MAJOR CHALLENGES IN MULTICULTURAL VIRTUAL TEAMS (original) (raw)

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.

The Emergence of Multicultural Characteristics in Virtual Team

Jurnal Manajemen Indonesia, 2023

The advancement of information and communication technology grant access for businesses to reach global workforce. In a condition where companies hire their employee from cross-border market, the exposure of multicultural differences will be more in contact. Some of the problem faced by virtual multicultural team are cultural discrepancy, communication problem, long distance conflict, and lack of synergy. The objective of this study is to explore the multicultural characteristics emerged from virtual team activity to minimize the problem. This research adopts a case study to examine the comprehensive understanding of virtual multicultural team activity and get new insight from dwelling activity into the context directly. This study has two results: a virtual team and multicultural team characteristics in digital company and Hybrid company. This study can help practitioners identify what multicultural level of focus is well-suited to their current business model and give researcher an overview of future research on the alternatives in managing virtual multicultural team by building virtual multicultural team framework.

Challenges to Effective Collaboration in Cross-Cultural Virtual Teams

Multinational organisations are increasingly adopting information and communications technology (ICT) facilitated virtual teams for accomplishing projects. This paper explored challenges to effective collaboration in cross-cultural virtual teams through an interpretive case study of the Ghana subsidiary of a multinational telecommunications company. It identified three culture-related challenges to the work of virtual teams: cultural and linguistic challenges to effective communications, cultural differences in work practices, and culture conflict. The paper discusses the implications of the findings and suggests strategies for effective management of cross-cultural virtual teams.

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

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).

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...

Communication and collaboration processes in global virtual teams

2002

Virtual teams are increasingly global, creating challenges for communication and coordination due to greater distances, multiple time zones, and cultural differences. A longitudinal research program investigating communication and collaboration in globally distributed engineering design teams is described. A mix of quantitative and qualitative methods reveals a number of insights into the inner workings of a series of global virtual teams. We focus on teams' media and collaborative tool usage patterns, and the effect of media use on such group processes as their awareness of remote teammates' activities, the quality of teams' social interactions, teams' abilities to develop trust, and the extent to which teams developed solutions that they found to be satisfactory. Finally, we explored cultural influences on virtual team practices.

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.