Russian Business Teams

Teams work best together when the relationships amongst the group are close.

There remains a general suspicion of strangers in Russian society and any attempt to bring together teams from different strands of an organisation can be problematic. Once a team has been established and is working well together it is probably best to keep the team intact for as long as possible. Move the team wholesale from project to project rather than developing a fresh team for every situation.

The team leader is expected to play a domineering role and to issue precise detailed instructions and then supervise ongoing progress. Those western managers who are more used to a hands-off approach will undoubtedly confuse local staff who will feel unsure of what is expected of them. An expatriate team leader needs to establish credibility through being decisive, clear and visibly in control.

As different age groups display different attitudes and approaches (pre & post Soviet change generations), it is often thought best to keep teams quite aligned in ages.

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 Russia only and a more detailed understanding needs a more in-depth exploration which we can provide through our training and consultancy services.