Nous présentons une contribution à la compréhension de la tension ‘international-multiculturel' dans une équipe, basée sur 4 cas exploratoires de projets de SI de type ERP et une littérature élargie. Nous répondons aux questions de recherche suivantes qui résument les interrogations du Directeur de Projet, seul face au double constat de l'importance du facteur humain pour le succès, et de l'impossibilité d'utiliser les modèles culturels proposés par les chercheurs dans le contexte d'une équipe nombreuse issue de différents métiers, nationalités et entreprises.1. Comment peut-on opérationnaliser les aspects humains des CSF proposés par la littérature pour le management des équipes projets internationales et multiculturelles ?2. Le dépassement des modèles classant les sources d'influence culturelle en couches superposées, par une approche en constellation de sources interactives et dynamiques, permet-il une meilleure compréhension de la tension ‘international-multiculturel' ?3. Les concepts de coopération communautaire et complémentaire, identifiés dans le cadre des projets à structure fonctionnelle (Dameron, 2000), se transposent-ils dans celui des projets heavyweight ?Nous éclairons l'intrication complexe d'une gamme de facteurs favorisant l'établissement d'une collaboration efficace et durable au sein d'une équipe ayant la culture comme milieu et le projet comme attitude, mais qui peut aussi la rendre encore plus difficile à obtenir que dans une équipe opérationnelle standard (telle celles de Barnard, 1938), notamment du fait des germes de conflit portés par le processus d'acculturation inhérent à la mise en présence de tant de cultures différentes (Bastide, 1968). / We propose a contribution to the understanding of the international-multicultural tension operating in a team based on 4 exploratory cases of ERP-type IS projects and an extended literature. We answer the following research questions which sums up the essential questions of the Project Director who is left alone in situation with his own capacity facing both the importance of the human factor for the project success and the impracticality of the cultural models proposed by researchers for the management of international teams bringing together numerous people from various professions, nationalities and companies:1. How can we operationalize the human aspects of the CSF proposed by the literature for the management of international and multicultural project teams?2. To what extent changing the layer-view of cultural influence sources in models, for an approach in constellation of interactive and dynamic sources allows a better understanding of the international-multicultural tension in a team?3. To what extent and how do the concepts of community- and complementary cooperation identified in functional structure projects (Dameron) get applied to heavyweight projects?We highlight the complex entanglement of a wide range of factors that can either favour the existence of an effective and sustainable collaboration within a team having culture as milieu and project as attitude, or hinder it more than in a standard operational team (such as those studied by Barnard, 1938), particularly because of the conflict seeds brought in by the acculturation process inherent to bringing together so many different cultures (Bastide, 1968).

A research of effectiveness of team work in a concrete company, that acts in the sphere of the information technology, is an object of my diploma paper. To take the view about the team work in the company it was necessary to perform an analyse of the team work. I confronted results of the analyse with the real position in the team. An evaluation of conditions in the monitored team and a proposition of pertinent recommendation to increase the effectiveness of team work is an inseparable part of my diploma paper.

The diploma thesis deals with the specific functioning of multicultural teams. It is divided into two parts. The theoretical part analyzes the terms culture, cultural dimensions and stereotypes, intercultural perception and cultural adaptation. It also focuses on a multicultural team itself, its advantages and disadvantages, intercultural communication and multicultural team effectiveness. Furthermore, the diploma thesis deals with the motivation of workers. The practical part explores, based on the findings from interviews and questionnaires, multicultural teams in Accenture.

Cultural diversity has shown to play a tremendous impact on influencing the teams performance in an international business. Shared beliefs, values and systems of conducting work-related tasks originating from cultural differences significantly enhances the abilities for the team to perform on a higher note. This thesis aims to investigate the challenges of a multicultural manager regarding disputes originating from concepts such as awareness, communication and decision making, trust building and to spark creativity. The primary data was collected through nine in-depth interviews with managers who handle culturally diverse teams. After analyzing the interviewees it was concluded that multicultural managers need to acknowledge there are cultural differences within the team in order to develop a suitable communication style and therefore generate trust.

La mondialisation et la quête vers la diversité au sein des multinationales confrontent celles-ci à un défi d’envergure : fournir un cadre propice au développement de talents venant du monde entier. L’internationalisation a un grand impact sur l’économie, en particulier, sur le secteur automobile. Celui-ci est encore très présent sur le marché domestique européen, mais dépendant du marché étranger – en termes de coûts de production, de clientèle et de fournisseurs. Cela en fait un terrain d’enquête particulièrement passionnant concernant le travail d’équipes multiculturelles. Le métier et la formation d’ingénieur, très importants dans le secteur technique, sont également analysés sous un angle culturel. Pour illustrer nos propos, nous utiliserons l’exemple du groupe BMW. Nous nous intéressons en particulier à cinq dimensions de la coopération d’équipes multiculturelles. La première est la motivation, la seconde l’intégration des membres de l’équipe. Ensuite, nous regardons quelles compétences sont nécessaires à un chef de groupe afin de diriger ce genre d’équipe. Finalement, la communication et surtout l’usage de la langue sont analysés. La langue joue un rôle particulier pour cette cotutelle. D’une part, le travail théorique tente de rendre compte au mieux des écoles de pensée françaises, allemandes et anglophones. D’autre part, le travail pratique est également effectué en français, allemand et anglais en vue des langues utilisées dans le travail quotidien de l’équipe. L’étude empirique effectuée à cet effet, vise à partager l’expérience d’équipes multiculturelles au sein du groupe. Cela permet d’établir un état des lieux de leurs conditions de travail et à en déduire des conseils pour d’autres équipes au sein de l’organisation pour le futur de l’entreprise ou l’intérêt d’autres acteurs travaillant dans un contexte culturel similaire. / The globalisation and the quest for diversity within multinational firms confront them to a big challenge : to provide a frame in order to develop talents from all over the world. The internationalisation has a big impact, especially, on the automotive sector. It is still very present on the domestic market, but also dependent on the foreign market – regarding costs of production, customers and suppliers. This makes it a fascinating field of study regarding work within multicultural teams. The profession and education as engineer, very important in technical domains, are also analysed from a cultural point of view. To illustrate our purpose we will use the example of the BMW Group. We are particularly interested in five dimensions of the work within multicultural teams. The first one is the motivation, the second one the integration of the team members. Then, we look at which competencies a team leader needs in order to manage this team. Finally, the communication and especially the use of the language are analysed. Thelanguage plays a particuliar role for this cotutelle. On the one hand, the theoretical work tries to describe the related French, German and English work. On the other hand, the applied work is also done in French, German and English regarding the languages used by the team in its daily work. The empirical study aims to share the experience of multicultural teams within thegroup. This helps to identify the status quo of their working conditions and to deduce advice for other teams within the organisation in the future.

The 'flattening of the world', using Thomas Friedman's phraseology, is driving corporations to increasingly use collaborative engineering processes and global teams to operate on a global scale. Globalization of the traditional university engineering curriculum is necessary to help students prepare to work in a global environment. More scalable and economically sustainable program types are needed to enable the majority of students to obtain a globalized education. The purpose of this research was to determine how effectively a global team- and project-based computer aided engineering course provided learning opportunities that enabled students to develop elements of global competence in comparison to existing engineering study abroad programs. To accomplish this, research was necessary to identify, aggregate, and validate a comprehensive set of global competencies for engineering students. From a review of the literature and subsequent analysis, a set of twenty-three global competencies with an associated conceptual model was developed to group the competencies by contextual topics. Two surveys were then developed and distributed separately to academic and industry professionals, each of which groups largely confirmed that it was important for engineering students to develop these global competencies. Next, the traditional ME 471 class was restructured into a Global ME 471 course. A pilot program was conducted from which lessons learned were incorporated into the global course. Selected global competencies were included as new learning outcomes. Course learning materials, labs, and lectures were also updated to reflect the new course emphasis. A survey was developed to be sent to BYU engineering study abroad students and the Global ME 471 course during 2010. A statistical analysis of responses was used to identify significant differences between the response groups. In addition to the global competencies which were identified and validated, global collaborative project-based courses such as Global ME 471 were shown to be effective in enabling students to learn and develop selected global competencies. Study abroad programs and the Global ME 471 course were seen both to be complementary in their emphasis and supportive of global engineering. In addition, global collaborative project-based courses were shown to play an important part of a globalized engineering curriculum.

The topic of the thesis is Multiculturalism of the companies in the European Union as one of the approach of managing cultural diversity. The aim of the thesis is to provide an overview on different approaches to this topic based on different materials already published as well as on good practices used in the companies. The main question of the thesis is: DO the companies on the EU market go toward the model of multicultural organization? The thesis contains of four parts. The first one explains most important terms which are multiculturalism, diversity and diversity management. It also summarizes the brief history of diversity management as well as the importance of managing diversity. It explains also the factors creating the interest of cultural diversity and its management. The second part explains the perspective of the EU. It elaborates recent demographic changes as one of the external factors influencing the attitude toward managing diversity. It explains also the Immigration Policy of the EU in more details. EU legislation focusing on discrimination and equal opportunities is also part of this chapter. The third chapter focuses on diversity from the organizations point of view. It explains the Cox model as one of the theories of dividing companies based on their approach to cultural diversity. It also describes the main techniques used for the transition to multicultural company. The part of this chapter focuses also on multicultural teams and their performance. The last chapter of the thesis describes good practices in managing cultural diversity of the companies on the EU market and the particular tips created by EU to help small and medium enterprises to manager diversity.