Article summary with Working Apart Together? Building a Knowledge-Sharing Culture for Global Virtual Teams, Creativity & Innovation Management by Amelinckx and Wilemon - 2004

The rise of global virtual teams is a phenomenon of globalization. At the same time, new information and communication technologies play an ever-increasing role in all aspects of global business relations, but are particularly important in the emergence of new global organizational work structures and virtual work environments. Information and communication technologies have been viewed as an indispensable tool for multinational corporations that choose to move beyond the geographic constraints of face-to-face employee interactions and endeavor to build a virtual workplace and/or use virtual teams as a new component of a generally traditional work structure. Whereas information and communication technologies are essential in the communication and knowledge-sharing processes for geographically dispersed employees, computer-facilitated communication.

Introduction

The rise of global virtual teams is a phenomenon of globalization. At the same time, new information and communication technologies play an ever-increasing role in all aspects of global business relations, but are particularly important in the emergence of new global organizational work structures and virtual work environments. Information and communication technologies have been viewed as an indispensable tool for multinational corporations that choose to move beyond the geographic constraints of face-to-face employee interactions and endeavor to build a virtual workplace and/or use virtual teams as a new component of a generally traditional work structure. Whereas information and communication technologies are essential in the communication and knowledge-sharing processes for geographically dispersed employees, computer-facilitated communication.

Technologies are only as effective as those using them. Even though information and communication technologies impact knowledge sharing, team coherence and performance, it is the human component in the virtual environment and the interactive relational bonds that facilitate or hinder the development of a shared knowledge culture and organizational learning. Creating a knowledge-based environment requires more than information and communication technology; it requires other crucial elements such as intra-team trust and intra-team relational bonds, leadership, intercultural communication competence, and cross-cultural training that foster a collaborative interactive permissive space.

This paper examines the following issues: (1) what are the cross-cultural challenges faced by global virtual teams?; (2) how do organizations develop a knowledge sharing culture to promote effective organizational learning among culturally-diverse team members? and; (3) what are some of the practices that can help maximize the performance of global virtual teams?

What and why global virtual teams?

Researchers suggest three main attributes for virtual teams;

1. it is a functioning team that is interdependent in task management, having shared responsibility for outcomes, and collectively managing relationships across organizational boundaries
2. Team members are geographically dispersed,
3. They rely on technology-mediated communications rather than face-to-face interaction to accomplish tasks. In essence, team members are not collocated and definitely use technology-mediated communication such as information and communication technologies.

Global teams = A team that is comprised of individuals located in many different countries or geographic areas, and team members differ in their functionality, which adds complexity to group dynamics. The main idea behind this concept is that people are both geographically dispersed and functionally diverse.

Global virtual teams are not only separated by time and space, but differ in national, cultural and linguistic attributes, and use information and communication technologies as their primary means of communication and work structure

The potential advantages of global virtual teams are that they can create culturally synergistic solutions, enhance creativity and cohesiveness among team members, promote a greater acceptance of new ideas and, hence, provide a competitive advantage for multinational companies. The possible disadvantages are that they tend to have more time consuming decision-making processes and when miscommunication and misunderstandings occur, stress and conflicts among team members are heightened and less easily dispelled.

There are two key issues (illustrated in Figure 1) to implement global virtual teams.

Culture and knowledge sharing base

Knowledge sharing is often facilitated by communication that involves the exchange of meaning. The process of communicating is dynamic, multifaceted and complex. Cultural conditioning affects the evaluation of experience as well as the means by which information and knowledge is conveyed and learned. When miscommunication occurs, particularly in a cross-cultural setting, the sender and receiver should be seen as both active participants engaged in knowledge transfer and culturally mediated discourse. The ability to communicate effectively in a cross-cultural setting resides in the abilities of all participants to successfully decode and encode messages so that they are understood within the others’ cultural contexts.

Moreover, in computer-mediated environments, the means by which information is transferred is flattened, less dynamic and thus may become less salient, possibly less easy to grasp, retain and learn.

National Cultural Effects on Global Virtual Teams Intra-team Dynamics

Individuals from different cultures vary in terms of their group behaviors and communications styles. Several research has found that;

• In order to understand the communication and behavioral priorities of those from a particular culture, one must understand the context in which they occur.
• High context culture = Relying heavily upon the external environment for behavioral cues where people value subtle and indirect communication styles
• Low context culture = Where the communication put less emphasis on non-verbal or behavioral cues, hence communication tends to be more direct, with an avoidance of ambiguity
• Hofstede’s four cultural dimensions framework (power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism versus collectivism, and career success versus quality of life, originally labeled masculinity versus femininity) inform both global virtual team dynamics and can provide useful insight into how a shared knowledge culture can be constructed and how people interact in virtual teams

Organizational Culture Effects on Global Virtual Teams

Organizational culture is embedded in the national cultures in which an organization operates. Although both cultures play different roles, each influences the way things operate in multinational corporations.

Organizational or corporate culture = Includes the values and beliefs expressed in artefacts, symbols and practices as well as organizational language, traditions, myths, rituals, and stories. Another view: ‘It is the way we do things around here. In essence, corporate culture is the learned, shared, and tacit assumptions such as values, beliefs, and assumptions’

Information and communication technology as a facilitating tool for knowledge sharing

In information and communication technology-mediated environments where geographically dispersed and culturally diverse members electronically converse in English, the language used by members may further obscure intended meaning and hamper knowledge management when members assume that terms and slang in one English-language culture have identical meanings in another English language environment.

Individual team members need to be cognizant of English language variation in intra-team electronic communication, particularly in regards to tone, style, formality, salutations and closings, and aware that substantial sociolinguistic and grammatical variations exist within the global English-speaking community and will impact intra-team communications. Team members’ cultural differences in work emphasis, deadline adherence, project management style all need to be made transparent to the team and a synergistic team approach to each concern be mediated and agreed upon early in the team formation process. The role of information and communication technologies is regarded as a functional tool that facilitates the cross-cultural collaboration and communication. Information and communication technologies can provide a common medium for work and shared meaning.

Human challenges of virtual team membership

Understanding human challenges of virtual team membership in order to create a knowledge-sharing culture and capabilities provide numerous key implications for multinational corporations. What needs to be clearly emphasized and articulated here is the fact that teamwork is a culturally and linguistically bounded concept.

• Creating effective team leadership – Team leaders play a crucial role in effective global virtual team management and in creating a knowledge-sharing environment. The leader(s) co-ordinate activities/tasks, motivate team members, monitor and/or facilitate collaboration and address/resolve conflict. Team leadership must involve effective cross-cultural communication and understanding, ensure that there is a collective sense of belonging, and that team values, task assignment and plans are shared. Team leaders need to build intra-team participation, ensure that all ideas are heard, and monitor participation rates.
• Managing conflict and global virtual teams dynamics – In information and communication technologies-mediated environments, addressing conflict situations and even detecting the existence of conflict, is not always straightforward. For example, in one hand, avoidance behavior may indicate conflict in certain cultures. On the other hand, confrontational behavior can lead to conflict in other cultures. Global virtual teams need to anticipate potential areas of conflict in the formation stage and develop norms/rules around conflict resolution
• Developing trust and relationships – For global virtual teams, being both heterogeneous cultural entities and geographically dispersed virtual entities, the risk of potential misunderstandings and mistrust is heightened. Trust between group members as well as trust between the team and the organization is equally important. The ability to collaborate depends heavily upon trust as open reciprocity and sharing of information and knowledge will not freely occur without it.

According to some researchers, the formation of cross-cultural trust includes a reciprocal element in it and falls under two behavioral categories

• Credibility where one party (focal) believes that the other party (referent) has capabilities, competence, expertise and resources to make a successful exchange that meets outcome expectations. Focal also believes that referent will act in a reliable and predictable manner to meet the expectations.
• Benevolence includes beliefs about the emotional aspects of the referent’s behavior like positive intention to exchange. Such beliefs include a referent’s good will and that the referent will not jeopardize the exchange outcome, and will in fact support enhanced outcomes in the exchange.
• Understanding cross-cultural differences;
• Developing intercultural communication competences; Although using information and communication technologies can reduce certain cross-cultural barriers, team members need cross-cultural training to gain the desired cognitive, affective and behavioral competencies. These competencies respectively mean that people need to understand and recognize cultural differences; feel comfortable with various cultures; and thus act accordingly to suit cultural differences.

As a summary for practical suggestions, Table 1 highlights the need for numerous knowledge, skills and abilities in order for global virtual teams to work effectively in a virtual environment.