The Impact of Language Barriers on Shared Mental Models in Multinational Teams

Abstract

Large corporations increasingly use multinational teams to integrate their global operations. To perform this complex task efficiently, team members need to develop shared mental models (SMMs), i.e. an organized understanding of the knowledge base they are sharing. In multinational teams, the heterogeneity of team members makes SMM formation especially challenging. While previous research has investigated the influence of different diversity factors on SMMs, the impact of language differences has surprisingly been neglected so far. To address this important gap we investigate how different elements of the language barrier impede the formation of different types of SMMs. Based on 84 semi-structured interviews with team leaders, members and senior managers of 15 multinational teams in three German automotive corporations we develop a model showing how pragmatic and paraverbal barriers between team members obstruct SMMs about roles, responsibilities and interaction patterns and how shortcomings in lexical, syntactical and phonetic proficiency impede SMMs about team members' preferences, strengths, weaknesses as well as values and attitudes. These findings integrate linguistic and psychological theories with management studies and complement our understanding of the antecedents of SMMs in multinational teams. This is of crucial importance since SMMs have been established as important prerequisites for team performance.