Leading Internationally: Managing Intercultural Conflicts for Success
In a heterogeneous team, whether in the line or in a project, as a leader or project manager, you encounter a lot of diversity. Different personalities, (national) cultures, or work styles need to be balanced with each other so that everyone can be successful together as a high-performance team.
Recognizing Conflict Potential – Revealing Intercultural Dimensions
What you need: pay attention to the underlying interests and values behind the different positions. Make these conscious, give them a name, and bring the interests and values into a good balance. Stereotyping is allowed, as long as it contributes humorously exaggerated insights and narrow attributions are subsequently expanded. The "meticulous German" is ideally also factual and clear, while the "chaotic Italian" is interactive and flexible! Cultures act differently in terms of
- relationships with other people,
- interaction with their environment, and
- handling of time.
Italian Emotionality versus German Fact Knowledge
Let's examine a pointed example. The meeting is scheduled for 2 p.m. The Italian, Mr. Scalofari, team leader at a major Italian automotive manufacturer, is still having coffee with colleagues and casually discussing the important task that will be the focus of the meeting. He prioritizes (collective) relationships over punctuality. His German colleague, Mr. Möllemeier, a sparring partner in the supplier sector, is sitting alone in the meeting room, accustomed to handling tasks one by one and getting them ready for signing. He values punctuality, precision, and individual reliability over social interaction. He had received a last-minute invitation to the cafeteria before the meeting, but in his view, having coffee is a waste of time and doesn't fit spontaneously into his schedule.
Leading Agilely: Balancing Values and Interests
When approaches between cultures are very different, it can quickly lead to conflicts that are initially not so obvious but have a strong underlying impact. In fact, these different "working cultures" are the biggest challenges for international projects, far ahead of technical issues, legal-political questions, project management methodology, infrastructure, or other relevant aspects. Table 1: A comparison of Italian and German cultures.
| Dimension | Italian | German |
| Interaction with People and Environment | Relationship-oriented emotional | Rule-oriented fact-based |
| Communication | slightly indirect | direct |
| Handling of Time | handling multiple tasks simultaneously | handling tasks sequentially |
Here, Italian relationship orientation meets German fact-based approach. Both sides can face challenges if they only uphold their own values. The German might perceive the Italian as overly compromising, while the Italian might see the German as cuttingly cool. (Inter-cultural accusations and alienation directions). However, if they recognize that they can complement each other and "stay on the horse," both sides move towards each other. This creates synergy and successful collaboration. As a leader and project manager, you can achieve this by appreciatively highlighting these different perspectives and the great power of mutual complementarity and motivating both sides to come together.
Value Pyramid as a Flexible Conflict Resolution
Helpful tools include the Value Pyramid, which helps align different values, and appreciative conversation techniques for conflict resolution. Guidelines for the Value Pyramid - consider answers to the following questions:
- Who is in conflict with whom?
- Situation? Trigger? Background?
- Difficulties encountered?
- Which (two) underlying values are in conflict with each other?
- Distortion of values? (Accusatory and alienation directions)
- Common 3rd value resonating?
- What possible solution approaches are there?
- How can these solution ideas be practically implemented?
Creatively Utilizing Diversity
For our example, this could look like: The Italian picks up the German colleague shortly before 2 p.m. for coffee. During coffee, they discuss important aspects of the task that the Italian had received electronically from the German colleague and reluctantly skimmed through. Instead of getting upset, the German delays the finalization until the day after tomorrow and decides to quickly get the Italian colleague's opinion on another project. It turns out well that they coincidentally run into the project leader while leaving the cafeteria. The positive outcome: Additional work is completed, and the meeting room may remain empty.
