Social+Support

  Social support is quite often the most important aspect of human interaction especially when we are faced with accomplishing tasks and meeting goals for our organizations. Social support is our ability to read social cues and to act accordingly, thus maintaining and hopefully strengthening relationships as we do so. The focus for this section is to look at the supports that shape our identity and how we interact within multinational teams. First, we will look at the different cultural concepts that impact a relational interaction within an organization; specifically, emotional sharing and social involvement. We will then review different social roles individuals partake in global organizations that can have a significant impact on their ability to meet their individual needs as well as the needs of the team itself.
 * __Social Support __**

Developing social relationships requires, to some degree, emotional sharing. There are two basic ways in which emotions are expressed, either in an //affective// approach where one would be more open in displaying their emotion, whether it is joy, sadness, anger or frustration. The other side is a //neutral// approach, where one refrains from emotion in their responses/interactions (Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner, 1998). Certain cultures are more prone to approach emotional sharing within the work environment where they feel that it is appropriate, and at times needed, for individuals to openly express their feelings to each other and the group. Friction can be caused when individuals from different cultures work together and are not aware of the cultural expectations pertaining to emotional sharing within an organization.

Emotion is only one aspect in how we relate to one another, another being how much we attribute one’s title/status in both professional and personal circles. “Closely related to whether we show emotions in dealing with other people is the degree to which we engage others in specific areas of life and single levels of personality, or diffuse in multiple areas of our lives and at several levels of personality at the same time” (Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner, 1998, p 83). Specific approaches to how one views members of their organization, means the title that the individual carriers within the organization does not extend to the greater social interactions outside of the work environment. A diffused approach would take the opposite approach where the staff member’s title and influence extends beyond the organizational walls. When there is a lack in understanding of how individuals view this level of engagement it will negatively impact the organization’s ability to meet its goals.  There are four aspects of an individual orienting her/him-self to the environment and new culture of a multinational team; roles/role taking, habits and rituals, collected history, and social structure and enactment. When multinational teams develop, members need to reorient themselves to the group process and figure out who they are and what their purpose is within the group. “In a multinational team, this identification process necessarily takes place because the various social cues are absent or confused” (Earley and Gibson, 2002, p 139). Rituals and habits establish norms and rules that individuals can abide by and thus know how to interact with one another (Earley and Gibson, 2002). When establishing new multinational teams, the individuals and groups need to investigate and figure out the rules, or adopt new ones, to establish a working environment. It is shown that when a group has a shared history, it is much easier to understand the social cues and cultural values present, which allows more effective and efficient communication. When individuals come together to establish a multinational team they start by creating a history together that establishes a new culture (Earley and Gibson, 2002). Social structure and enactment within a group is an ever changing process (Earley and Gibson, 2002). The structure is created through individual relationships within the group where members are dependent, to some extent, on each other, thus creating a structure of relationships of social exchange.

The social interaction played out in Team Teal was largely limited by our communication mediums. Our group’s approach to social interaction was specific where we were students at Fielding but we all knew that we each held various titles outside of our Fielding interaction. Our group also took a more neutral approach to sharing of emotions, though there were moments were we all faced various struggles with balancing school work and our lives outside of Fielding. While we were able to share that information—again due to our communication mediums—how we relayed that information remained rather neutral. All members of Teal have participated in the Fielding community for at least a trimester and have established a role and structure for ourselves in our relation to the online community. Coming together as a specific group, we all engaged in developing new roles, rituals and habits, collected history, and social enactment. When we began our process we decided upon a formal role structure of having weekly facilitation to ensure that the group stayed on task. We also established rules of following up to each other’s postings and when we should hold our weekly conference calls. One of the habits we got into was to recap our conversations for later reference if needed. Although our collected history is rather short—largely due to the length of the class—combining both the larger group process and Teal’s interactions, we have enough history to ground us all in our shared goal. Our social enactment process is as stated by Gibson and Earley (2002) an ongoing process. As we continue to address new barriers and communicate more frequently, we learn more information about each other and how to interact and respond, thus improving our social process.   A great deal of conflict, frustration, and even alienation can occur when social support and interaction is ignored by a global team. One way to avoid ongoing conflict is to establish at the beginning of the group formation, how each member approaches social interaction and their subsequent comfort levels. This can be done by team building exercise where individuals are asked to participate in activities that inadvertently share this information without putting the participant on the spot. Caution needs to be taken to ensure that judgment is not placed on various approaches.   Another strategy to support the group development process for globally dispersed teams is to have structure set for the initial meetings with an outside facilitator who can guide the group to start establishing their shared goals. Various roles can be assigned and rotated during the first few meetings until each member’s strengths are identified and appropriate roles can be given. Having this initial structure would give stability to the new group and allow for individuals to meet one another and start establishing a shared history.   Lastly, the globally dispersed teams and culturally diverse groups should work to establish guidelines and problem solving techniques that could be used when differing social approaches become problematic for the group process. If plans are laid out ahead of time to deal with an individual diffusing their emotional responses to the group or a group member being too neutral, the team can then refer back to the agreed upon structure and continue to work in refining their social enactment process. More information regarding the general topic of team conflict can be found in its own section of the handbook.
 * Skills and Strategies for Social Support **

**//Strategies and Skills //** ·  Get a sense for how each member approaches social interactions through various team building activities.  ·  Set structure for initial meetings to help globally dispersed groups establish a shared history and develop into their new roles and identities. <span style="font-family: 'Arial', 'sans-serif';"> ·  <span style="font-family: 'Arial', 'sans-serif'; color: black;">Looking ahead – establishing guidelines when potential conflict comes up. Diversity is no secret – be open to how these differences will interact and what are the steps the group will take to ensure continued movement toward shared goal(s). <span style="font-family: 'Arial', 'sans-serif';">

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