There are many similarities and differences between domestic and global project management. A project manager must realize that what might work in their country may not work in a foreign environment. Project managers might find themselves using practices that have worked for them in the past, without even thinking of the new environment, and issues may arise. Project managers need to understand the differences in a different country's environment to avoid and reduce any obstacles that there may be. Some considerations global project managers must consider are the legal, political, security, geographical, economic infrastructure, and culture implications of working with different countries (Gray, 2006).
Some legal and political issues project
Project managers must be aware of other nationalities' social customs, religious beliefs and work practices (Gray, 2006). Being open and flexible to differences in team member's backgrounds is important to being effective when managing global teams. In some countries, bartering and even bribery is an expected part of the business process. The labor supply, skill level and education of other nationalities is not necessarily on par with our standards, some have higher standards, and some have lower standards (Gray, 2006).
Even the idea of time as a resource in the United States is foreign to other nationalities. The Hispanic culture puts relationship and people before deadlines and timelines (Gray, 2006). In Japan, team members are used to being pushed and directed as a team, while Americans will go it alone, and want to work more independently. Various holidays among the cultures can influence a project manager's time line and ability to achieve milestones if the team member's ethnic customs are not factored in (Alexander,
If they do not do this, their projects will not be successful.
Outsourcing has increased over the past few years, creating virtual teams. There have been several forms of project management systems used by this type of team such as Web-based project management systems. Software continues to develop at a rapid pace, and the need for improved communications with virtual teams is a necessity. Currently, incompatible networks, expensive videoconferencing, broadband services not available everywhere, and the inability (due to cost) for virtual teams to meet face to face make virtual team communications much more difficult (Alexander, 2000).
Time delays in other parts of the world are also a challenge for a project manager working with a virtual team. When communication is compromised, trust between virtual team members is at risk. Virtual team members do not have the advantage of assessing other team member's body language or facial expressions. They can only infer meaning through word choice and tone, and this makes virtual communication much more challenging as well (Alexander, 2000). Face to face interactions have been proven to be more than twice as productive as videoconferencing so virtual team meetings have a definite disadvantage (McKinnon,
...each other on the same page, which often means redundant discussions and missed dialogs as they wait for everybody to get started. Another thing that is challenging, the virtual teaming typically lengthens the work day for virtual team members, and time zone dispersion narrows the window for synchronous team interaction. Multitasking is a common strategy during meetings that can distract members to such an extent that they may miss an opportunity to provide valuable input. Equally, the focus of virtual team members is often diluted by their local tasks and priorities. If the local priorities override the time that the team members had planned to devote to team assignments or meetings, process loss may result in team work requiring more time than planned, and this is not so good to team bonding especially when there are members of the team who did their homework well.
Being able to communicate at the physical level compared to other means offers a better way to transfer information. Having a team be together for a long period of time also helps fade the problems faced by heterogeneous teams. One negative could be the moving to new locations which can cause some individuals to leave their families and friends. Another disadvantages is the cost which can be very expensive and disruptive considering some people may be hard to replace. Virtual teams can be hard to utilize considering the high amount of trust or the exchange of important loads of knowledge. Virtual teams would not work very good in my example of the development project of the locker rooms here at the University of Mary. The need to physically build and watch over the construction site would make a virtual team impossible because the workers and engineers need to be on the site to get the job
We also addressed potential barriers that we may encounter, like scheduling conflicts due to personal or work related issues & technological boundaries, for each person may be on a different level in this area. Also, the time zone factor which is the biggest & you must prioritize it for the benefit of the team & the competency of each members contributions. Trust must be earned by the team members & leader through fulfilling duties, assignments, & commitments. (Temme, J. & Katzel, J. (1995)
The report focuses on important conditions on which project managers must focus while working in a dispersed virtual team. There are many factors included in the report as there are many factors which will either help or hinder a team on its quest to accomplish work. The topics of communication efficiency and communication rules are frequently mentioned as being strongly correlated to the success of the team. The paper does not contain a list of specific rules and guidelines, but quotes provided by research subjects mention some rules implemented within some virtual teams.
Duarte et al, 2006, ‘Mastering virtual teams: strategies, tools, and techniques that succeed’, Ed: 3th. Published: John Wiley and Sons, ‘pg.202
The use of culturally diverse business teams is an increasingly common situation in today’s world; especially as the world continues to become a global village. Leveraging on the cultural diverse backgrounds and experiences of members of such teams can be a source of improved performance which can ultimately reflect a competitive advantage in the business market. As Symons and Stenzel (2007) aptly state, “culturally diverse teams are more likely to engage in innovative `out-of-the-box' thinking, given their different life experiences in diverse social environments.” Another pointer to suggest that multicultural teams tend to be a source of competitive advantage in business is found in the paper by Di Stefano and Maznevski (2000) where they state that “multicultural teams have an enormous wealth of material with which to create innovative approaches to complex organizational challenges.” They furthermore state that “today’s business cannot flourish without the creative value afforded by high performing global teams.”
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.
The successful passing of information creates an important bond between virtual team members. “Without creating the connections, a virtual team can’t do what it needs to; function as a cohesive unit” (Thompson, n.d., Introduction section, ¶2). Information should be specific to the task at hand with a common goal in mind. Complete and accurate information not only helps a team reach its goal, but it also avoids problems and conflicts that arise between members. The importance of clear, concise information in a virtual team can not be stressed enough; however, timing should also be considered when sharing information. Information not received in a timely fashion also jeopardizes the cohesiveness of the team.
Virtual teams are a great way to facilitate teamwork in situations where people are not able to be sitting in the same physical office together. Virtual teams are the same as regular brick and mortar teams with one exception, the way in which the team members communicate. Instead of the usual face-to-face exchange, the virtual teams rely on email, faxes, phone calls, and teleconferences to communicate with their team members. Creating a plan to ensure that the team’s performance meets the intended goal is important to the team’s success. The plan will consist of the over all time frame, the communication methods and styles, as well as how to deal with each members performance and any dysfunction that may take place.
Virtual team is also called as a Geographically Dispersed Team (GDT). A virtual team as a group of individuals who works independently across the world. In this modern day technology world we can communicate with the people very easily. Using the same technology virtual team would communicate and collaborate each other. Virtual team have corresponding abilities and are focused on a mainstream, they have related execution objectives, and they offer an approach to manage work for which they consider themselves commonly responsible. Organizations are allowed the virtual teams whomever have a best skills and they are the best people regardless of location. Virtual team have a unique characteristics and related to the management challenges. Virtual teams are utilizing the technology to communicate with the people and accomplish the company goals.
There are many similarities and differences between domestic and global project management. A project manager must realize that what might work in their country may not work in a foreign environment. Project managers might find themselves using practices that have worked for them in the past, without even thinking of the new environment, and issues may arise. Project managers need to understand the differences in a different country's environment to avoid and reduce any obstacles that there may be. Some considerations global project managers must consider are the legal, political, security, geographical, economic infrastructure, and culture implications of working with different countries (Gray, 2006).
There are a number of challenges involved in working with a virtual team, however. When team members do not have the benefit of observing body language, vocal inflection, eye contract and other such mannerisms, it is difficult to establish trust. Not to mention the distance and lack of tangible contact makes it more difficult to connect with other members enough to truly gain insight and perspective regarding their character.
Virtual teams…. What are they? Well, virtual teams are groups of geographically and/or organizationally dispersed coworkers who use a combination of telecommunications and information technologies to accomplish an organizational task (Williams, 2016). Layman’s terms, its people who work together but do not work in the same office. They may never meet face to face, or may once and a while meet face to face. Erin gives his advice based on study and research in an article called “The Four Keys to Success with Virtual Teams”. He starts the article out with a basic explanation as to why there are more virtual teams these days, I am assuming that there are even more now that it has been five years since this article has been written. Basically
Virtual teams consist of individuals who are separated by distances and connected through computer technology to allow people to communicate online to achieve a common goal and are helpful when employees need to connect with each other and are located in different places.
Virtual teams are a good of individuals that collaborate for a certain period of time to achieve a particular set goal. Peterson & Stohr identifies virtual teams as a “group of individuals who work across time, space and organizational boundaries with links strengthened by webs of communication technology. They have complementary skills and are committed to a common purpose, have interdependent performance goals, and share an approach to work for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.” Project management becomes challenging to transmit clear defined information to the team members and in this situation is test project management to be able to orientate to delivering the proper resolution. As virtual teams become a high demand, there