In my first year of NUS, I took up the post of vice chairperson of Civil Engineering Club and had to manage a team of NUS students also from CE to work on a certain upcoming event. Two of them were Indian (A) and Chinese (B) respectively. I have tasked A to work with B to send out an email blast to inform the NUS CE cohort about the event so that they could sign up. As a leader, I hoped that members A and B could take charge themselves and not just follow orders from me. Hence, I tried not to interfere unless absolutely necessary.
However, B called me one day and said in a dominating voice that she could not work with A as she could not agree with A's working style. B also complained about communication issues with A as well and requested to work with another Chinese member as she feels she can work better with her. I called A to find out what the issue was about. A's tone was more subtle and explained the situation to me calmly. According to A, he was trying to understand the steps necessary to complete the task. However, B already has an idea on how to draft out the e-mail and felt A was wasting her time. He could feel that there was a conflict but chose not to care as the task was at hand. I scheduled a quick meeting the next day to settle any differences they had and they seemed to understand each other better after more time working together.
A's approach to the task was more cautious compared to B's style where she would rush to complete everything as soon as possible. Both had their own ways but they came to a compromise due to the urgency of the task. I think that when it comes to handling such conflicts, both of them should look to compromise and understand each other's style of work instead of avoiding the problem. This way, things would work out smoothly and we can avoid any further intercultural conflict.
Was the issue resolved? This kind of thing will be common at the wokplace especially in a cosmopolitan one because people bring all their cultural practices knowingly or unknowingly to bear upon the way they work and interact with people. This makes the work of a leader that much more difficult. So it's very important to give clear instructions, to monitor progress regularly and to keep the channels of communication open so people can approach you when in doubt. It's also extremely important to factor in individual work styles once you get to know your people well and then bulit trust to a point where you can talk to them freely about it- not easy to do- but necessary.
ReplyDeleteIt was resolved after we did a After Action Review. (AAR) I believe that with sufficient time, problems like this would be solved eventually. Team rapport is not built overnight, let alone relationships between people with different work styles and cultural backgrounds. I agree that there has to be a certain level of trust between a leader and subordinates for the job to be completed effectively.
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