The Emergence of Multicultural Characteristics in Virtual Team (original) (raw)

MAJOR CHALLENGES IN MULTICULTURAL VIRTUAL TEAMS

Some of the problems that multi-cultural virtual teams experience include: time delays in replies, lack of synergy among cross-cultural team members, communications breakdowns, unresolved conflicts among members, limited hours allowed to be worked and different holidays. This paper reviews major challenges faced by multi-cultural virtual teams and describes some managerial implications. Although many previous studies have focused in various factors such as telecommuting issues, there are few studies that investigate the issues in multi-cultural virtual teams. The main objective of this research-in-progress paper is to empirically investigate multi-cultural challenges in virtual teams and outline the proposed research.

The Role of Virtual Multicultural Teams in Corporate Culture

Advanced Topics in Global Information Management

Information and communication technologies are impacting today's organizations and businesses in many diverse ways. The implications are perceived at the individual, organizational, and national levels. The old accustomed-to boundaries of national economies and markets are giving way to globalization and newly emerging trends. Competition is increasing, and due to the forces of change, the world market will sweep aside the small market players to make way for global organizations that are capable of penetrating the world markets through a massive global outreach strategy. In that respect, there is a need to invest in innovative business models such as virtual multicultural teams that are capable of handling the pressures of growing competition while capitalizing on the evolution of information and communication technology.

Virtual teams and multiculturality: differences and impacts of organizational culture in an I.T. company

2017

In the process of internationalization, multicultural management deal with the cultural differences issues, i.e. diversity related to language, values, customs and behavior in the workplace. Due to the internationalization of companies and work teams, new organizational structures have emerged, such as virtual teams. The purpose of this paper is to understand the influence of cultural differences and multiculturalism in virtual teams as well as to identify potential cultural impacts in their work development and performance. For this, it was conducted a single case study in depth in a US multinational IT company. After completed the content analysis, we identified issues related to the differences between the global organizational culture and the national culture of the team members, communication barriers, differences in leadership style and acclimatization to the virtuality. They led to the conclusion that virtual teams, although they are essential to the growth and evolution of t...

Bridging Multicultural Characteristics in Virtual Team: A Systematic Literature Review

2021

Globalization has improved technological advancement in communication and information sharing. This drives market growth into digital settings that goes beyond geographical restriction. In order to survive the competition, organization should adapt by managing their business process virtually. This situation leads to the formation of virtual team, that are more likely to be exposed by multicultural interaction. This study examined journals articles, published from 2016 to 2020, about the relationship between virtual and multicultural team through a systematic literature review. We analyzed 40 articles and identified the nomological map of knowledge and gap in the context of virtual and multicultural team. The majority of the studies selected were empiric qualitative from various context. The reviewed studies indicated that virtual team activities, such as dispersed team members, crowdsourcing and outsourcing the project to freelancers, should be followed by high multicultural commun...

Working with multicultural virtual teams: critical factors for facilitation, satisfaction and success

Information and communication technologies provide the necessary infrastructure for individuals from different cultures and locations to work and learn collaboratively. However the inner workings of such collaboration still keeps its mystery. In this literature review, the issues of how collaborative work comes into being and develops in multicultural virtual teams, the ways to facilitate them and what makes the work in such a team satisfactory and successful are explored. More specifically, how communication works among team members who come from different cultural backgrounds in a context lacking social cues; how potential conflicts due to different cultural understandings on very basic issues are resolved; or how certain notions such as trust is formed, maintained, etc. In pursuit of exploring these concerns, various articles obtained from the conducted literature survey were examined to discover recurring issues. Based on the findings and interpretations from the literature, this paper provides strategies to overcome and leverage similarities and differences inherent in team members. The findings of this literature review are especially important for those people who are planning to organize activities, which involve collaborative multicultural virtual teams

Intercultural Challenges in Virtual Teams

Journal of Intercultural Management, 2016

Virtual teams are usually geographically dispersed and consist of members from different countries and cultures. They influences internal communication processes and can cause personal conflicts, misunderstandings or lack of trust. Intercultural diversity is also significant for goal setting and team effectiveness. The aim of this article is to check if virtual team members appreciate the cultural diversity or rather suffer from lack of team cohesion and mutual understanding. The article presents research conducted among specialists from IT sector who have experience in working in virtual teams. They perceive intercultural collaboration in virtual teams as the opportunity to exploit the potential of specialists from all over the world but they also point to some challenges related to cross-cultural virtual teamwork.

A conceptual meta-framework for managing multicultural global virtual teams

International Journal of Networking and Virtual Organisations, 2013

Although GVTs can bring about many benefits for organisations, the potential advantages of using GVTs largely depend upon fulfilling the requirements prescribed by the critical success factors (CSFs) of implementing GVTs such as resolving the multiculturalism issues. Likewise, it is acknowledged that management aspects of implementing GVTs present one of the most complicated tasks in deploying the foregoing teams in organisations. These complications have roots in the necessity of using ICTs as the main medium exacerbated by multiculturalism and geographical dispersion of members. The area is in need of further research, which necessitates building intermediate theories and frameworks. This paper aims at critically observing and analysing the existing literature on managing GVTs as the first step resulting in developing theoretical frameworks. Drawing upon a dynamic integrated approach, this paper presents a conceptual meta-framework for incorporating different issues of managing GVTs titled as 'Dynamic Package of Managing' (DPM) global virtual teams.

Cultural diversity and information and communication technology impacts on global virtual teams: An exploratory study

2008

Modern organizations face many significant challenges because of turbulent environments and a competitive global economy. Among these challenges are the use of information and communication technology (ICT), a multicultural workforce, and organizational designs that involve global virtual teams. Ad hoc teams create both opportunities and challenges for organizations and many organizations are trying to understand how the virtual environment affects team effectiveness.

Collaboration Among Multicultural Virtual Teams

2005

Due to the increasingly widespread use of various information and communication technologies (ICT), individuals from different countries and cultures are able to learn and work collaboratively in virtual environments (Mowshowitz, 1997). Electronic communication tools, such as chat, e-mail, and the World Wide Web, now make it possible for students and employees to communicate and problem solve with colleagues irrespective of geographical location (Scott, 2000).

A Possible Approach of the Cultural Aspects Diagnosis in Collaborative Virtual Teams

ANNALS OF THE ORADEA UNIVERSITY. Fascicle of Management and Technological Engineering., 2012

This paper aims to analyze Collaborative Virtual Teams by taking into consideration items as national culture members' impact upon the whole team and linguistic characteristics of the members. Starting from the conceptual framework definition (describing the concepts of collaborative virtual teams, multiculturalism, cross-cultural and trans-cultural aspects) and also from the advantages of cross-cultural teams, as it appear in relevant references, the paper will focus then on a possible research approach of characterizing cultural aspects (by considering behavior issues and linguistic characteristics) based on a pilot marketing research based on a questionnaire. The conclusions made underline the idea that the virtual cross-teams success depends on how the cultural diversity is managed.