CROSS-CULTURAL TEAMWORK IN THE EU-GOVERNANCE: A Case Study in the Council´s Latin America Working Group
Kalli, Eeva (2003)
Kuvaus
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Tiivistelmä
European Union governance constitutes a totally unique working environment with its several special features. It has adopted its present form as a consequence of approximately 50 years long development process of the EU. Therefore, there are numerous institutions and independent bodies participating in the Union's decision- and policy-making processes at every level. Most of these include various types of teams and working groups in order to prepare, change or implement the given proposals effectively. Consequently, due to the EU-governance's international and multicultural nature, also these teams are usually cross-cultural.
In this thesis I will attempt to describe the unique nature of the EU-governance and evaluate the cross-cultural teamwork inside it. In accordance with this, I will first create a theoretical framework by introducing the concepts like EU-governance, team, teamwork, multiculturalism and national culture. After this theoretical consideration I will then raise part of it into a closer examination with the help of empirical research conducted with interviews. Accordingly, I will put my eye especially on one of the Council's permanent working groups, namely Latin America working group. Hence, my empirical research material consists of the interviews of 11 members of this working group, all of them coming from different countries. With respect to these interviews, my aim was to seek answers to questions such as which kind of working environment the EU-governance provides for the teamwork? In addition, is it possible to reach effective team performance in this context and what is required from the chairman of the working group? Furthermore, I intended to know whether there are any cultural based value differences among the group members or not, and what kind of possible impacts they perhaps have on teamwork.
Considering the successful teamwork and achieved research results, there are several impediments but also advantages caused by the EU-governance. The unclear competencies of institutions and extremely busy schedules seemed to be the greatest difficulties seen from the group members' point of view. Also occasional slowness and inefficiency of the EU-machinery, as well as the diversity of national interests were regarded as impediments in respect with the effective teamwork. The great power and weight of the EU was in turn seen as a unique advantage and enormous benefit compared with any other administrative entity. As far as the working group's leadership was concerned, the chair's role appeared to be very challenging and multifaceted. Along these lines, the chair ought to take care of the preparatory work, chair the meetings, combine the differing opinions, settle conflicts, find a consensus, and further build and maintain the external relations to the various interests groups. According to this research, even though there are many rather technical impediments caused by the EU-governance, it is however possible to achieve a quite effective team performance there as well. In this case it is mainly due to human factors, which have been taken carefully into account. In respect of the different existing national cultures, there did not appear to be any major differences among the group members. Apart from certain details, such as differences in communication manners and attitudes towards unequal power distribution, all the evaluated group members' value, thinking and behaviour models were more or less consistent with each other.
In this thesis I will attempt to describe the unique nature of the EU-governance and evaluate the cross-cultural teamwork inside it. In accordance with this, I will first create a theoretical framework by introducing the concepts like EU-governance, team, teamwork, multiculturalism and national culture. After this theoretical consideration I will then raise part of it into a closer examination with the help of empirical research conducted with interviews. Accordingly, I will put my eye especially on one of the Council's permanent working groups, namely Latin America working group. Hence, my empirical research material consists of the interviews of 11 members of this working group, all of them coming from different countries. With respect to these interviews, my aim was to seek answers to questions such as which kind of working environment the EU-governance provides for the teamwork? In addition, is it possible to reach effective team performance in this context and what is required from the chairman of the working group? Furthermore, I intended to know whether there are any cultural based value differences among the group members or not, and what kind of possible impacts they perhaps have on teamwork.
Considering the successful teamwork and achieved research results, there are several impediments but also advantages caused by the EU-governance. The unclear competencies of institutions and extremely busy schedules seemed to be the greatest difficulties seen from the group members' point of view. Also occasional slowness and inefficiency of the EU-machinery, as well as the diversity of national interests were regarded as impediments in respect with the effective teamwork. The great power and weight of the EU was in turn seen as a unique advantage and enormous benefit compared with any other administrative entity. As far as the working group's leadership was concerned, the chair's role appeared to be very challenging and multifaceted. Along these lines, the chair ought to take care of the preparatory work, chair the meetings, combine the differing opinions, settle conflicts, find a consensus, and further build and maintain the external relations to the various interests groups. According to this research, even though there are many rather technical impediments caused by the EU-governance, it is however possible to achieve a quite effective team performance there as well. In this case it is mainly due to human factors, which have been taken carefully into account. In respect of the different existing national cultures, there did not appear to be any major differences among the group members. Apart from certain details, such as differences in communication manners and attitudes towards unequal power distribution, all the evaluated group members' value, thinking and behaviour models were more or less consistent with each other.