Shelby Farris
INT 220 6-1
International Team Email
To: Manager
Subject: New Team Collaboration
Dear Manager,
First, I want to thank you for choosing me for this position; I am very excited
about this opportunity! We have a very diverse team of skilled employees
and I look forward to working with them all. I plan to manage this team
successfully by practicing good ethics and displaying a good cultural
understanding of each team member. I understand that managing a team
across geographical locations and that have different cultures, beliefs, and
backgrounds, can be both rewarding as well as challenging. Here is an
outline of how I plan to address the cultural considerations of my team,
potential conflicts, holiday policies, and different time zones, as well as the
management approaches I plan to utilize.
i. I plan to utilize the Holfstede Insight Framework so that I can
understand the cultural differences between individuals on my team
and my own culture. This will help me to better manage them as
individuals and to be culturally sensitive as well as to communicate
more effectively.
ii. Management approaches. The management approach/leadership
style I use will mostly be considered as a Visionary approach,
however, some could view it as having democratic or participative
tendencies- due to my valuing the input of my team members. That is
the only characteristic of a participative approach that I use and
display, as I do believe in obtaining regular input, work-related
opinions, and even the feelings of the people on my team.-However, I
do not need, or ask for their input on critical or time-pressed
, decisions, as I know that could hinder schedules, lessen my position,
and even cause unnecessary conflict at times. Also, I believe that
collecting democratic input on every situation and decision- could
potentially cause teams to confuse the hierarchy in an organization.
My team members will always feel valued, respected, and
motivated, and in return, I will have their trust and respect.
However, they will also know that I have high expectations of the work
I task them with and that I will always expect no less than their full
potential on all tasks I delegate to them [which are the few
characteristics of an authoritative leader I will display and utilize
effectively]. I have qualities and characteristics of multiple
management styles, but I feel that I fit mostly into the visionary
approach, as I lead with trust from my team, and my team follows-
with the motivation, value, and optimism that I constantly provide
them with.
1. Kaspar. Kaspar is from Japan. Japan has one of the highest uncertainty
avoidance index scores. This means that Japanese people have high
predictability and like to avoid uncertainty at all costs. The Japanese
people are extremely unlikely to do anything without precedence. In
corporate Japan, a lot of effort is put into feasibility studies and all of
the risk factors must be worked out before any project can start.
Taking this into consideration, I will ensure that any task I delegate to
Kaspar is very detailed and always has a risk analysis to accompany
the task. On the other end of the scale is the United States, where
people are very likely to accept change and take risks. I will have to
keep in mind that Kaspar’s culture is very different than my own when
communicating with him and delegating tasks to him. The power
distance index between our two countries is not very far apart and
both are considered intermediate on the scale. However, Japan is
slightly higher than the U.S. and therefore respects their position and
the hierarchy more than a team member from the United States
probably would.
2. Kelly. Kelly is from the United States, like myself, so I am assuming it
will naturally be easier to communicate and work with Kelly (from a
cultural standpoint). Being from the U.S. which has a relatively low
power distance index, but places importance on individualism, I know
that I can delegate tasks to Kelly that may have her working by herself
most of the time. She will most likely not be offended by this but will
INT 220 6-1
International Team Email
To: Manager
Subject: New Team Collaboration
Dear Manager,
First, I want to thank you for choosing me for this position; I am very excited
about this opportunity! We have a very diverse team of skilled employees
and I look forward to working with them all. I plan to manage this team
successfully by practicing good ethics and displaying a good cultural
understanding of each team member. I understand that managing a team
across geographical locations and that have different cultures, beliefs, and
backgrounds, can be both rewarding as well as challenging. Here is an
outline of how I plan to address the cultural considerations of my team,
potential conflicts, holiday policies, and different time zones, as well as the
management approaches I plan to utilize.
i. I plan to utilize the Holfstede Insight Framework so that I can
understand the cultural differences between individuals on my team
and my own culture. This will help me to better manage them as
individuals and to be culturally sensitive as well as to communicate
more effectively.
ii. Management approaches. The management approach/leadership
style I use will mostly be considered as a Visionary approach,
however, some could view it as having democratic or participative
tendencies- due to my valuing the input of my team members. That is
the only characteristic of a participative approach that I use and
display, as I do believe in obtaining regular input, work-related
opinions, and even the feelings of the people on my team.-However, I
do not need, or ask for their input on critical or time-pressed
, decisions, as I know that could hinder schedules, lessen my position,
and even cause unnecessary conflict at times. Also, I believe that
collecting democratic input on every situation and decision- could
potentially cause teams to confuse the hierarchy in an organization.
My team members will always feel valued, respected, and
motivated, and in return, I will have their trust and respect.
However, they will also know that I have high expectations of the work
I task them with and that I will always expect no less than their full
potential on all tasks I delegate to them [which are the few
characteristics of an authoritative leader I will display and utilize
effectively]. I have qualities and characteristics of multiple
management styles, but I feel that I fit mostly into the visionary
approach, as I lead with trust from my team, and my team follows-
with the motivation, value, and optimism that I constantly provide
them with.
1. Kaspar. Kaspar is from Japan. Japan has one of the highest uncertainty
avoidance index scores. This means that Japanese people have high
predictability and like to avoid uncertainty at all costs. The Japanese
people are extremely unlikely to do anything without precedence. In
corporate Japan, a lot of effort is put into feasibility studies and all of
the risk factors must be worked out before any project can start.
Taking this into consideration, I will ensure that any task I delegate to
Kaspar is very detailed and always has a risk analysis to accompany
the task. On the other end of the scale is the United States, where
people are very likely to accept change and take risks. I will have to
keep in mind that Kaspar’s culture is very different than my own when
communicating with him and delegating tasks to him. The power
distance index between our two countries is not very far apart and
both are considered intermediate on the scale. However, Japan is
slightly higher than the U.S. and therefore respects their position and
the hierarchy more than a team member from the United States
probably would.
2. Kelly. Kelly is from the United States, like myself, so I am assuming it
will naturally be easier to communicate and work with Kelly (from a
cultural standpoint). Being from the U.S. which has a relatively low
power distance index, but places importance on individualism, I know
that I can delegate tasks to Kelly that may have her working by herself
most of the time. She will most likely not be offended by this but will
