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.