Cross- cultural Communication This page intentionally left blank

Building trust
Creating an atmosphere of trust and building relationships is crucial to suc-
cess in building multicultural teams. This is particularly important as the team 
may only meet infrequently. Gains from cultural diversity are not automatic, 
and training as well as time is necessary for multicultural teams to overcome 
cultural, organizational and procedural barriers that uniform, single- nation 
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146 Cross-Cultural Communication
teams are often able to resolve quickly and instinctively. The biggest problem 
is a lack of trust due to the fact that members may find it difficult to over-
come misunderstandings, deep- rooted prejudices and stereotypes.
Schutz (1960) developed a model of three levels of ‘give and take’ relation-
ships in the trust- building process developed from his work with the US Navy:
Inclusion 
example
Can you join me/us?
Control 
example 
Do it this way.
Affection 
example
Did it go well?
He saw the trust- building process as three stages which tend to follow the 
same sequence in the development of a group of people into an effective 
team. In this process, people move from being just a member of a group into 
being a member of a team. Inclusion activity is followed by control issues 
and finally, if relationships are established, by affection. The initial inclu-
sion phase is most important and requires special emphasis at the beginning 
of each meeting of the team. There are different views in different cultures 
as to how much time and effort should be directed towards relationship 
building prior to ‘getting down to business’:
In many Asian countries, group cohesion is of primary importance. When 
Asian members are in an international team, they tend to place emphasis 
on maintaining harmony at the expense of expressing strong opinions, 
thus avoiding any potential conflict. In contrast, members from Western 
cultures will tend to show independence and self- expression, and will 
question and challenge the opinions of others. They may also display 
emotion, annoyance and frustration with their Asian team colleagues.
The cultures of Southern Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and 
Japan are generally more relationship- oriented; people here may place 
more emphasis on the ‘getting to know each other’ phase and will feel 
pressurized if that phase is cut short. For them, business is personal and 
will develop only from the trust established by personal relationships.
Once created, trust is at all times fragile. It has to be nurtured slowly and 
can be destroyed by one thoughtless action. It is built up and sustained in 
different ways:
In Germany, trust is heavily weighted towards an organization meeting its 
agreed commitments, including delivery on time, punctuality and integ-
rity throughout the process. In other cultures, not meeting deadlines 
is less critical and will not in itself lead to a loss of trust if personal 
relationships remain strong.
In the USA and Western Europe, trust is enhanced by looking people in 
the eye, which is considered a sign of respect and sincerity. In East Asia, for 
example, direct eye contact can be taken as intimidating and challenging.
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International Team Building and Teamworking 147