Challenges in Creating and Maintaining Trust in Global Virtual Teams - Research Paper Example

Thesis statement: As businesses expand internationally, trust in global teams become more important to organization’s success. However, creating and maintaining trust in multinational corporations can be challenging. I. Introduction In order to grasp the challenges faced in maintenance of trust in global virtual teams, one must first understand the entire concept of global communication. This happens through the exploration of why global communication is an important concept in the society driven towards globalization. Only in comprehending global communication can one begin to see the importance of virtual teams and their impact in today’s business society (Sarker, Ajuja & Kirkeby, 2011). a) Reasons for studying global communication Global communication refers to the various means in which people relay information around the world to each other. There exist various reasons why people ought to study global communication. Firstly, it enhances understanding of the way people in different parts of the world communicate despite the geographical differences presenting an obstacle, which hinders effective communication. Therefore, people no longer have to travel for long distances in order to attend meetings physically with their counterparts. They simply have to use communication technologies like the internet, and conference calling among others. In the case of multinationals and merged companies, communication remains a trivial point in guaranteeing their survival (Sarker, Ajuja & Kirkeby, 2011). Urgent correspondence, therefore, occurs through electronic means of communication. Studying global communication encourages ethnocentric attitudes among people by raising awareness about different cultures present in the world. This helps people exercise tolerance when dealing with colleagues from different cultures. Businesses also learn to structure their policies in ways which best reflect different cultures of their wide range of stakeholders. In an attempt to propel the phenomenon of globalization to new heights, people around the world continue working tirelessly to improve communication technology. As a result, one gets to comprehend the various ways people overcome challenges such as geographical differences and language barriers among others through the use of advanced technology. b) Increased importance in global communication As time elapses, a continuous need to acknowledge the importance of global communication has become widespread. Therefore, businesses around the world sensitize their employees about the concept of global communication. This especially applies to organizations located in different parts of the world. As a result, employees learn how to interact with their counterparts in a better way ensuring increased levels of productivity within the organization. For example, currently, most organizations are venturing into the use of global virtual teams. These teams present a variety of challenges to most organizations, which require team members to have a clue on how to handle them. The main challenge facing most organizations entails its ability to maintain trust within these global virtual teams (Sarker, Ajuja & Kirkeby, 2011). c) Impacts of virtual teams on organizations Virtual teams continue to impact positively and negatively on most organizations. The positive impacts include the following benefits. Firstly, they overcome constraints brought about by geographical differences by providing people with the opportunity of working anywhere (Kimble, 2011). Moreover, people n virtual teams no longer have to worry about time constraints because they can communicate with their counterparts whenever they want. In addition, organizations can recruit whoever they want to fill in a vacancy without requiring an individual to be physically present at the workplace. Lastly, companies using virtual teams in their daily business routines continue to record reduced amounts of expenses resulting from travel, lodging and leasing property for their employees. On the other hand, the negative impacts include; language barriers, a hard to maintain trust within members of a virtual team, and the diverse cultural backgrounds make it hard for members to interact with each other well. The latter proves to be detrimental to the operations of a business because it also contributes to destroying the mutual respect needed for trust to remain between members of a team (Kelley, 2008). Statement of organization The statement of an organization involves the organization’s mission, vision and other statements, for example, value and vision statements. In the case of vision statements, an organization seeks to reflect the ideal image it hopes its stakeholders will see in the future. These help to create a focal point in the outlining of strategic goals, which are time-bound. In addition, they help to relay the company’s purpose, values and further gives directions on the organization’s expected way of behavior. On the other hand, the value statements seek to define the company’s philosophy and ideals by setting the ethical standards for the organization. II. Overview of Global Virtual Teams An overview of global virtual teams allows one to learn extra things about them, including the nature and work these teams deal with on a daily basis. In addition, a better understanding of the reasons why these teams exist, challenges they face and the benefits they offer allows for an individual to appreciate their existence (Sommer, 2009). a) Definition, nature and types of work Kazenbach and Smith define teams as a small number of people united towards the achievement of a common goal or target. These people have complementary skills and hold each other accountable when executing delegated task in order to guarantee success in the achievement of their goals (Badrinarayanan, Madhavaram & Granot, 2011). From this definition, virtual teams refer to a group of people working in different geographical sites; however, they interact with each other through electronic, virtual means in order to use their complementary skills in the completion of a project. Advanced levels of technology contribute to the rise of virtual teams in different countries around the world. Different groups form virtual teams, for example, task, command, friendship or interest groups. The nature of the work carried out by virtual teams, therefore, revolves around the group created to form the virtual team. For example, task groups form virtual teams charged with the responsibility of seeing a project through till its completion. On the other hand, interest or friendship groups form virtual teams whereby people become united by their similar interests or by the fact that they are friends respectively. The work spans across different fields. However, of all professions, computer specialists especially those who deal in software solutions and other technical professions work best in virtual teams. The demand for virtual teams is steadily on the rise because of a variety of reasons. Firstly, outsourcing skilled personnel from expatriates requires a company to part with high amounts of monetary compensations. Virtual teams allow a company to contract skilled services despite the geographical differences, which prove to be an obstacle. As a result, this minimizes remuneration costs drastically (Sommer, 2009). Secondly, it might not also be practical to make travel arrangements in order to engage in a face-to-face conversation because of time constraints and the nature of the work. Therefore, virtual teams allow for people pressed for time to bypass travel arrangements allowing them to engage in electronic, virtual conversations to discuss different subjects with other team members. In addition, organizations engaged in a merger or those which operate on a multinational scale benefit from virtual teams. This is because they ensure businesses run their day-to-day activities efficiently, especially when correspondence between different branches of the organization proves mandatory. Lastly, virtual teams increase the velocity of business operations because they minimize time consumed through travel, and correspondence (Badrinarayanan, Madhavaram & Granot, 2011). III. The Challenges of Building Trust in Global Virtual Teams A. Factors influencing challenges A variety of challenges present themselves when an organization tries to build trust in global virtual teams. These include the following; hardships brought about by cultural backgrounds and language barriers. Lastly, lack of effective communication also contributes to the factors influencing challenges in building trust within members of virtual teams. i). Cultural backgrounds People working within virtual teams unite to ensure they use their different skills to complement their colleagues’ skills, hence ensure an effective and efficient product. They do this despite the differences in their cultural backgrounds created by the differences in the geographical regions in which they live. This might prove detrimental to the maintenance of trust within virtual teams especially where people are ignorant because of the certain stereotypes attached to certain cultures. Therefore, colleagues might find it hard to work well together because they will tend to let these stereotypes cloud their judgment. This results into failure and low productivity of the virtual team. ii). Language barriers Language barriers existing between different members of a virtual team may be one of the main factors responsible for impeding the development of trust between members working together in a virtual team. This is because the members will experience a lot of difficulties as they try to communicate with each other. In addition, some valuable instructions might be lost in translation through omissions or poor translations made by translators. As a result, members might result in blaming each other for the mistakes made, therefore, causing a build-up in the level of mistrust between them. The differences in languages might also make it difficult to explain technical terms in a way that is easily understandable by a majority of the people. In addition, differences in accents make it hard for people who speak other languages to comprehend what their colleagues are saying. In order to overcome language barriers as an obstacle, organizations have no choice but to employ people capable of speaking various, widespread languages, for example, English, French or Spanish. Alternatively, these organizations hire translators charged with the duty of translating languages. This adds to the expenses incurred by organizations because of the extra remuneration packages given to the hired translators. iii) Effective Communication A breakdown in the communication chain might lead to devastating effects within an organization. This is because most organizations depend on the relaying of information between different stakeholders to accomplish their set goals. Therefore, the various means of communication must be efficient in order to avoid delays in the relaying of information. In the case of virtual teams, communication between different members occurs through the use of electronic means of communication to relay their messages to each other. These electronic means of communication prove to be reliable and sufficient in the relaying of urgent information because of the high speed in which information gets passed from one end to the other. However, they are also prone to causing delays especially when the network suffers any form of disruption. These disruptions result from power failures, destruction of wires and cables by humans or unpredictable weather elements. As a result, a breakdown in information occurs and members resort to blaming each other for factors beyond their control. In addition, delays in communication between individuals occur as a result, in the difference, in working shifts people work because of the difference in working hours caused by a difference in longitudes and latitudes. People living in the Eastern regions of the hemisphere are a few hours ahead of those living in the Western regions of the hemisphere (Nunamaker, Reinig & Briggs, 2009). As a result, their working shifts differ; therefore, organizations with single working shifts might experience delays in their communication. IV. Maintaining Trust in a Global Virtual Team Trust maintenance in a global virtual economy relies on the ability of an organization to take into account the diverse cultures present within the region it is operating (Shachaf, 2008). Among the ways, a business can achieve this involves the use of multicultural adaptation strategy. This allows the business to model all its operations in a way that best reflects the different cultures within its business environment. In addition, the success of most organizations also relies on the quality of communication between the business and its stakeholder. A breakdown in communication might prove detrimental to a business because it hinders progression in the execution of ideas aimed at generating revenue for the business (Sommer, 2009). a) Multicultural adaptation A multicultural adaptation strategy allows a business to incorporate the different cultures found within its business environment. The standpoint theory in sociology advances that people formulate standpoints based on their cultural influence on their day-to-day personal experiences. As a result, their perspectives and the way in which they interpret different issues depend on the cultural expectations advanced in the society they live. Therefore, businesses have no choice but to ensure their operations take into consideration the different cultural expectations. For example, organizations operating within the Middle East or African cultures need to ensure their operations do not reflect Western cultural practices, which have no regard for the conservative nature of the former cultures. In the event that a society is multicultural in nature, an organization needs to ensure that its operations remain tolerant to all the cultures present within the society. This applies in countries like the USA, whereby different cultures coexist with each other peacefully. Different aspects within a business require the adaptation of a multicultural strategy. These include; customer relations policies, labor relations policies, corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies, sales and marketing strategies among others. Labor relation policies, which reflect multicultural adaptation strategies, involve an organization instituting neutral policies that do not offend any member of the organization on grounds of their culture. A business should also ensure their sales and marketing strategies do not solicit negative responses because of being ignorant to any of the diverse cultures present within its business environment, for example, culturally offensive advertisement strategies. Corporate Social Responsibility strategies also need to take into consideration the diverse cultures present within the society it is operating. A business ought to remain informed about the different expectations of different cultures prior to the formulation of new policies. This will play a crucial role in cementing the relationship between the business and its stakeholders guaranteeing maximization of profit levels and maintenance of trust in a global virtual team (Chang, Chao & Shuang-Shii Chuang1, 2005). b) Communication quality Quality communication plays an important role in the running of an efficient, reliable organization. This is because people operating within an organization rely on the flow of information to communicate and achieve the outlined goals. It is, therefore, crucial for the entire organization to establish predictability and timely, efficient feedback in their communication strategies (Jarvenpaa & Leidner, 2009). 1. Predictability Predictability in communication refers to the ability of information relayed within individuals in an organization to solicit the predicted response. Meaning, the main goal of communication within an organization is its ability to achieve expected desirable results. This makes it easier to predict the reactions or responses of the different stakeholders of an organization after the relaying of information (Hortensia, 2008). As a result, the organization stays in control of the way its stakeholders perceive its day-to-day activities. Predictability in communication within an organization proves to be an integral part especially when used in an organization’s sales and marketing strategies. The company, therefore, can control its customers’ perceptions with regard to the information it relays to them about different products and services through advertisements. In addition, the concept of predictability in communication also allows a company to instill trust in all its stakeholders by ensuring the information trickling down to them is reassuring in nature. The concept of relational dialectics advanced by Leslie Baxter and Rawlins, communication theorists, posit that communication results from tensions brought about by opposing tendencies. These tensions might result in stress among those in the process of communicating. As a result, the concept of predictability allows for these tensions to be thought of well in advance, therefore, giving those communicating a chance to avoid the tensions ensuring desirable responses (Tavčar, Žavbi, Verlinden & Duhovnik, 2005). 2. Feedback Feedback also plays a crucial role in communication. This is because it relays results to those working within the organization allowing them to rectify wrong aspects. On the other hand, it assists them in knowing the right aspects, hence help in their further reinforcement. Feedback in an organization can either be positive or negative. Feedback received plays a pivotal role because it helps in the re-evaluation of strategies within the organization. It helps in the maintenance of trust, in a global virtual team, because it pinpoints the areas causing a decline in the level of trust within members of a team. Furthermore, it also indicates the aspects responsible for increasing the trust levels within team members, therefore, allowing an organization to preserve these aspects (Nunamaker Jr., Reinig & Briggs, 2009) Conclusion In conclusion, it is clear that an organization stands to benefit from the use of global virtual teams in running their daily operations. However, the maintenance of trust within team members presents a variety of challenges to the management of various organizations operating on a large scale. As a result, the company must resort to measures such as sensitization of employees on the different cultures present within the regions in which the organization operates. Organizations do this through the implementation of multicultural adaptation strategies. These strategies encourage ethnocentric thinking among members within an organization. As a result, people learn to let go of their discriminatory, stereotypic attitudes. Secondly, the organization has no choice but to use proper communication skills, which entail the use of feedback in making the desired changes where necessary and adopting communication systems, which guarantee predictable results. Meaning, organizations manage to control their stakeholders’ perceptions of the information they make available to them. Furthermore, organizations also need to educate their employees about the importance of global communication to encourage them to learn about the benefits the entire organization stands to gain from this concept. In many instances, increased profits within an organization automatically translate to increased wages and benefits for its employees; the reverse also holds true. From this, it becomes clear that globalization is an emerging trend that seeks to improve global interaction between various businesses; which can only, be sustained by efficient global communication by using tools, such as, global virtual teams (Panteli & Tucker, 2009). The use of electronic means to facilitate the use of virtual teams within the organization continues to put pressure on the technology sector, which strives towards improving the level of technology to provide users with advanced means of communication. For example, training within organizations in present society occurs through e-learning. This is a form of teaching whereby training occurs virtually. Therefore, people do not have to go to attend regular classes for lessons. All the improvements noted within the global communication sector encourage further growth of the globalization phenomenon (Clear & McDonell, 2011). References Badrinarayanan, V., Madhavaram, S., &Granot, E. (2011, Summer). 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