A geographically dispersed workforce is assumed to be an effective means of achieving a successful global economy in the current marketplace. Companies are highly focused on building teams that have the capability of offering the best functional expertise with updated market knowledge from all across the entire world. Firms prefer people to have a multifocal approach to have a successful business track in the current promising market (Brannen, Piekkari, and Tietze, 2014, pp.495-507). The concept of global collaboration is assumed to add value to the business along with an increase in profitability and better opportunities. Modern-day leaders focus more on a flat-world type of economy that assumes each private-sector Chief Executive Officer (CEO) is a “Global CEO” so that he/she can put efforts into considering a worldwide platform. This concept has encouraged the formation of Global teams (Vance, and Paik, 2015). 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. However, dealing with Global teams is getting complicated with the rise in globalization, and eventually the demand of the business is also getting upgraded (Gibbs, and Boyraz, 2015, pp.532-551). Creating a successful workforce across the world requires dynamic management skills and effective communication with a strong leadership approach. Also, trust building becomes difficult in such a remote approach as compared to a locally placed team with whom the interaction becomes easier.
The current topic will discuss some of the major challenges in managing teams situated Globally and finding out ways to handle them effectively. Drastic market expansion is the main outcome of globalization that has opened the scope for diverse pools of working professionals that could be able to meet the demands of the present as well as of the future (Clegg, Kornberger, and Pitsis, 2015). The scope of this work is based on estimating the level or extent of global impact on the virtual working environment and ways to overcome the issues.
Geographically distributed teams working remotely are known as the Global team. Leaders are mainly responsible for handling those teams. Unlike local teams, global teams are different to handle and manage due to cross-border differences (Vance, and Paik, 2015). Although a lot of issues a leader has to encounter when he has to manage a global team. Broadly, all the issues could be categorized under four major challenges,
Much research and analysis have been carried out on global team management. Most of them primarily focus on doing homework before taking up the responsibility of dealing with such intercontinental teams (Vance, and Paik, 2015). Some tips and tricks are important to be considered to have an effective business interaction.
According to Brannen, language plays a vital role in connecting people. He regarded language as the heart of international business and the key to integrating various business skills and performance outcomes (Brannen, Piekkari, and Tietze, 2014, pp.495-507). According to the author, language differences act as a barrier to international business. Cross-functional integration can be successful if there is a common method of communication or a cross-language training facility is available. Brannen and his team have nicely collaborated the cultural and professional attributes to result in a successful business (Brannen, Piekkari, and Tietze, 2014, pp.495-507).
Another similar article was published by Jenngibbs.net, authored by Gibbs and Boyraz. They focused on the role of Human Resource Management in the successful collaboration of global teams (Gibbs, and Boyraz, 2015, pp.532-551). The human resource department takes take all the internal and external activities in an organization. This department is located locally as well as at a global level and understands the needs and gaps in communication between teams. They can actively participate in this dynamic environment to handle and balance professional hindrances. The author has also highlighted the fact that a productive environment could be maintained by the human resource management team by fostering global collaboration, including training for global teams, working with managers at the local level to help them integrate with the local culture and traditions, etc. International business is a broad concept and it involves hard-core engagement of both the parties involved in the business.
A survey was done at the global level including 763 leaders across countries like India, Egypt, China, Hong Kong, the united States of America, the United Kingdom, Spain, and Singapore at the Center for Creative Leadership to understand the challenges commonly faced by those leaders across the world (Clegg, Kornberger, and Pitsis, 2015). The outcomes were shocking but all the data were collated, analyzed, and categorized into some prime issues, described below.
Thus, it is very important to get prepared before getting indulged into such international roles. 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 (Moran, Abramson, and Moran, 2014). However, dealing with Global teams is getting complicated with the rise in globalization, and eventually the demand of the business is also getting upgraded. Creating a successful workforce across the world requires dynamic management skills and effective communication with a strong leadership approach. To handle these issues, the below steps should be considered.
Creating a successful workforce across the world requires dynamic management skills and effective communication with a strong leadership approach. Also, trust building becomes difficult in such a remote approach as compared to a locally placed team with whom the interaction becomes easier. A lot of communication gap lies between two parties that affect their relation development. Language gap disconnects the proper passage of information and in most cases, such disruption ends up with miscommunication or communication that goes wrong (Brannen, Piekkari, and Tietze, 2014, pp.495-507). The leader should try to gather information about the country he is going to handle and should train himself about their culture. It will not be possible to engulf everything, yet some basic homework will help in dealing with cross-borderers effectively. This will also help in winning the trust and confidence of the other team members. Conflict management becomes a challenge for leaders if they need to deal with global teams (Gilson, Maynard, Jones Young, Vartiainen, and Hakonen, 2015, pp.1313-1337). Some communications might be misunderstood or some points might get missed. Face-to-face communication helps in effective conflict resolution.
Brannen, M.Y., Piekkari, R. and Tietze, S., 2014. The multifaceted role of language in international business: Unpacking the forms, functions, and features of a critical challenge to MNC theory and performance. Journal of International Business Studies, 45(5), pp.495-507.
Clegg, S.R., Kornberger, M. and Pitsis, T., 2015. Managing and organizations: An introduction to theory and practice. Sage.
Gibbs, J.L. and Boyraz, M., 2015. International HRM’s role in managing global teams. The Routledge Companion to International Human Resource Management, pp.532-551.
Gilson, L.L., Maynard, M.T., Jones Young, N.C., Vartiainen, M. and Hakonen, M., 2015. Virtual teams research: 10 years, 10 themes, and 10 opportunities. Journal of Management, 41(5), pp.1313-1337.
Moran, R.T., Abramson, N.R. and Moran, S.V., 2014. Managing cultural differences. Routledge.
Vance, C.M. and Paik, Y., 2015. Managing a global workforce. Routledge.
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