Multicultural teambuilding: case study of a German-Czech Greenfield project

Abstract

Solid empirical evidence, produced during a German-Czech Greenfield project, formed the basis of this article. The medium-sized company's initial situation showed a lack of mutual understanding and trust among the management teams. This constrained and prevented management from solving the problems inherent at the start-up stage. The case study focuses on the multicultural teambuilding approach with an overall goal to increase collaboration and trust among the German-Czech team members. A team charter was developed to bridge differences and to maintain similarities in participant's work culture in order to define a common team culture. The article will end with the evaluation of the workshop results as well as an exploration of the most effective time to implement intercultural competence development in the course of international projects.