Overcoming Challenges in a Multicultural Virtual Team free essay sample

When working in a multicultural virtual team, there are many challenges that you will most likely come across. 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. Multicultural teams often generate frustrating management dilemmas. Cultural differences alone can create substantial obstacles to effective teamwork. But these may be subtle and difficult to recognize until significant damage has already been done. The challenge in managing multicultural teams effectively is to recognize underlying cultural causes of conflict, and to intervene in ways that both get the team back on track and empower its members to deal with future challenges themselves. The good news is that cultural challenges are manageable if managers and team members choose the right strategy and avoid imposing single culture based approaches on multicultural situations. People tend to assume that challenges on multicultural teams arise from differing styles of communication. But this is only one of the four categories that, according to research, can create barriers to a team’s ultimate success. These categories are direct versus indirect communication; trouble with accents and fluency; differing attitudes toward hierarchy and authority; and conflict norms for decision making. (Brett 2006) Communication in Western cultures is typically direct and explicit. The meaning on the surface and a listener doesn’t have to know much about the context or the speaker to interpret it. This is not true in many other cultures, where meaning in imbedded in the way the message is presented. For example, Western negotiators get crucial information about the other parties’ preferences and priorities by asking direct question, such as â€Å"Do you prefer option A or option B? † In cultures that use indirect communication, negotiators may have to infer preferences and priorities from challenges or the lack of them and the other parties’ settlement proposal. In cross cultural negotiations, the non westerner can understand the direct communications of the westerner, but the westerner has difficulty nderstanding the indirect communications of the non westerner. The differences between indirect and direct communication can cause serious damage to relationships when team projects run into problems. (Brett 2006) Communications need to be carefully managed to take into account the cultural differences among team members. Communication is not necessarily the same when you match virtual teams in a multicultural environment. A major problem deals with the geographically dispersed virtual team members and how precisely they address questions or pass on information to their colleagues. Because many of these members reside in different time zone areas, it is a â€Å"rule of thumb† to be precise in what each member wants to know or how well they ask a question. If team members phrase their questions carefully the first time, they will get their point across successfully without having to deal with sending changes and making up for the time lost. Writing clearly and not using acronyms is another way to deal with this issue. Advances in technology have increased each person’s ability and likelihood of interacting with people of cultural backgrounds quite different from their own. (Vinaja 2003) There are a few issues that can arise from workers from different cultures. Maybe some workers will want to be aggressive about their work and others would not want to be like this because they do not believe in being that way. People from different cultures may tend to misunderstand each other’s behaviors or stereotype people from other countries and hence come to distrust one another. One cultural issue is the importance of social status within cultures. Americans have a â€Å"need for speed† and like the efficiency of targeted, sparse prose that is used when communicating by email. They also like fast responses. In other cultures, such as the Japanese, this form of communication collides with their work ethic. The Japanese are correct and proper, expecting to carefully craft their responses and the idea of a written message devoid of non verbal, social and grammar is an incomplete message. Virtual teams must recognize discrepancies between cultures in order to work efficiently and effectively. Working in a cross cultural virtual team can create awareness concerning the principle cultural differences that effect communication and working situation and it can provide techniques for lessening cultural based problems. Eventually with he growing use of the internet to conduct business to business transaction it is essential for cultures to learn to adapt and understand cultural issues. (Vinaja 2003) I believe that this team will spend quite some time before they reach the actual performing stage of their team. I think that there will definitely be some communication issues among the different cultural members among some other conflicts that with proper management can be successfully worked through. In my personal experience it is the Americans that have the hardest time coping with intercultural difference due the arrogance of our people. Some slight cultural awareness and diversity sensitivity may be in order to successfully integrate the team successfully but I think that it is fully achievable and that the team can be a great success with proper coordination and teamwork.