Metaphors and meaning: An intercultural analysis of the concept of teamwork

This paper develops a conceptual framework to explain different understandi ngs the concept of teamwork across national and organizational cultures. Fi ve different metaphors for teamwork (military, sports, community, family, a nd associates) were derived from the language team members used during inte rviews in four different geographic locations of six multinational corporat ions. Results indicated that use of the teamwork metaphors varies across co untries and organizations, after controlling for gender, team function, and total words in an interview. Analyses of specific relationships between na tional cultural values and categories of metaphor use and between dimension s of organizational culture and categories of metaphor use revealed pattern s of expectations about team roles, scope, membership, and objectives that arise in different cultural contexts. We discuss the implications of this v ariance for future research on teams and the management of teams in multina tional organizations.