Embarking on cross-cultural team endeavors: unveiling challenges and coordination mechanisms

Purpose - This study aims to reveal the challenges and coordination mechanisms in cross-cultural teams. Design/methodology/approach - By conducting in-depth interviews and a theme analysis approach with 15 cross-cultural teams, this qualitative study aims to answer three main questions: What kind of challenges do you face when working in a cross-cultural team? How do you coordinate cross-cultural issues within your team? What are significant things do you consider important when working with a cross-cultural team to improve performance? Findings - The main challenges faced by cross-cultural teams, including cultural differences, task-related issues and management-related obstacles, are identified. Furthermore, adaptive coordination mechanisms, encompassing various levels of explicit and implicit strategies, are found to effectively manage these challenges. Originality/value - This study contributes to the existing literature by proposing an adaptive coordination framework tailored for cross-cultural teams, addressing the main team challenges while considering contextual factors such as team tenure, team size, cultural intelligence and the nature of team tasks. The findings offer valuable insights for academic research and practical implications for multinational enterprises.