Virtual Teams

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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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... References:

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

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