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National Culture
"National culture has multiple impacts on virtual information systems project team environments."
Abstract
Multi cultural environment is a common practice these days as flexible organizations are in demand. It is the diversity in the nationality and the culture of the team members that compiles the virtual teams. The availability of the advanced technology has given rise to the increasing virtual teamwork as it is cost effective and time saving too. The heterogeneous teams that work together can be very beneficial for the organization, while they also encounter several challenges in their working due to the diversity. The teams that connect via computer for their communication generally face significant challenges in terms of the collaboration. Through this paper an attempt is being made to find out the impact of the virtual team on the organizations.
Introduction
Virtual teams make the organizations supple as there are increased competitive markets. Virtual form of organizational structure are now in existence due to coming up of the new methods of telecommunications. The virtual teams thus form the most interesting part of this technology and it enables the organizations to work more smoothly offering to them the inspiring productivity of the teams which was not possible before. The virtual teams have now become a reality and is directly connected to the telecommunications and advanced computer systems. These teams are not bounded by the regional boundaries, they instead address the new workers demographics. This enables the best of the employees to get located and it benefits the organization as it can make the teams with the finest members.
The virtual teams may not be visible but they certainly exist in the organizations, ironically due to the vast cultural difference they often face challenges generally in communication, technology, project management and culture. The frequent changes among the members of the virtual team are generally due to the cultural differences, geographical time zones, trust building etc (Kimble, 2001). The cultural difference becomes a major hassle as there is difference of opinion on several issues, people fail to understand each other due to their practices.
According to Norahayati Zakaria, ‘the virtual work environment has become the most intrinsic part of the multinational corporations' (Norahayati Zakaria, 2004). It is the gift of the information technologies that have opened gates for the people around the world and has allowed the companies to move beyond the geographical boundaries. The technology has though got the people to work together virtually but in order to create an environment based on knowledge something more is needed. Some essential requirements for a great knowledge based environment are intra-team trust, relationship bonds, intra-cultural communication and training etc. and this certainly missing in the virtual information system.
Literature Review
Participation of the Members
Participation forms the most basis of any communication, when members of a team participate they contribute with ideas and suggestions which later help in making a decision. Under the virtual information system this aspect does not seem to function effectively. On the other hand there are chances of high level of misunderstandings and confusions due to the language barrier. According to the Time, Interaction and Performance theory the groups perform essentially to fulfill the tasks like Production, Group well-being and Member Support (Yu-Ting Caisy Hung, 2008). The members under the virtual system therefore fail to participate and make valuable contributions.
Cultural identities also exerts influence on the participating members as the Face Negotiation Theory states (Yu-Ting Caisy Hung, 2008), ‘ that the people in heterogeneous atmosphere are concerned about receiving negative assessment and therefore they prefer to stay quite. They try to hold back themselves and refrain from speaking so that they do not hurt the sentiment of the other members. On the contrary in the homogenous environment members involve more actively.
Team Composition
Team Composition is also very important in any organization and this can happen effectively if there is common discussion among the members of the team. As all the members of the team belong to diverse cultural backgrounds therefore it becomes difficult for them to cope up with each other. It has been seen that the individuals face interaction problems with the other participants in the heterogeneous groups (Yu-Ting Caisy Hung, 2008). The homogeneous groups on the other hand are considered to have more effective composition with the result of which they give better performance. To make the members of the heterogeneous groups participate with each other, it is important to give them adequate time that can help them understand the diversity.
The Management and the Virtual Team
The virtual information system is also difficult to manage, it is certainly a challenge for the Management as a Manager must have a great understanding of the virtual environment to understand the team. The diversity in the cultures make it challenging for the people sitting in the management to understand every individuals problem. It thus is the onus of the Managers to ensure that all the members of the virtual team get equal importance in any interaction. It is also important for the Manager to ensure that the ones who need desired guidance should get it. it is thus very important to understand the cultural practices of different regions while managing a virtual team.
Virtual teams are beneficial for any corporate organization as the members of the team bring with them varied knowledge. During this ear of globalization where trade is done cross-boundaries the experience shared by the virtual members from their respective region becomes very important for the company. It helps the company to boost their business and gives them opening in the global markets but its challenges cannot be overlooked. Thus working virtually means working with challenges and it is true for all the people. It is therefore important for the multinational corporations to deal with the mechanism of virtual world. The companies must ensure that there is positive impact of the multi-cultural system on their members. They must give adequate time and attention to those participants who face problems in coping up with the situation.
Works Cited
J.E.McGrath. (1991). Time Interaction and Performance . A Theory of Groups , 285-306.
Kimble, C. L. (2001). Effective Virtual Teams Through Communities of Practice. Management Science Research Paper 2000/09 .
Norahayati Zakaria, A. A. (2004). Working Together Apart? Knopwedge Sharing Culture for Global Virtual Teams. Creativity and Innovation Management , 15-29.
Yu-Ting Caisy Hung, M. T. (2008). The Impact of Cultural Diversity on Global Virtual Team Collaboration -A Social Identity Perspective . Proceedings of the 41st Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences - 2008, (pp. 1-10). Hawaii .