Virtual Teams & Project Management

Project Report from the year 2014 in the subject Business economics - Marketing, Corporate Communication, CRM, Market Research, Social Media, grade: B, University of Bedfordshire, course: MSc PROJECT MANAGEMENT, language: English, abstract: This Applied Management Project (AMP) is written on the topic of Cultural Diversity Issue and its Implications on the Communication over Global Virtual Team (GVT) members. The scope of this report is broad as it will not only outline major challenges faced by virtual teams because of aspect of cultural differences but also investigate that how this challenge could make influence on the effectiveness of GVT. It has been discovered that Global Virtual Team is determined as a collaboration of individuals where each group member interacts through interdependent tasks directed by the common objective and this team works across links that are strengthened through several aspects (communication, information and multimedia technologies). It has been learned from previous case studies on GVT that cultural difference could have positive impact on knowledge sharing as the component of intercultural encounter intends to make tacit and contextual knowledge as explicit. It has been contended that the factor of cultural diversity is useful in developing trust between all involved members. In regard to cross-cultural communication theories, the model proposed by Hofstede (1996) always ranked at the top. This framework is very useful in directing individuals that how should one could distinguish among the characteristics of each other cultures. It has been analysed that there are various challenges (Communication Challenge, Accent & Fluency Challenge, Attitude Challenge, Decision Making Challenge, Lack of Awareness, Inability in Building Social Bonds, Lack of Trust and Lack of Agreement) that could be faced by GVT. In short, it has been predicted that all of these cultural challenges being faced by GVT would impede virtual teams' capabilities in accomplishing their tasks and projects. From the case study on BakBone Software Inc., It has been observed that despite of certain cross-cultural communication and cultural differences issues BakBone Software Inc. has managed to perform well. And the company attribute such success to the fact that all of team members have interaction with each other on continuous basis. And this has intended them to remain informed about each other strengths and thus results in developing and maintaining great extent of trust. It has been recommended that the company's managers need to be aware all cultural issues that could cause problem to the communication aspect within Global Virtual Teams.