Benefits and obstacles of managing global teams
In this techno-freak world, most of the companies prefer operating across the globe, but the entire load to manage this stretch of global teams is often shouldered by the Managers and the leadership team of the companies (Lilian, 2014, pp.1251-1261). There are amazing benefits of going global, but simultaneously there will definitely be a lot of obstacles to threaten the ability of the leaders to lead the team located at a different geographical location, and if this is not addressed immediately, it could soon become a potential threat to the team’s ability to succeed. With globalization, many companies are heading towards expanding their reach to various parts of the world. For this, they need to establish offices and need to engage people who can take care of their work and help them in achieving their goals and objectives. It will be not possible for this to happen in a day or two (Nishii, and Özbilgin, 2007, pp.1883-1894). It requires time, resource and money to invest and build the base of the entire new firm. The modern-day leaders focus more on a flat-world type of economy that assumes each private-sector Chief Executive Officer (CEO) as a “Global CEO” so that he/she can put efforts considering a worldwide platform. This concept has encouraged the formation of Global teams (Pirkkalainen, and Pawlowski, 2014, pp.637-647). These teams have different cultural backgrounds, ethical considerations, language, working styles, etc. all of them contribute towards one business objective and aim forward to achieve success (Dingsoyr, and Smite, 2014, pp.22-29). Various dimensions contribute to the barriers that create a gap between the remote teams. They also added that arguments are quite often in such kind of teams due to lack of proper communication and understanding. They also proposed a Global Social Knowledge Management-barrier framework that would help in demonstrating all the high-level challenges faced by the teams distributed globally (Pirkkalainen, and Pawlowski, 2014, pp.637-647). The difference in culture and thought process are obvious to arise within the team members. People might not get what the other person might be thinking and vice versa. There might be cases where the culture of a country might not be acceptable for another country. Change in the organizational structures has changed the way of working of people at different hierarchical levels (Schuler, Tarique, and Jackson, 2004, pp.234-252). They also added that, the lower hierarchical positions are very flexible to work, but at the same time they require effective leadership guidance. E-leadership is a new concept of leading a team virtually, without facing a face-to-face interaction or physical meeting. As a part of globalization, leaders have to face crucial issues on to handling the teams and managing the professional approach. According to the author, the change in the organizational structures has change the way of working of people at different hierarchical levels (Schuler, Tarique, and Jackson, 2004, pp.234-252). They also added that, the lower hierarchical positions are very flexible to work, but at the same time they require effective leadership guidance.
Importance of effective leadership and communication
Each work is conducted with a specific aim and objective that would define why the work is so important and what is the significance of getting involved to it. Change in the market affects each organization at the global level and same as to the people associated with it (Pirkkalainen, and Pawlowski, 2014, pp.637-647). The scope of this work is to understand the pros and cons of managing global teams and then to do a comparative analysis to rate the global team management process. Creating a successful workforce across the world requires dynamic management skills and effective communication with strong leadership approach (Schuler, Tarique, and Jackson, 2004, pp.234-252). Also, trust building becomes difficult in such remote approach as compared to a locally placed team with whom the interaction becomes easier.
This section will help in identifying the gaps in managing global teams. It will also provide remedial measures to fill the gaps.
Lack of Clarity within the team: Usually, native language, mother tongue influence, poor phone connections and multitasking team members during conference calls are some of the major stumbling blocks that creates a room for lack of clarity and the people involved in the discussion are not able to sync in a correct manner (Nishii, and Özbilgin, 2007, pp.1883-1894).
Remedial measure: Follow-up conference calls can be arranged to get a clear and written communication of the agenda and to ensure that the takeaways are same for all the attendees (Schuler, Tarique, and Jackson, 2004, pp.234-252)
Slow decision-making process: This is one of the obvious gaps and ‘less overlapping time’ is often the culprit (Dingsoyr, and Smite, 2014, pp.22-29). As a result, it might take several weeks’ time to arrange a single meeting based on everyone’s availability that can lead to decision-making process happen at a snail’s pace.
Remedial measure: A plan for Video conferencing might work in a fruitful way and can give the attendees the ability to sense each other’s body language and tone.
Unsolved Conflict Resolution: Email communication usually leads to conflicts within global teams, as the tone and body language of the sender and recipient are difficult to judge (Nishii, and Özbilgin, 2007, pp.1883-1894).
Remedial measure: Tough messages should never be written via mails, and it is always good to speak live with the individual in a one-on-one conversation to understand the issue in a better way (Lilian, 2014, pp.1251-1261).
Corporate culture conflicts: Cross-cultural conflicts are expected within a team when the team operates globally as there would be a lack of constant interaction and team bonding among them (Pirkkalainen, and Pawlowski, 2014, pp.637-647).
Solutions to obstacles such as slow decision-making, unsolved conflict resolution, and cultural conflicts
Remedial measure: Investment in the cultural asset is one of the greatest assets for any multinational company to avoid cross-cultural conflicts.
Apart from the above-mentioned remedies, it is important for the organization to think logically and come up with some justified and solid plans that could be applied as part of the operation for the remote teams (Schuler, Tarique, and Jackson, 2004, pp.234-252). Each position in the organizations should be well defined and structured in such a manner that it should not be difficult to deal, whether placed by locally or distributed all around the world. Arguments are quite often in such kind of teams due to lack of proper communication and understanding (Nishii, and Özbilgin, 2007, pp.1883-1894). They also proposed a Global Social Knowledge Management-barrier framework that would help in demonstrating all the high-level challenges faced for the teams distributed globally. The managers get an opportunity to look into talents beyond their geographical location (Pirkkalainen, and Pawlowski, 2014, pp.637-647). A huge amount of talents, is available all across the globe. Scope for building global teams helps in hunting for those talents and they will be available as a meaningful resource to the organization.
Various authors have provided different views and perceptions about managing global teams. Each has a different aspect to analyze the challenges associated with dealing global teams and proposing alternative ways to combat the issue. The analysis includes the professional experience along with the theoretical approach to come to a conclusion of the issues and the ways to handle them (Dingsoyr, and Smite, 2014, pp.22-29). This section will try to focus on some of the literature and articles that had done research on various ways to handle the global teams and came up with some different outcomes.
Pirkkalainen and his team have worked over the Global social knowledge management to understand the barriers that affect the international teams to utilize the software effectively. Their work identified about 63 barriers across numerous departments and domains (Pirkkalainen, and Pawlowski, 2014, pp.637-647). In his work he tried to highlight on some of the related challenges and tried to correlate them with various elements like technical, organizational, social and cultural. These dimensions contribute to the barriers that create a gap between the remote teams. They also added that arguments are quite often in such kind of teams due to lack of proper communication and understanding (Lilian, 2014, pp.1251-1261). They also proposed a Global Social Knowledge Management-barrier framework that would help in demonstrating all the high-level challenges faced by the teams distributed globally.
Perspectives and perceptions on managing global teams
E-leaders, an emerging concept that rightly defines the virtual leadership, were the major topic for analysis for Lilian and team. E-leadership refers to the fast-growing leadership track along with technical involvement (Lilian, S.C., 2014, pp.1251-1261). It is a new concept of leading a team virtually, without facing a face-to-face interaction or physical meeting. As a part of globalization, leaders have to face crucial issues with respect to handling the teams and managing the professional approach (Nishii, and Özbilgin, 2007, pp.1883-1894). According to the author, the change in the organizational structures has change the way of working of people at different hierarchical levels. They also added that, the lower hierarchical positions are very flexible to work, but at the same time they require effective leadership guidance (Pirkkalainen, and Pawlowski, 2014, pp.637-647). E-mail communication usually leads to conflicts within global teams, as the tone and body language of the sender and recipient are difficult to judge (Nishii, and Özbilgin, 2007, pp.1883-1894). Follow-up conference calls can be arranged to get a clear and written communication of the agenda and to ensure that the takeaways are same for all the attendees. Tough messages should never be written via mails, and it is always good to speak live with the individual in a one-on-one conversation to understand the issue in a better way
It is true that global teams have made the work easier and comfortable, yet there are many issues associated with it that limits its success and performance. Many surveys and case studies were conducted across the world to analyze the advantages and disadvantages associated with the application of remote team’s leadership and managing people working at different location across the globe (Schuler, Tarique, and Jackson, 2004, pp.234-252). This section will focus more on the pros and cons of managing global teams with an in-depth analysis.
Leveraging Global Talent: The managers get an opportunity to look into talents, beyond their geographical location. A huge amount of talents, is available all across the globe (Nishii, and Özbilgin, 2007, pp.1883-1894). Scope for building global teams helps in hunting for those talents and they will be available as meaningful resource to the organization.
Increasing productivity of the company – The mangers, also end up showing increased productivity and higher profits (Pirkkalainen, and Pawlowski, 2014, pp.637-647). Number of resources added to the company will certainly help in increasing the productivity of the process and eventually adding value to the business.
Continuity of work – There can be a continuity of work due to a difference of time zones and deliverables can be achieved at a faster pace (Schuler, Tarique, and Jackson, 2004, pp.234-252). Teams placed globally can support the process round the clock (Dingsoyr, and Smite, 2014, pp.22-29). This will help in increasing the productivity as well as utilization the working hours in the most effective manner.
Provide better and wider ideas for innovation – People of different countries have different ways of looking at to a single thing (Lilian, 2014, pp.1251-1261). This will provide scope for people to provide ideas for change or innovation that could help in taking the company to new heights.
Lacking managerial effectiveness – The managers have the limitations of observing their employees’ performance and efforts physically as the geographical location acts as the biggest barrier.
Improper and ineffective communication – Lack of face-to-face communication with the team members would create the risk of communication gap. This might induce difference in understanding and does things in a different way, which they are not supposed to do (Schuler, Tarique, and Jackson, 2004, pp.234-252)
Cross-cultural differences – Difference in culture and thought process are obvious to arise within the team members (Pirkkalainen, and Pawlowski, 2014, pp.637-647). People might not get what the other person might be thinking and vice versa. There might be cases where the culture of a country might not be acceptable for another country.
Injustice in the workplace – There are chances of virtual team members feeling the heat of organizational injustice when compared with folks present in the actual workplace (Schuler, Tarique, and Jackson, 2004, pp.234-252). Many leaders have said that such kinds of issues are quite obvious with having teams present locally and globally (Nishii, and Özbilgin, 2007, pp.1883-1894). Local teams assume that their efforts are going in loss compared to those who are working remotely yet been paid the same amount.
Conclusion
Many surveys and case studies were conducted across the world to analyze the advantages and disadvantages associated with the application of remote team’s leadership and managing people working at a different location across the globe (Pirkkalainen, and Pawlowski, 2014, pp.637-647). There are definitely amazing benefits of going global, but simultaneously there will definitely be lot of obstacles to threaten the ability of the leaders to lead the team located at a different geographical location and if this is not addressed immediately, it could soon become a potential threat to the team’s ability to succeed (Dingsoyr, and Smite, 2014, pp.22-29). One of the negative things about global teams is that the managers have the limitations of observing their employees’ performance and efforts physically as the geographical location acts as the biggest barrier. Native language, mother tongue influence, poor phone connections and multitasking team members during conference calls are some of the major stumbling blocks that create room for lack of clarity and the people involved in the discussion are not able to sync in a correct manner. With globalization, many companies are heading towards expanding their reach to various parts of the world (Pirkkalainen, and Pawlowski, 2014, pp.637-647). Change in the organizational structures has changed the way of working of people at different hierarchical levels. They also added that, the lower hierarchical positions are very flexible to work, but at the same time they require effective leadership guidance (Lilian, 2014, pp.1251-1261). Apart from the above-mentioned remedies, it is important for the organization to think logically and come up with some justified and solid plans that could be applied as part of the operation for the remote teams (Schuler, Tarique, and Jackson, 2004, pp.234-252). Each position in the organizations should be well defined and structured in such a manner that it should not be difficult to deal, whether placed locally or distributed all around the world.
Dingsoyr, T. and Smite, D., 2014. Managing knowledge in global software development projects. IT Professional, 16(1), pp.22-29.
Lilian, S.C., 2014. Virtual teams: opportunities and challenges for e-leaders. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 110, pp.1251-1261.
Nishii, L.H. and Özbilgin, M.F., 2007. Global diversity management: towards a conceptual framework. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 18(11), pp.1883-1894.
Pirkkalainen, H. and Pawlowski, J.M., 2014. Global social knowledge management–understanding barriers for global workers utilizing social software. Computers in Human Behavior, 30, pp.637-647.
Schuler, R.S., Tarique, I. and Jackson, S.E., 2004. Managing human resources in cross-border alliances. In Advances in mergers and acquisitions (pp. 103-129). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
Stapel, K. and Schneider, K., 2014. Managing knowledge on communication and information flow in global software projects. Expert Systems, 31(3), pp.234-252.
Steers, R.M. and Nardon, L., 2014. Managing in the global economy. Routledge.
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