Cultural synergy in today’s global economy requires that individuals within
multinational organizations be culturally aware and competent in cross-cultural communication. Extensive research indicates that cross-cultural competence impacts the effectiveness of global corporations (Cox, Lobel, & McLeod, 1991;Matveev & Nelson, 2004; Townsend, DeMarie, & Hendrickson, 1996; Triandis & Singelis, 1998; Wheelen & Hunger, 1998). The culturally diverse workforce offers a variety of perspectives, skills, and attitudes (Maznevski, 1994) and outperforms homogeneous groups in identifying problems and generating more creative solutions (Marquardt & Horvath, 2001; McLeod & Lobel, 1992; Watson, Pitt, Cunningham, & Nel, 1993). In their study of Russian and American managers, Matveev and Nelson (2004) found that “cross cultural competence accounted for 20% of the variance in the performance level of multicultural teams” . Ng and Tung (1998) found that multicultural divisions reported higher levels of productivity and financial profitability than their homogeneous counterparts within a multibranch financial services organization.Those organizations that have realized the benefits of diversity have learned how to maximize its strengths while mitigating the costs and are able to incorporate positive and winning communication skills.