Fundamentals of Human Resource Management 5th Edition by Raymond Noe, John Hollenbeck, Barry Gerhart, Patrick Wright

Exercise 6

We Thought Everyone Liked Group Projects
When trainers prepare classroom training programs, they often include group exercises and activities as a way to encourage teamwork. They expect that participants will get to know one another and help one another learn. Ideally, these exercises break down cultural barriers.
In some cases, though, trainers haven't taken full account of how people from different cultures will react to these activities. Following one training program that took place in the United States, a Japanese participant noted that she dreaded the times when the instructor asked everyone to break up into teams. This trainee felt uncomfortable inviting herself into a group and even more uncomfortable waiting for others to invite her to join a group after it formed. In another U.S. training program with Asian participants, the trainer held a competition in which the teams were assigned to list major events in the economic history of the United States. Later, an Asian trainee mentioned that the experience felt awful because his lack of knowledge on the subject made him a burden to the team. The team members ignored him while they raced to complete the task.
If you were planning team projects for an international group, how would you ensure that everyone was prepared to participate fully?
SOURCE: Based on Wei-Wen Chang, "Is the Group Activity Food or Poison in a Multicultural Classroom?" T + D , April 2010, pp. 34-37.