Reflecting On Intrapersonal And Interpersonal Communication Essay In A Cross-Cultural Team.

Identifying Communication Issues in a Cross-Cultural Team

Write a essay reflecting on your interpersonal (between people) and intrapersonal (within the person) team communication experiences throughout the team developmental stages in the lead up to your Team Presentation.

The essay provides information on my views on working under a team. The problem has been occur due to the communication gap in a team. My group consists of 2 Australians, 1 German and 1 African member so an accent problem is always present. To diminish this, meetings are arranged on a particular day in a weak where each individual shares their thoughts and ideas about the project. Along with this, the intrapersonal issues are also discussed in this paper. The paper also provides information about the role of each team member in the project. Furthermore, the paper also gives an idea of the success of the meeting campaign and some idea are also shared for the better improvement of the team.

This is a method by which the group member can understand the language and needs of another member who is belonging to other country.  In my group 2 Australians, 1 German and 1 African members are present so the group member cannot understand the language of other member and hence issues will always take place. In a group, if all the team member work together then an effective result will occur but due to the communication issue, a huge problem has been created in between the members. Since the member are of different nation so diversity contrast is present, and thus it is difficult to understand all the ascent of the member properly (Cannella et al., 2008). Due to the presence of such diversity contrast misunderstandings has been created in terms of knowledge and skills between each team members and if the team has diminished communicating issue then no one can beat them to achieve their goals (Naranjo-Gil, 2009).

The main problem in my team arises due to the non-verbal communication. Due to this problem the team member does not understand the needs, ideas and opinion of other teammates. As the accent of the every member is different so it makes a huge problem to understand everyone's language. Due to this communication problem, it is very difficult to run a team and hence it is not possible to complete the work within the certain period of time (Beauregard, 2010). As the culture of the different member are different so we will do meetings to understand their language so that our team cannot suffer from such problems. The main objectives of the meeting are to understand the accent of the language of our team members. One of the motive is to identify the positive and negative role of each member and how this effect on the group is also been discussed in this meetings. Apart from this the ability to listen to other opinions and ideas also become helpful for making a good team. In this meetings after understanding each of their language the team member decides about their particular roles and responsibility and after that the communication problem should reduce.

Strategies for Overcoming Communication Barriers

Intrapersonal issues occur in a single individual due to the different language of each individual (Fiore, 2008). As per author Larsen, et al., (2008) the intrapersonal conflicts exist in a group as the member present in that team are from different countries and they have different language for their mode of communication. There are some sources that can possess this interpersonal conflict. One is the miscommunication and the divergence factor that makes them frustrated for talking to other people (Klein et al., 2009). Another source is the presence of arrogant attitude that makes interpersonal issues. In a team different person with different personalities are present and their point of view will be different in the same cases and hence a conflict is always present in the team (Bonebright, 2010). On the other hand, less communication within the team member also makes a huge intrapersonal issue.

The conflict can be reduced by the time management factor (Passos, et al., 2011). To diminish the intrapersonal issue a time management course has been done where every member will meet their team member once in a week. If we make a plan to meet with all the team members of our group only of one hour in a weak then the communication problem between our group members will also reduce. In that meeting, we will discuss what sort of problem we are facing and how we can improve our communication skills to understand their language. Apart from this, we will also try to understand their ascent so that no problems of miscommunication will arise in the future. Along with this ensuring the feelings of the team member are also an important factor for reducing the intrapersonal issues.

A team will run smoothly one when the individual member takes part in every event and after that, a successful team will form (Mathieu et al., 2014). As per author Tuckman (1965) there are four stages of team formation those are- forming, storming, norming and performing. In the forming stage the team member must be positive and polite. In this stage the leader played the dominant role as the role and responsibility are not clear to each team member. For this, we have made our meeting timings on every Thursdays from 10 to 11 am. In this meeting, every member will present to communicate with each other so thus the intrapersonal, as well as interpersonal issues, will decrease. If the meetings are continuous and then every individual can understand the accent then only no conflict will arise within the team (Tenga et al., 2010). In the storming stage the team member started to work with each other and thus the conflict between them decreases slowly. For that storming phase we make facebook messenger as our communicating medium. To communicate with the other five members we make a group in the facebook where we can collaborate and discuss all sorts of problems related to our work. When the team member started to work with each other they will then learn about the working styles of individual members. In the third stage or norming stage team members try to solve their differences between each other, respect the member as well as appreciate them for their work. Now the team member knows each member better and help them together to provide a good feedback. Due to the managing property, our team now has been developed to be a good team and the problem of misunderstanding are now been decreases day by day. The last stage is the performing stage where the team members work together to handle the situation without any supervision. All the team members of our group take responsibility of making critical decisions and now they have the power of problem-solving capacity. For this effective meeting, a positive work environment is building up among the team members and the chances of making a good team hence increases. The topic that is selected for the presentation is the ‘Effective meeting.' We have selected 8 peer-reviewed articles for our presentation topic of which everyone has to bring a minimum of 2 articles and after that, the presentation articles are breaks into four different part where individual work of his/ her has been discussed. Communication is the main factor for the growth of a team which helps to improve the project of what they are working for (Mathieu & Rapp, 2009).

The Role of Management and Team Structure in Communication

The process of the effective meeting can make a great success to the team member as well as the group also. The meeting will thus reduce the communication barrier between each individual and the team now thus make their full effort of making the presentation.

The factor that may improve the team processes are as follows:-

• Team structure: - A team composed of the work of individual members who gives their appropriate opinions and ideas for the success of the project. So by selecting an appropriate team leader the success of the project also increases. The dominating person or who can understand the needs and roles of individual members will make a leader.
• Management role: - The team member will manage the team by setting an objective of work. Each member of the group has to perform their individual tasks and give the report to the team leader before submitting the project so no error can arises regarding the topic.

Conclusion

The work concluded that communication issue is the main factor for understanding every member language. All the members of the group are allocated to meet on every Thursday from 10 am onwards and by doing this now the communication gap between us are reduced and now slowly we are understanding their ascent. We make a group in facebook messenger where all members discuss their thoughts and opinion about the project. The topic of our presentation is ‘Effective meeting’ and each individual will submit at least 2 articles related to this topic. Along with this the meeting of every member once in a weak become very successful and the communication problem between individual team members are now decreasing day by day. Apart from this team structure and the role of management also influences to make a good team.

References

Beauregard, T. A. (2010). Introduction: The import of intrapersonal and interpersonal dynamics in work performance. British Journal of Management, 21(2), 225-261.

Bonebright, D. A. (2010). 40 years of storming: a historical review of Tuckman's model of small group development. Human Resource Development International, 13(1), 111-120.

Cannella Jr, A. A., Park, J. H., & Lee, H. U. (2008). Top management team functional background diversity and firm performance: Examining the roles of team member colocation and environmental uncertainty. Academy of Management Journal, 51(4), 768-784.

Fiore, S. M. (2008). Interdisciplinarity as teamwork: How the science of teams can inform team science. Small Group Research, 39(3), 251-277.

Klein, C., DiazGranados, D., Salas, E., Le, H., Burke, C. S., Lyons, R., & Goodwin, G. F. (2009). Does team building work?. Small Group Research, 40(2), 181-222.

Larsen, D., Flesaker, K., & Stege, R. (2008). Qualitative interviewing using interpersonal process recall: Investigating internal experiences during professional-client conversations. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 7(1), 18-37.

Mathieu, J. E., & Rapp, T. L. (2009). Laying the foundation for successful team performance trajectories: The roles of team charters and performance strategies. Journal of Applied Psychology, 94(1), 90.

Mathieu, J. E., Tannenbaum, S. I., Donsbach, J. S., & Alliger, G. M. (2014). A review and integration of team composition models: Moving toward a dynamic and temporal framework. Journal of Management, 40(1), 130-160.

Naranjo-Gil, D. (2009). Management information systems and strategic performances: The role of top team composition. International Journal of Information Management, 29(2), 104-110.

Passos, P., Milho, J., Fonseca, S., Borges, J., Araujo, D., & Davids, K. (2011). Interpersonal distance regulates functional grouping tendencies of agents in team sports. Journal of motor behavior, 43(2), 155-163.

Tenga, A., Holme, I., Ronglan, L. T., & Bahr, R. (2010). Effect of playing tactics on achieving score-box possessions in a random series of team possessions from Norwegian professional soccer matches. Journal of sports sciences, 28(3), 245-255.

Tuckman, B. W. (1965). Developmental sequence in small groups. Psychological bulletin, 63(6), 384.