Multicultural Management in the Virtual Project Setting
MULTICULTURAL MANAGEMENT IN THE VIRTUAL PROJECT SETTING
Carlos Galamba, University of Liverpool
Introduction
The Virtual Project Setting
In today’s globalisation era, effective cross-cultural management of virtual teams is an emerging subject in international business literature and practice.
Virtual teaming has a number of potential benefits; not only in terms of human resources flexibility but it can also reduce the operating costs of one organisation. On the other hand, the challenges of such environment should not be undermined. Many scholars have attempted to analyse the impact of virtual work in a number of factors such as communication, leadership, trust, decision-making and productivity (Symons and Stenzel, 2007), while others were particularly concerned with the management of geographically dispersed units and therefore addressed the challenges of working with time zone differences and culturally diverse groups (Ardichvili et al., 2006). The findings are very interesting and the business literature appears to agree that the virtual project setting is somehow different from face-to-face working and more important it brings some unique challenges.
This project will review the literature under these headings and explore the critical issues regarding cross-cultural management in the virtual project setting. Based on the theoretical framework for virtual teaming I will attempt to outline solutions and establish a set of best practices for effective international management of such environments.
Managing the virtual environment
Critical issues
The emerging number of virtual teams is a reality in the global market place. The virtual project setting allows organisations to assign the most skilled individuals to projects across the globe, with less concern for travel or relocation expenses, which improves productivity (Rorive and Xhauflair, 2004). However the challenges of managing culturally and geographically diverse teams must not be
Carlos Galamba, University of Liverpool
Introduction
The Virtual Project Setting
In today’s globalisation era, effective cross-cultural management of virtual teams is an emerging subject in international business literature and practice.
Virtual teaming has a number of potential benefits; not only in terms of human resources flexibility but it can also reduce the operating costs of one organisation. On the other hand, the challenges of such environment should not be undermined. Many scholars have attempted to analyse the impact of virtual work in a number of factors such as communication, leadership, trust, decision-making and productivity (Symons and Stenzel, 2007), while others were particularly concerned with the management of geographically dispersed units and therefore addressed the challenges of working with time zone differences and culturally diverse groups (Ardichvili et al., 2006). The findings are very interesting and the business literature appears to agree that the virtual project setting is somehow different from face-to-face working and more important it brings some unique challenges.
This project will review the literature under these headings and explore the critical issues regarding cross-cultural management in the virtual project setting. Based on the theoretical framework for virtual teaming I will attempt to outline solutions and establish a set of best practices for effective international management of such environments.
Managing the virtual environment
Critical issues
The emerging number of virtual teams is a reality in the global market place. The virtual project setting allows organisations to assign the most skilled individuals to projects across the globe, with less concern for travel or relocation expenses, which improves productivity (Rorive and Xhauflair, 2004). However the challenges of managing culturally and geographically diverse teams must not be
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