Making Sense of Intercultural Collaboration

The rise of globalization is accompanied by an increase in alliances and collaboration. While firms are gaining in expertise and cultural sensitivity, some initiatives founder as people fail to fully consider culture’s impact. We adopt a cultural sense-making approach to intercultural collaboration, presenting a framework for analyzing cultural differences—value dimensions and communication styles rarely compiled in one location. Using these concepts, we explain cultural barriers to trust, a key component in collaboration, and demonstrate how cultural sense making is useful in analyzing intercultural situations. Fourteen strategies to help managers collaborate more effectively across cultures follow.