Overcoming Cultural Challenges In Virtual Teamwork: Finding "Third Ways" Of Working Together
Keywords
Communication across cultures; Cultural challenges; Disciplinary culture; Global virtual teams; National culture; Organizational culture; Team identity
Abstract
This paper presents strategies for addressing the many cultural challenges inherent in virtual teamwork. Culture has the potential to influence collaborative work because cultural beliefs and values often determine the way individuals work together in groups, how they expect group leaders to behave, how they relate to persons in authority, how willing they are to share information with members of their out-group, and how they handle deadlines and other work-related obligations. One effective approach to overcoming cultural challenges is to develop "third ways" of working; "third ways" are approaches to work that do not privilege any one cultural approach over another. When team leaders facilitate the development of common ground, shared mental models, and a unique team identity, they will help the team establish their own "third ways" of working that lead to a shift in perception and the development of a truly global perspective for both the team as a whole and for individual team members.
Publication Date
1-1-2015
Publication Title
WMSCI 2015 - 19th World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics, Proceedings
Volume
1
Number of Pages
318-321
Document Type
Article; Proceedings Paper
Personal Identifier
scopus
Copyright Status
Unknown
Socpus ID
84961165443 (Scopus)
Source API URL
https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/84961165443
STARS Citation
Flaminia, Madelyn and Sadri, Houman, "Overcoming Cultural Challenges In Virtual Teamwork: Finding "Third Ways" Of Working Together" (2015). Scopus Export 2015-2019. 1941.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/scopus2015/1941