Functioning in Teams

Interestingly, three individualists spent more time talking about the abstract and not

practical service. Two of them never mentioned practical service of any kind. On the other hand,

two collectivists only talked about practical service.

To close this section out, I would like to quote I-5 when asked what servant leadership

looks like in their cultural context. "I think probably just being part of the community. And not

it's not as much apart from making a way for people here. Because I still am involved in that

limb, and I still do that, but really it's more of, I think, a predisposition or a heart to show others

that we're not above them. And so coming and eating meals, being in worship, and the regular

activities intercession times. Sometimes I think leaders advocate that role." (Feb. 4, 2021)

Functioning in Teams

When asked the question, “what is a team?”, four of the participants used a sports

analogy (two individualists and two collectivists). Five participants defined it as a group with a

vision or purpose (three individualists and two collectivists). C-5 said, “Basically has

relationship with one another that communicates… They should know their purpose as a team.

They should know why they are a team.” (Feb 11, 2021)

On the other hand, three collectivists said that it was a group in a relationship and/or

working in complementary giftings. Different from the others was I-3, who said, “It’s like a

group of equals; where the ideal team for me is like where everyone can operate in his strength.”

( Feb. 13, 2021)

When asked about the advantages of working in multicultural teams, four participants

shared the different perspectives provided (three individualists and one collectivist). On the other

hand, four others talked about the advantages of having different kinds of giftings (three

collectivists and one individual). Outside of that, I-3 focused on having multicultural teams is

“like we have a launchpad for missionaries that go to other cultures.” His focus was that a mix of

cultures help train missionaries to be more multicultural.

Then C-3 said the advantages are,

“You get confronted with your bias. You get confronted majorly with your racism. You get

confronted with your elitism. You get confronted with your poverty mentality… Where there

is a mix, and there’s poor and rich YWAMers, you truly get confronted. Like a lot of my

financial needs, like when I was in America and Australia, I am thinking, ‘Who gave?’ So

you felt poor. But when I was in my own culture, I wasn’t poor…. Then you go to Australia,

and they look down on you because you’re (from a collective country).” (Feb. 10, 2021)

Some fascinating data came out of the following question about the challenges of having

a multicultural team. All of them except C-3 said something about cultural differences.

"Everyone thinks their way is better." (I-1, personal communication, Feb 4, 2021). "Sometimes

it's just different world views" (I-3, personal communication, Feb 13, 2021) I-5 spoke into this

problem when people of one people group isolate themselves,

"I've totally seen it not just in one base but a lot of bases. When you have one group, they just

stick to themselves and don't associate that much with others. You know, and part of it is they

speak the same language. They eat similar food. If it's just one or two people, then they have

to venture out and relate to others. But that's where I see that it becomes a challenge is if you

get five or six of the same culture. There's a proclivity to isolate themselves." (Feb 4, 2021)

C-3 took a different approach.

“How can you think of something that's a disadvantage? No, because there's no color in

Christianity, there's no Jew and Greek in this, and that see if you can find one let me know.

But it will probably be unscriptural a person's inability to listen and to ask clarifying

questions and actually show some humility. But there's a lot of things that come out with that,

so yes, the process is delayed, and it's frustrating. It's only frustrating because we have so

much pride and so much irritation. Because why can't you understand what I'm saying like

honestly if you really dig deep and I know because I've been there. Like, I know it's

frustrating, and if you don't understand me, and my English is even good then well, you

know it goes deep. It's a great thing for discipleship, and we should never change that. Yeah,

it's one of the most wonderful things we have.” (Feb. 10, 2021)

Language differences were pointed out by three of the participants (two individualists and

one collectivist). C-1 puts it this way.

“We have to translate. If we don't translate, people leave the team feels offended feel

miscommunicated. So a little bit of hard work on that, but it is worth it to do. When we have

international, we will in the meeting we meet for one hour we have to prepare like two hours

because we have to translate.” (Feb. 8, 2021)

One surprising thing that came up was that five participants (four individualists and one

collectivist) made references to high and low context cultures. Some of the terminologies they

used were like,

“My struggle working with cross-cultural, especially western people, is that because

generally really talk straight. You know our culture is we, as much as possible, didn't want to

offend people. I think it was my struggle from the very beginning. But later on, I understand