Abstract:

In modern times it is becoming more and more common to create teams consisting of representatives of many cultures. The functioning of multicultural teams brings many benefits, but also forces to overcome many difficulties. The aim of this article is to identify differences in the perception of challenges and benefits of working in multicultural teams in the perception of young people (students) from Poland and Romania. The study was conducted in 2019 using a diagnostic survey method with the CAWI technique. Statistical analysis based on Mann-Whitney U test was performed on 2,100 correctly filled forms (1,121 from Bialystok University of Technology in Poland and 979 from the Babes-Bolyai University in the Romania). The obtained results indicate that the key skills and competences for both Polish and Romanian students are knowledge of foreign languages and openness to representatives of other cultures. The respondents considered the language barrier as the most significant difficulty. In their opinion, stereotypes and prejudices, xenophobia and closure to otherness as well as ethnocentrism are other important obstacles. At the same time, the aforementioned difficulties are more important from the point of view of the Polish female interviewees than other groups of respondents. The possibility to learn how to cooperate and communicate with people from different cultures and the possibility to improve language skills are the main benefits of working in multicultural teams. These are more important for Romanian men than for the rest of the respondents. The obtained results may serve as a basis for further in-depth research and analysis, and as important information in creating teams consisting of representatives of Polish and Romanian cultures, as well as selecting the scope of training for these groups.