Challenges In Managing Global Teams: A Case Study Of USA And Switzerland

Background Information on Management of Global Teams

Question:

Discuss about the Challenges of Managing Global Teams.

Globalization has led to the changes in the workplace. International companies have projects worldwide worked upon by employees from different countries, involving great geographical distance with different time zones.  The advancement in technology has further complicated the management of various worldwide projects. Research shows that there is an increase in the number of projects distributed geographically within matrix companies and the management of these projects alongside the employees is proving a task.  According to Landry and Wood (2012), the management of the matrix forms of projects has been difficult to manage, and the failure is mostly associated with diversity.  Gazor (2012) asserts that virtual work groups are more complicated than face to face related job. The sources of conflicts in a global workforce include the variation in cultures and their lack of familiarity (Vance and Paik, 2015). The significance of human component at work and manner in which people associate with each other should not be taken lightly (Bolman & Deal, 2017).

This research affirms existing theories and practices and adds values to them in various ways. First, this study examines critical challenges that affect the effective and efficient management of global teams because the set-up of global teams vary and are a contrast to the settings of the traditional face to face work (Thomas & Peterson, 2017). Secondly, most of the studies done on topics related to management of global teams have not been comprehensive enough to address the challenges that the managers of virtual teams undergo. Most of the researchers have centred on the effectiveness of managing the face to face teams with diverse cultural backgrounds (Hofhuis et al., 2012) However, the changes in business transactions as a result of technology advancement have led to matrix companies and the rise of virtual teams worldwide, and thus it is critical that the management challenges of these teams be researched. Furthermore, the impact of managing global teams has been given little attention. This research gap is critical because the global teams are almost varied in all aspects compared to the usual face to face interviews. For instance, a cultural diversity which is the common source of challenge in global teams can negatively impact the performance of other employees and the organization at large (Bell et al., 2011). Therefore, this study seeks to merge the research gap in the literature by examining the various challenges that hinder the effective and efficient management of global teams.

Research Gap and Objectives

The purpose of this study is to find out the challenges that affect the efficient and effective management of global teams with a case study of two sites; USA and Switzerland.  Furthermore, this study examines the possible causes of the challenges with the goal of developing an in-depth understanding of the objective. The following specific research questions will be answered by this project:

1. Does cultural diversity impact the management of global team?

1. Is communication a challenge to the smooth management of global teams?
2. Is trust a challenge to the smooth management of global teams?
3. Does interpersonal relationship affect the smooth management of global teams?

The solutions to the presented research questions of this study will serve as the first expected outcomes. Furthermore, this project tries to explore the concept of management in matrix companies from the perspective of global teams and provides further information from this phenomenon.  With an understanding of challenges for success in expansion of business to other nations, the organization can put in place precautionary measure that may hinder its growth and sustainability (Buyl et al., 2011)

This study will benefit students, business managers and both international and upcoming companies and any other party interested in similar research. First, this study will be of significance to the companies in that it will offer them an understanding of virtual teams and the challenges that face them. The relevant knowledge on the challenges affecting the management of global teams can help the management of international companies to understand the underlying rationale for reducing performance and suggest resolutions for the same (Gilson et al., 2015). Additionally, the objective of business organizations is to ensure that the employees are productive and performance e of the teams. With such a perspective, then the strategies that the management may lay towards efficient management will be founded on research gotten out of a real-time experience. Secondly, the recommendations that will be derived from this project will enable most companies with the potential to expand their market share abroad to undertake such a move with the back-up of scientifically proven information

To effectively conduct a research on the challenges of managing a global team, a comprehensive review of the existing relevant literature was undertaken. This project considered systematically analysed peer reviewed and published articles, books and journals to provide in-depth background information on the research topic.

Technology has made the world a global village so are the Multinational organizations. The advancement of technology has made international organizations that are geographically apart to operate and function like they are in a common place (Brack & Kelly, 2012). This has led to a workforce that is multicultural of which the current organizations are appreciated the benefits of such a diverse workforce in a virtual set-up. The necessity of connecting professionals that are geographically spread far apart demands the research on the effects of cultural diversity on the performance of a global team.  Research by Dent et al., 2013) shows that 77% of most offices are progressively being forced to manage a multicultural and global organization.

Expected Outcomes

The Virtual Human Resource Development (VHRD) progressively focuses on the need for a concerted and social nature of a global team which operates in an environment that is diverse culturally (Bennett, 2014). However, global workforce may be faced by challenges working in an environment that is diverse culturally, communication problems, trust issues and interpersonal relationships. The Social Attraction Theory and the model of Similarity Attraction. O’leary et al. (2011) reasons that homogenous have similar characteristics such as culture, beliefs, and attitudes which facilitates team performance. However, as a result of globalization and the consequent diversity of the workforce, the homogenous groups are becoming non-existent.

Employees of different cultural backgrounds have different beliefs, values, and practices. Such diversity hampers effective interaction at the workplace (Hays, 2016). Cultural diversity leads to inter-group prejudices and discrimination by sex, religion, and ethnicity. Bielby (2012) found out that in some cultures women were discriminated by the male supervisors to the extent of sexual harassment. Resentment over adherence to some religious practices is also some problems that the managers have to deal with in a multicultural work environment. Another aspect is language accents where workers equate lack of fluency in a given language to lack of intelligence thus discouraging other workers from expressing their opinions freely even during boardrooms.  The element of formality and informality is also another issue the managers have to contend with. For example, Japanese are commonly known to be formal in their interactions whereas the Americas are known to be informal and believe in friendly greetings. With such a team of staff in the same workplace, cooperation becomes difficult. The managers have to deal with all these aspects of cultural diversity for the organization to perform, and thus they indeed become problems to the manager.

Since effective management of global teams is majorly based on the connection using tools such as emails, the conveyance of the messages may be misinterpreted or misunderstood. Also, email overload is another challenge in communication, for the employees may neglect to read the information contained in detail for every email which may lead to misinformation.  Dispersed teams can also face the issue of clarity of information and failure to comprehend the bigger picture, worsened by the absence of body language which facilitates understanding in communication (Daim et al., 2014). Time variation also affects effective communication because employees are sometimes forced to work beyond official work time.  Thus it becomes difficult for the manager to facilitate business practices and between the employees.

Literature Review

Trust is built over time with constant association more so in the case of face to face contact. However, in the case of a virtual team, development of trust can take a very long time because there is no physical contact which is vital in developing confidence among employees. For an extended period, global teams can establish trust with each other, but this is usually brought down by employee turnover in which the new employee has to take time to develop confidence in other virtual colleagues. Trust is the underlying factor that is required by the companies or the teams to be useful in nature (Pinjani & Palvia, 2013). Each of the members of the group or the global team provides the different aspect and unique touch to the whole team. If the management is proper, the team provide synergies and efficient performance as a result. But if there are trust issues with the employees or the team member, then it is difficult to gain the practical results (Zander et al., 2012). Trust is the factor that is not found in the global teams because they have different background and thus the pee, feel challenging to trust the person who is not related to him.

The dynamics of interpersonal associations in a global team may differ with that of a face to face workforce, and managers are thus tasked to develop and maintain the team ethos. The management of virtual teams is the critical problem that leaders face because of the absence of employee visibility and the lack of face to face association between colleagues (Mukherjee et al., 2012) Leadership of a remote staff diverse in culture and background can be difficult in addition to the complexity of the relationships amongst the team members. Distance can also imply that problems that can quickly be resolved through natural conversation can be blamed rapidly and erroneously apportioned in the virtual setting.

The following methodologies will be undertaken for a cogent analysis of the aims and objectives of this project proposal:

Literature review

A systematic Literature review will be studied widely then analyzed to obtain secondary data for this project (Bryman & Bell, 2015). Scholarly sites such as Google Scholar, journal and peer-reviewed articles (published), and these shall be studied in-depth the source of secondary data (Clark, 2013).

Population

The target population for this project will be fifty employees based in USA and Switzerland whose responsibilities include leaders, managers and planning heads of various international projects.

Challenges of Managing Global Teams

Sample

The project will make use of the systematic and purposive sampling methods because of the large size and spread of the target population to define and select the participants from the sample frame for the research and to identify and select the senior officials from various nationalities respectively. The sample size will be eight derived using Krejcie & Morgan table (Zikmund et al., 2013).

Data Collection and Analysis Methods

Data will be gathered using questionnaires and interviews and then analyzed using qualitative and quantitative data analysis methods (Creswell, 2013).  The data will first be coded, grouped and then analyzed and presented in the form of charts and graphs for interpretation. Then the data is to be examined using Statistical Program for Social Sciences (SPSS).

Research Plan

The schedule of the study is projected to take approximately five months. The table below shows in detail the plan for each activity and the expected duration. All the costs that are to arise during the undertaking are to be met by the researcher. The delivery of the questionnaires is however to be subject to the prospective time of the respondents

Research Limitations

Irrespective of the reliability of the study, it is restricted to employees of only two countries whose aspects of virtual team diversity may be different with other organizations in other countries. Thus, the generalization of the outcomes should be made cautiously. Furthermore, the allotted time was not adequate as this research involved locations that are geographically apart.

Conclusion

The challenges that managers face while managing global teams can vary and are subject the settings of the work environment but the most critical ones have will be studied in this project.  However, most of the existing research has not covered broadly the common challenges facing the management of virtual firms. This proposal intends to examine this area with consideration of USA and Switzerland as a case study.

References

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