The KAPResources Consulting firm, has asked two relocated U.S. employees (1 female and 1 male expatriate) along with two newly hired male Spanish employees and the female French HR Director to assemble themselves as a team under the leadership of Carla Baskil (Puerto Rico office). Initially, Carla will meet with her team in person and then, on an ongoing basis, meet via video conferencing. This small team of seven in Spain will, once interconnected as a team, be tasked with creating the larger office team with a total of 75 employees. Carla knows that creating this initial team will help the larger group of employees and their spouses acculturate to the company and the country.
You, in the role of Carla, are tasked with leading this small team of five to make them feel more interconnected. This will prepare them to better guide the larger team of 70 additional employees to feel more like a team, thus making them more productive and content in their employment.
An idea occurs to you to have a dinner party where everyone brings their spouse for a total of 11 dinner guests (which includes you).
Read the following article on cross-cultural training (Kassar, Rouhana, & Lythreatis, 2015), and then think of how it might apply to the scenario and checklist items below.
Checklist:
- Propose a plan for the dinner event for employees and spouses to meet, interact, and feel more interconnected.
- How might you as Carla motivate the team and spouses to better interconnect and break the cultural barriers?
- What activities at the dinner event might enhance the adaptation process?
- Explain how you will overcome the cultural challenges involved.