrated in a system, organization or group which enables the people in that system to work effectively in cross-cultural situation Cross, T., Bazron, B., Dennis, K., & Isaacs, M. 1989. Towards A Culturally Competent System of Care Volume I. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Child Development Center, CASSP Technical Assistance Center..

Because of improvement of eco systems and business networks inside and outside the organization, MNCs are paying attention to how does the collaboration is developing. Since collaboration is a primary focus for organizations, there needs to be more attention on the skills and competencies of internal multicultural teams. Authors MacCormack and Forbath (2008) found out something interesting. Most of the innovative firms make strategic investments in collaboration based upon the following key areas MacCormack, A., Forbath T. 2008. Learning the Fine Art of Global Collaboration, Harvard Business Review:

- People - recruitment, training, evaluation, and reward systems for `soft' skills training for managers to improve motivation and collaboration abilities.

- Processes - learning-driven approaches for collaboration in order to identify team members` roles and responsibilities