Portuguese Teams

Portuguese Teams

Open collaborative team-based activities where people are encouraged to share common goals and work effectively together are relatively uncommon in Portugal.

Management style is usually directive and instructional and therefore the common approach to team work is to have a dominant individual who gives specific instructions to individual team members.

Each team member is then expected to perform his or her allotted tasks diligently but nothing more. The idea of taking responsibility for another’s area of action is a relatively new concept.
It is often said that the Portuguese are individualistic rather than co-operative in their approach and this does not sit easily with good team role playing.

Author

This country-specific business culture profile was written by Keith Warburton who is the founder of the cultural awareness training consultancy Global Business Culture. 

Global Business culture is a leading training provider in the fields of cross-cultural communication and global virtual team working.  We provide training to global corporations in live classroom-based formats, through webinars and also through our cultural awareness digital learning hub, Global Business Compass.

This World Business Culture profile is designed as an introduction to business culture in Portugal only and a more detailed understanding needs a more in-depth exploration which we can provide through our training and consultancy services.