Team Communication - Essay Example

Team development can be achieved by effective communication which increased cohesiveness of the team. These types of work structures require a whole new notion of collaboration-collaboration with external constituencies. A potential impediment to the success of work teams comes from differences in employee preferences and values. Just as some cultures are more individualistic or more collectivistic than others, individuals within cultures also vary on this dimension-even though there is, on average, more variation across cultures than within cultures.

For example, when faced with the prospect of moving to a team-based work environment, some employees in a study conducted in the United States expressed concerns that reflected their individualistic values. "The communication gauge is read by individually asking team members about the purpose of what they do, why this project exists, and what success looks like for the purpose of team understanding" (Thompson and Border 2008, p. 10). Numerous impediments will challenge the effective implementation of teams across national contexts, including the inherent time lag between implementation and results, the often tenuous relationships between teams, cultural differences that require adaptations in practices to fit the context, and increasing domestic demographic diversity within nations.

As temporary team structures, multicultural teams, and virtual teams proliferate, these team-savvy practitioners will be able to lead their organizations through successful implementation and use of teams in multinational contexts (Hermelis et al 2008). In addition to increasing the likelihood of informal communication through increased contact, proximity increases the quality of communication. By high-quality communication, we mean two-way interactions involving more than one sensory channel.

The opportunity for interactions of this type is especially important during the initiation and planning stages of a project, when the need for a rich communication modality is strongest. In addition to increasing the likelihood of informal communication through increased contact, proximity increases the quality of communication. By high-quality communication, we mean two-way interactions involving more than one sensory channel. t (Thompson and Border 2008). The main challenges of team communication are diversity (cultural, age and gender and different perspectives on the research projects.

Having multiple opportunities for high-quality, low-cost interactions makes it possible for potential collaborators to find each other and to manage their work efficiently. Without these opportunities for informal communication, collaborations don't get started, and if the opportunity for informal communication declines, collaborative work typically slows down, becomes more burdensome and, sometimes, comes to an end. Teams in individualistic cultures appear to be particularly susceptible to overconfidence.

"That the biases inherent in self-selection could skew the exit questionnaires and thus our research findings." (Hermelis et al 2008, p. 342). Individualists view their team as an entity in and of itself rather than one that is connected to the external context and are therefore even less apt to use external sources of information to make corrections in their behavior and improve their performance. Particularly in