TEAMWORK PERCEPTION ON WESTERN AND THAI MEMBERS WITHIN A THAI CONTEXT

Abstract

Thai workforce should always be prepared for the inflow of western workforce that is gradually increasing every year. Therefore, Thai employees should understand and learn to perform in team with western workforce. With that being said, the objective of this paper is to recommend the core principals in forming a multi-national team consisting of westerners and Thais. The framework that is used to put a scope on this research is Hofstede’s cultural dimension and Tuckman’s four-stages of group development. In-depth interview session with multi-national participants is the data collection method. The participants are a mixture of subordinates and middle-to-top level managers in multi-national corporates based in Thailand. The Thai teamwork’s and western teamwork’s cultural dimensions are then compared throughout each of the group development stages. The result of the findings reveals that there are a few similarities in cultural dimension of Thai and western at each stage of the group development. And it is within these similarities that the Thai and western team members should set their ground rules accordingly in order to prosper as a group. After the framework is implemented, conclusion can be drawn. During the forming stage, the group should clarify the role of each member. In the storming stage, the group should fully let each member express their own style of working. Within the norming stage, the leader should set a clear mutual goal for the group. And last, during performing stage, all members should promote friendliness among the group. Therefore, these principals are the recommendation of this paper. KEY WORDS: TEAMWORK / MULTI-NATIONAL / WESTERN / THAI / TEAM DEVELOPMENT