Diversity and Inclusion
The article focuses on the concept of diversity and inclusion, as well as defines the main benefits that can be achieved through implementing this model in a company that has global teams. Diversity can be described by factors that are either visible or not. They may include gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, age, etc. Inclusion is a strategy that allows all these different people to equally participate in the process of decision-making.
Communication is crucial in any teamwork project, and it is especially challenging to establish a good connection between members of global virtual teams. The most important guideline is to allow everyone to share ideas despite the position held within an organization. Each team member must be treated as a unique personality with a valuable background.
There is a model for inclusive global teams that features three fundamental elements, which are people, process, and purpose. The concept of people implies the importance of selecting the best professionals and creating a culture of respect and strong relationships between them that would positively affect the companies’ activities. Process lies in addressing all steps that should be taken for successful work. They include sharing information and technology, developing guidelines, differentiating roles, resolving conflicts, etc. Finally, purpose implies the understanding of common goals and their effect on stakeholders.
There are ten action steps that companies take to improve the work of diverse global teams. The first step is to conduct research to find key features of effective teams. The next steps call for acquiring management support and implementing the required tools and practices. Cross-cultural assessment and tracking should be a part of testing the efficiency of the new strategy. Finally, the experience should go public with an emphasis on diverse global teams’ success.
The RAMP Framework
Although global virtual teams can be a source of ideas that benefit a company, several negative aspects prevent them from being effective. The key issues associated with virtual teams include difficulties with working in different time zones, weak intercorporate relationships, lack of control and assessments, and dealing with conflicts. The article features data from different studies, which show that many employees evaluate their virtual team efficiency as low.
The leadership framework for improving the performance of virtual workers is known as RAMP and includes the guidelines for maintaining relationships, accountability, motivation, and process. People who work from different locations do not see each other, which hurts their connection with other team members. Managers must pay specific attention to things like informal calls, virtual birthday parties, and coffee breaks that would allow employees to build relationships and feel united. Since it is difficult to control workers outside an office, team leaders should build a system of accountability that would allow employees to organize themselves to meet the deadlines.
Motivation is important since workers who do not have it are exposed to negative feelings towards their job. Leaders should prevent their isolation and implement steps like active listening, making instructions clear, being available, and ensuring access to required documents. Communication is crucial for developing motivation, and team managers must improve it through video conferences, paying attention to others’ emotions, clarifying guidelines, etc. Finally, the framework of process calls for setting expectations and eliminating any unnecessary processes like excessive meetings and long calls that distract team members from work.
Leadership Guidelines
While international projects have their benefits, it is often challenging to coordinate them. Different cultures, technological supply, business processes, and management styles are some of the challenges met by leaders of virtual teams. The literature review suggests that project team building should rely on employees who have technical skills, cultural sensitivity, abilities to solve problems, a focus on goals, and strong self-esteem.
However, hiring competent professionals does not end the process, as there is a need for a team leader to identify a role for each member. Guidance is required for everyone to understand and meet expectations. Besides, an effective leader would know how to manage the primary barriers like the difference in viewpoints, role conflict, and power struggle.
The case study of Schlumberger, an oil and gas service company, demonstrates that culture affects the business styles and relationships with clients. It claims that North America is very bureaucratic, Latin countries have the agent-based model, Asia relies on indulging clients, and developing business cultures are often insecure to work with. Some other obstacles facing international virtual teams include time zones, language, culture, leadership, communication, and technology.
While workers can be proficient in their field, such factors as poor language skills or inability to understand other cultures may lead to significant problems in communication. Some of the suggestions for virtual team managers include remaining relevant, possessing written communication skills, building solid relationships, creating empowered and self-directed teams, and being sensitive to other cultures.
Conclusion
The articles provide an understanding that despite many benefits like working around the clock international virtual teams experience many difficulties that are mostly associated with the communication. People usually do not think about the amount of information they receive in a workplace that is translated non-verbally. Most of us require daily interactions with friends and colleagues to feel satisfied with our social life. Inability to share thoughts or have a chat in a workplace result in a feeling of detachment and a gradual decline of motivation.
A sensible leader recognizes the importance of keeping up discussions at work. Of course, such obstacles as different time zones prevent an international virtual team from having long informal conferences. However, live interactions are important for sharing thoughts regarding the work process. It is crucial to remember that not all employees are proficient in cultural differences. Some of them possess, for instance, religious beliefs that contradict other opinions on the subject. Thus, a team leader must recognize the first signs of intercultural conflicts and make every step towards ending them.
Cultural knowledge is something that becomes very handy when drafting guidelines and ensuring everyone recognizes what is expected from them. For instance, some people of Latin origin do not perceive deadlines as something important. They might work on a project very slowly, as it is in their culture to have long breaks, especially in the middle of the day. Such a notion would call a team manager to let employees decide on their own regarding their schedule.
However, the general rule would be to meet a deadline that is common for every project worker. Thus, leadership in a multicultural environment should include extra efforts to build the communication framework that would allow every team member to equally participate in a process and feel satisfied and valued for his or her input.