Cross – Cultural Virtual Teams.
Virtual teams unite individuals from different countries to enable their company to obtain a competitive advantage (Vinaja, R. 2003).
Multi-cultural concerns in virtual teams may not always be visible but they definitely do transpire (Vinaja, R. 2003). Current research suggests that virtual team failure is directly related to the difficulties of building trust, dealing with communication barriers and cultural differences (Kimble et.al. 2001)
The most important issues facing the leaders of cross-cultural virtual teams:
Trust: Trust is harder to establish within a virtual team. People in co-location environments build up trust after spending time together or sharing of personal matters. In virtual groups trust is built up on work ethics. Individuals will start to have trust when they can rely on the performance of their team members.
Lack of Synergy between Cross- Cultural Team Members: Time differences between countries can cause problems when members are widely dispersed across the globe, making it difficult to synchronize activities and meetings. Cultural differences amongst the team members may create barriers due to different attitudes toward authority or the influence of their individual culture on how they manage decision making or other practices.
Performance Management: It is difficult to observe virtual team members commitment and productivity. It is problematic for a manager to remotely measure performance with team members he rarely or never sees. Different cultures demonstrate different work characteristics for example:
Approaches to their work.
Expectations
Interaction preferences
Power structure
Perceptions on performance and reward systems
Communication bre...
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Brett, J., Behfar, K. & Kern, M. (2006) ‘Managing multicultural teams’, Harvard Business Review, 84 (11), pp.84-91, Business Source Premier
Goman,C.(2010) ‘5 Tips for Virtual Collaboration;, Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/carolkinseygoman/2012/06/05/5-tips-for-virtual-collaboration/ (accessed on 25March 2014)
Symons, J. & Stenzel, C. (2007) ‘Virtually borderless: an examination of culture in virtual teaming’, Journal of General Management, 32 (3), pp.1-17, Business Source Premier
Vinaja, R. (2003)’Major challenges in multi-cultural virtual teams’. Proceedings: Southwest Case Research Association, 341 -346 [online] http://pdf.aminer.org/000/326/846/virtual_teams_an_exploratory_study_of_key_challengesand_strategies.pdf
Lowe’s has successfully adapted several human resource policies, including changes to its Talent Management and Employee Recognition System, to recognize virtual team member performance. The company, however, still struggles to find ways to celebrate virtual team successes. Lowe’s provides virtual teams with exceptional technical and infrastructure
The process of forming virtual teams is very crucial and plays a significant role in the success of a virtual team, since the team members can be formed from virtually anywhere. As such, the management of the particular organizations needs to take significant care in the formation of virtual teams. Lerner (2008), did say that the leaders of distributed teams should have a heightened sense of awareness of the various subgroup formations and their weaknesses”. Thus the formation of virtual teams is critical to ensuring the objectives for a given project are met and the chemistry of the team is proper to achieve given goals. Karayaz (2006) did define thr...
In today’s environment of companies doing business in a global economy, teamwork is essential. “Employees working in effective teams help increase productivity, employee involvement, and contribution, while reducing costs and flattening organizational structure (Adams, 2003). In contrast, ineffective teams can cause increased costs, waste valuable time, and contribute to losses in market share (Ross, Jones, & Adams, 2008)” quotes Jean McAtavey and Irena Nikolovska in an article in Human Resource Development Quarterly. Today, teamwork is found in virtually all workplaces.
Differences in culture, background, social norms and misinterpretation of messages, including virtual distance issues, can present challenges unique to any virtual team or member (Drouin, Bourgault & Gervais, 2010).
Cultural diversity is an essential piece of the team-building puzzle. As stated earlier, a heterogeneous team usually equals a successful team. A culturally diverse team brings the obvious cultural differences in language, dress and traditions to the table. In addition, less tangible characteristic such as moral values are equally, if not more important. These different methodologies and teachings help influence the team's direction. Persons of Western culture will have a different set of beliefs and methodologies from those of Middle Eastern or Eastern ethnicity. When team members take the time to learn and understand each culture's moral value, the result is a strong team foundation. High performance teams take and incorporate these cultural differences and use these different beliefs and values to attain the team goal.
Parker, G., (2003). Cross- Functional Teams: Working with Allies, Enemies, and Other Strangers. San Francisco: Jossey- Bass. pp. 170- 194.
The management and development of leadership, trust, and accountability in culturally diverse virtual team members is an important business topic in today’s global economy.
A virtual team is a group of people working interdependently via various types of electronic media across organizational and geographical boundaries for a shared purpose (D’Souza & Colarelli, 2010). Research indicates virtual teams are becoming increasingly popular in organizations across the United States and the world (D’Souza & Colarelli, 2010; Rusman, van Bruggen, Sloep, & Koper, 2010). These teams vary in size, degree of geographic dispersion, prior shared work experience, nature of assignment, and expectations of a common future (Rusman et al., 2010). Although virtual teams have potential advantages like the removal of physical boundaries, the ability to form new partnerships, and optimization of competencies (Chinowsky & Rojas, 2003), they also introduce many challenges that may not be as prevalent in traditional teams.
Thomas, D., & Bostrom, R. (2008). Building trust and cooperation through technology adaptation in virtual teams: Empirical field evidence. Information Systems Management, 25(1), 45-56. Retrieved June 13, 2008, from EBSCOhost database.
The virtual organization is a network of independent suppliers, customers, and even competitors, generally tied together by computer technology (Roger, 1991). They share skills, costs, and access to markets. It is tend to have flat structures in which information and decision making move horizontally (Judith R.G, 2002). Through the support of modern electronic system, it becomes possible to link people across formal organizational boundaries (Judith, 2002, quoted in S.G. Straus, S.P. Weisband, and J.M. Wilson, 1998).
“Human beings have always functioned in face-to-face groups. While the use of teams is on the rise the Wall Street Journal reports that two-thirds of American companies employ them – the face to face aspect of normal working relationships is changing. Electronic communication and digital technologies give people a historically unprecedented ability to work together at a distance.” (Lipnack, J., & Stamps, J., 1997).
Virtual teams – virtual team is one of the most popular teams in every organization because in virtual team the member are separated in different nation and use technologies to communicate to accomplish their goal on the time.
In today’s globalized world, multicultural teams accomplish a significant proportion of organizational work. Multicultural teams are formed because they improve organizational effectiveness in the global business environment. As such, multicultural teams offer huge potential to organizations. The most critical and practical challenge multicultural teams face is managing conflicts across members’ national cultural boundaries. Other cultural challenges in multicultural teams include dealing with coordination and control issues, maintaining communication richness, and developing and maintaining team cohesiveness. For multicultural teams to be effective, members must learn to address the challenges that arise from team members’ differing nationalities and cultural backgrounds.
There are four different types of teams. These teams are problem-solving teams, self-managed work teams, cross-functional teams, and virtual teams. Problem-solving teams work together to help find methods to improve the work environment or have suggestions to increase employee’s morale. Self-managed work teams organize the responsibilities of the employee’s such as assigning tasks to individuals, scheduling conflicts, and evaluate employee performances. Cross-functional teams are individuals whom all have experience in the same work field. The individuals come together as a team to incorporate their thoughts, designs, and new ideas to accomplish what the company needs to improve or create. Virtual teams are individuals that work together, but only by technology such as the internet, emails, or web cam.
Organizations use teamwork because it increases productivity. This concept was used in corporations as early as the 1920s, but it has become increasingly important in recent years as employ...