The impact of culture (individualism and collectivism) on identified multicultural group work challenges : A study at Linnaeus University

Abstract: This paper aims to measure the kinds of challenges faced by multicultural studentgroups and the influence of culture (individualism and collectivism) on student'sperception of importance on each of the challenges discovered. A 19-item questionnairewas completed by students (N = 234) from different faculties including natural andsocial sciences at Linnaeus University, students were from 47 countries. Challenges inmulticultural groups were measured using a Likert scale (from 1 to 5) that assessedmember participation, communication, group processes and group member compositionand analysed by exploratory factor analysis. To examine the differences in perception ofimportance of the challenges discovered between individualists and collectivists basedon Hofstede's culture framework, t-tests and Mann-Whitney test were conducted. Theresults suggested three main kinds of challenges: culture related challenges, genericgroup work challenges and membership resemblance. Membership resemblance was theonly kind of challenge that significantly differed between individualists and collectivists.Further discussions explaining the results and implementation of this study werepresented.