Introduction

In the approach of culture according to the size of groups (see the triangle model in Culture 1), small groups are the third layer. From a business perspective, you may think of teams but culture casts a wider net, e.g. a family, a sports team or some volunteers that take care of flowers in a church. The focus in this e-book is on teams at work (public, private, civil society), either with one or more than one nationality. Nevertheless, in view of the importance of families in enculturation and the development of values, a paragraph on family has been included as well.

Many teams work on projects, a specific task that demands dedicated attention from some people, benefitting either the parent organisation or a customer. In that sense, the juxtaposition of teams and project makes sense. On the other hand, culture has a strong influence on projects and deserves its own publication. In view of the limited research in this field, it would provide hardly any answers and raise only questions.

Overview

This series of e-books is based on triangle model of culture, which in turn is based on the size of groups. In previous e-books the very large groups (national culture, multicultural society) and the large groups (organisational culture) were discussed. This e-book focuses on the small group. After some general remarks, the best-known small group, i.e. family is discussed. The focus then moves to teams in general and multicultural teams in particular. Projects are discussed in this document as well because they are often realised by teams.