Senior Mechanical Engineer

Building Trust Across Cultural Boundaries

Building Trust Across Cultural Boundaries

“The most productive people are the most trusting people. If this seems to be an astonishing statement, it shows how distorted the concept of trust has become. Trust is one of the most essential qualities of human relationships. Without it, all human interaction, all commerce, all society would disappear."

Although an organization obviously cannot succeed without high levels of trust between members, most aggressive companies do little to actively build trust. The typical corporation spends huge sums of money training its managers in interpersonal skills, but pays lip service to the critical issue of trust.

Apparently in low trust groups, interpersonal relationships interfere with and distort perceptions of the problem. Energy and creativity are diverted from finding comprehensive, realistic solutions, and members use the problem as an instrument to minimize their vulnerability. In contrast, in high trust groups there is less socially generated uncertainty and problems are solved more effectively.

How can trust be developed and maintained on teams?

There are three linked approaches to the establishment of trust between individuals on teams:

◙ Emotional bonding: bonds can be created between members of teams through informal, “after-hours”, face-to-face meetings in convivial settings. Informal time should be scheduled just as formal time.

◙ Conceptual understanding: employees should be provided with an intellectual understanding of how cultural similarities and differences influence business transactions.

◙ Trust: trust can be measured using the appropriate tools. When monitored and reported back to the team and the team leader, problems can be identified and overcome before they endanger team effectiveness.

CONCLUSION

Building trust is a critical step in the creation and development of multicultural and/or geographically-dispersed teams, which are so common in the pharmaceutical industry. Cultural differences can create misunderstandings between team members before they have had a chance to establish any credibility with each other.

Managers of such teams need to recognize that building trust between culturally different people is a complex process, since each culture has its own way of building trust and its own interpretation of what trust is. To be effective, this process often requires a significant amount of time and communication.

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