The role of the human resources Director in a multi-national company - Essay Example

Human Resources Director Organizations worldwide often strive for high performance through well-laid strategies. However, it is technology and wise decisions that often influence several factors which are essential in managing global virtual teams. Global virtual teams often operate through enhanced communication and enhanced technology. Team participation and conflict management equally form part of improving leadership in areas such as Asia and Europe (Brake 2008, p. 123). As the paper will demonstrate, communication will take various forms such as open-ended questions and engagement in reflected understanding. Therefore, as a leader, establishing crucial steps in streamlining through frequent communication will ensure that virtual teams aim at achieving meaningful goals and objectives. Demonstrating effective leadership as a Human Resources Director (HRD) when working for a multi-national company requires skill and competence in order to attain maximum success. It begins with a display of leadership steps that are suited for a corporate culture especially when operating in offices based Asia and Europe. Therefore, it is vital to understand the operation of global virtual teams in relation to the existing culture and different time zones in such markets (Zayani 2008, p.109). Second, mapping out ways of gaining a strategic advantage is critical because it enables the organization to use a combination of other factors that include the application of theories and principles of teamwork. Additionally, leveraging on international presence is essential because it increase the chances of attracting more customers (Lipnack & Stamps 2000, P. 172). In other words, there is an increase of responsiveness toward transforming hyper-competitive markets that define the overall success. However, as a leader working in the process of training and developing employees with diverse cultural backgrounds, codification of cultural decisions is fundamental. Codification with emphasis on supporting employees begins with the facilitation process. Facilitation is interlinked with wise decision-making whereby a customer is treated based on his or her background (Chavaren 2000, p. 199). On that account, even the hiring practices as a Human Resources Director should largely reflect the stated values. Working with a virtual team, thus, remains a crucial challenge for leaders because of geographical distance and time zone that surpasses acceptable organizational boundaries (Duarte & Snyder 2006, P. 213). The first steps involves the use of telecommunication and web technology to coordinate a virtual teamwork that respects cultures and traditions of everyone. It begins by streamlining processes, systems, and geographical restrictions as one of the fundamental steps of exercising organizational order. Adjustment of personnel policies is the most important steps for leaders and CEOs who wish to transform the firm into high-minded statements that do sabotage or support another culture and discriminate another. Most global virtual teams, according to research, indicate that they possess critical aspects namely links, people, and purpose. Purpose is the glue that ensures that virtual teams strive toward attaining most of their objectives and goals (Fleming 2006, p .100). The purpose also sets critical guidelines of interconnecting with people from diverse races and ethnicities hence boosting performance. Accordingly, in defining the structure of a company especially those found in Asia, consistency is unavoidable. Consistency comprises of individual results and tasks that motivate a person and common goals that are commensurate with a stipulated organizational culture (Montana & Bruce 2008, p. 188). On the other hand, in links, research shows that team members with good networks often demonstrate aggregate lower levels, which translates to higher performance. The trait is equally influential in their high degrees of attention through preferences of asynchronous communication channels. Alternatively, for synchronous communication channels, low levels of flow are predominant in other virtual team. Another leadership step would encompass the evaluation of socio-emotional processes, inputs, outputs, and task processes. Socio-emotional processes, for instance, are integral because they concentrate on cohesion, trust, and relationship that are useful when dealing with global virtual teams. It implies that the inputs must critically reflect the organizational make-up that include the existing culture, technicalities, training, and design. Inputs eventually will have an impact on outputs through employee performance and customer satisfaction (Godar & Ferris 2004, p. 146). Consequently, the task processes can thus influence the communication channels, coordination of activities and institute task-technology structure fits for efficient and smooth operation. Again, in design, structuring of interactions is vital because it affects the available communication tools. Evidently, this is because most virtual teams rely on team building exercises as a means of establishing shared norms and values important as a leadership step. Therefore, one of the leadership step would entail empirical empowerment of global virtual teams that operate within the jurisdiction of Asia and Europe. Conversely, sharing of knowledge databases would assist in the formulation of mental models that mirror the cultural differences that affect effective communication (Duarte & Synder 2011, p. 193). Cultural differences, for instance, pose a huge obstacle to performance because of inefficient communication channels that fail to meet customer satisfaction and demands. It shows that technical expertise is required to infuse a positive effect on virtual team performance and to nurture of trust between workers of varied nationalities and ethnic make-up. Overall, diversity in the technological skills acquired will subsequently affect team performance because of different training. In a different note, to enhance the socio-emotional processes, one of the leadership steps involves achieving cohesion for all the team members. As a Human Resources Director charged with overseeing the welfare of workers spread across two continents, cohesion translates into a formidable virtual team project. Relationship building, on the other hand, means socialization of diverse cultural preferences through electronic communication tools such as phones (Godar & Ferris 2004, p. 140). Integration of collaborative technologies is equally instrumental in the broader exchange of social information because it enforces trust in employees. It also fosters team cohesiveness with a high-level degree and chances of performances as demonstrated by most virtual teams in Asia. Interestingly, a leadership step emerges from such a set-up because of expected returns that would develop most nascent virtual projects. Building of virtual teams is, hence, a critical step in leadership for anyone in the position of a Human Resources Director. Creation of building blocks is essential, and they begin by identifying goals, missions, and ground rules for efficient and smooth operation. Next involves the identification of stakeholders with respect to their expectations in the market particularly in a multicultural setting such as Asia or Europe. Thereafter, a pragmatic leader can infuse complimentary responsibilities and roles to workers in a hierarchical order to foster cohesion and trust (Edwards & Wilson 2004, p. 133). During the period, leaders equally establish rewarding experiences that are clearly interlinked with trust and the existing opportunities. However, that is not possible without conducting intensive research on virtual team members. The areas of research would encompass group behavior, trust, participation, and positive evaluation during any given task performance. However, it is the task processes that guide the leadership ability of HR managers working and expecting excellent performance in a multicultural setting. The task processes are geared toward achieving various goals and objectives through coordination, task-technology-structure fit, and communication. In the context of a task-technology-structure, examination of different technologies is paramount because it hypothesizes the individual preferences and cultural aspirations of workers and customers in the organization. That means that documentation of project activities and management of conflicts becomes easier to manage. Structuring of tasks in accordance with design trade-offs and analysis will equally prove easier in facing emerging challenges. Contrastingly, it is also integral to strive for intercultural competence through nurturing of skills and body of knowledge possessed by members (Duarte & Synder 2011, p. 191). Certaintly, this is only possible through critical interrogation of national, cultural, and ethnic differences that remains-cross cutting in the organizational domain. As an HRD, it is imperative to comprehend the operations of varying types of virtual teams and the contexts in which they thrive. For instance, there are the networked teams that geographically spread, but all do not come from the same firm. The teams are often formulated as platforms for pitching ideas by members possessing a variety of expertise. It, therefore, means that an issue will be solved within a certain duration depending on the experience and professionalism of the members (Robert 2005, p 129). That is opposed to the working of parallel teams particularly those geographically distributed in Asia and Europe. Parallel teams are predominantly high task oriented implying that it has only specialized professionals. They are not often dissolved immediately unlike networked teams. As a leader in the aforementioned context, it is essential to embrace the diversity of operation and time span given to starting and finishing a given task. Alternatively, in regards to different times and geographical distribution, there are project development teams that largely focus on the creation of new products interlinked with organizational processes and information systems to satisfy customers or users (Schultz & Schultz 2010, p. 166). Interestingly, the parallel teams make critical recommendations and decisions that are influential in the virtual team project and as HRD, important in drawing conclusions of performance. It implies that in Asia and Europe, to achieve maximum success when working with global virtual teams, the HRD deserves to concentrate equally on work, production or functional teams. These are teams that have a specific domain of jurisdiction such as training, research, and finance that enable them to operate different tasks in different geographical locations. Integration of service teams is another decisive step for leaders in these continents where different time-zones affect major business decisions (Tittemore 2003, p. 156). It is because service teams virtually interfere with the operations of data maintenance, network upgrades, and customer support in the provision of service within a 24-hour period. The inclusion of offshore ISD teams is another leadership step often ignored when operating within a geographical distance and different time-zones. Operations of the offshore ISD involves software development including other international R&D projects. Numerous advantages abound such as attainment of cultural diversity that is crucial in group decision-making. The impact of cultural diversity is also reflected in the positive attitudes developed a virtual team in collaborative conflict management and formulating other cultural perspectives of increased performance (Lepsinger & DeRosa 2010, p. 139). In retrospect, cultural diversity strengthens globalization of operations in several ways worth noting. First, there is access to new talent because most global virtual teams provide possibilities to emerging markets hence appropriate for people with skills and talents. Second, diverse perspectives are integral according to research and that often results in increased innovation (Zofi 2011, p. 122). Third, involves a local advantage of enabling representatives to become experts in the international markets. The phenomena display the benefits of going virtual because of the reduction of travel expense especially most activities can be done through communication channels and web technology. Other benefits of going virtual comprise of cultivating more considerate responses especially during communication through text-based mediums and email, as opposed to phone and face-to-face interactions. Consequently, there will be an increased responsiveness and flexibility in the access of information. One of the leadership steps, therefore, involves transcending the time challenges of 24/7 that often leverage targeted benefits of most virtual organizations (Gibson & Cohen 2003, p. 189). Critically, other methodologies exist that are fundamental to attaining high performance and success with virtual teams. For instance, it is upon the leader to lead different by playing various roles concurrently without being authoritarian. Defining of goals and missions is, hence, inevitable to reduce chances of ambiguity and duplication of roles prevalent in most globally distributed teams found in Asia and Europe. Formalization of roles and responsibilities help in making decisions differently for managers intending to engage in consensus building and making of adjustments. The step will inspire HR managers to build trust especially when actively dealing with geographically distributed team (Carmel & Espinosa 2011, p. 145). Accordingly, leaders working with virtual teams are expected to develop concentration and, therefore, establish highly defined processes that help in the delivery of results. Trust will hence entrenched within the system in 2-3 cycles leading to improved communication. Communication, according to research, is an integral exercise when dealing with global virtual teams because of the possibility of interpersonal interactions. Among communication mediums include the use of video conference screens and Skype that aid in switching of skill sets for most team members. However, there are numerous obstacles that afflict leaders dealing with most global virtual teams in Asia and Europe. As a leader, therefore, it is wise to take cognisance of them to eradication potential misunderstandings and mistrust. One of the obstacles encompass failures to communicate effectively and recall information about a certain context (Miner 2005, p. 177). The scenario becomes tricky when dealing with remote partners in forging new business ideas and plans. Alternatively, contextual information is useful only when it is evenly distributed to the legitimate recipients with emphasis on a multicultural set-up. It denotes the differences in timing and speed are important in the feedback cycle to ensure there is uniformity in different time zones (Jarvis 2010, p. 134). Technical problems also abound with uncertainty because of ambiguity that expedites common ground in virtual teams. The situation is aggravated by difficulties and cost of high, rich technology and video that are a preserve to a collocated team. Overall, cultural diversity can only be fostered by intercultural training programs. It, therefore, is imperative for any HRD to institute mechanisms that facilitate effective operations of global virtual teams while focussing on the cultural diversity. Additionally, the use of web technology in both Asian and European nations is critical because it reduces issues of geographical distance and time-zones. In other words, geography can be bridged only through workable communication channels that suit workers and customers of divergent multicultural set-up as demonstrated by the aforementioned nations. Effectiveness in operation is another step that motivates employees and help in building priorities that boost high performance (Pauleen 2004, p. 108). The step will also increase commitment and engagement as part of intercultural competence. Bibliography Brake, T., 2008. Where in the World is My Team: Making a Success of Your Virtual Global Workplace. New York: Wiley. Carmel, E., & Espinosa, J., 2011. Im Working While Theyre Sleeping: Time Zone Separation Challenges and Solutions. Mason: Nedder Stream Press. Chavaren, O., 2003. Trust Within Global Virtual Teams: Antecedents, Facilitators, and Sustainability Factors. New York: iUniverse. Duarte, D., & Snyder, N., 2006. Mastering Virtual Teams. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Duarte, D., & Synder, N., 2011. Mastering Virtual Teams: Strategies, Tools, and Techniques That Succeed. Mason: SAGE. Edwards, A., & Wilson, J., 2004. Implementing Virtual Teams: A Guide to Organizational and Human Factors. 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