Team processes include a number of important areas such as communication,
problem solving and decision making, conflict management, stages of development,
and leadership. All of these processes play an extremely important role in the working
and effectiveness of multicultural teams. For example, norm setting and clarification
is an important team development process. A norm in the context of multicultural
teams is a behavior, a way of doing, which the team practices on an ongoing basis,
and it serves as a ground rule. Kopp (2005) talks about the notion of hybrid culture
as a set of communication norms that are designed by the group. She goes on to
observe that such norms may be explicitly agreed upon or emerge over a period of
1 Towards Understanding Multicultural Teams 13
time. This notion and team roles that contribute to effective group process are
explored further in Chapter 5. Chapters 6 and 7 provide comprehensive discussions
on leadership and intercultural communication. Conflict processes are discussed in
Chapter 8 and problem-solving and decision-making processes in Chapter 9.
In many ways the major focus of our examination in the book will be the teamlevel