Challenges To Managing Global Teams

Poor Communication

Discuss about the ‘Challenges to Managing Global Teams’.

Balkundi and  Harrison (2006) in Ties, leaders, and time in teams: Strong inference about network structure’s effects on team viability and performance note that one of the key objectives of any business organization is to experience growth and expansion. This process is always scheduled to take place within a given period of time. The process of expansion involves a number of strategies which includes exploring new market opportunities, exercising consumer segmentation, identification of strategic production locations in addition to ensuring consistency in supplies and customer satisfaction. As highlighted by Beer and Spector (2000) in Why change programs don’t produce change, the growth of an organization may take various trends. While some organizations are limited to growing their boundaries to fit within the domestic market, larger companies tend to pursue global targets. As a result, these companies establish business strategies which see them locating various subsidiaries in different countries across the world. Such organizations are referred to as multinationals. Some examples of popular multinationals include the Coca Cola Company, Samsung Electronics, Apple as well as Microsoft Corporation. Despite their wide scope of operations which cover most parts of the universe, and a relatively wider market base, these organizations are governed by central structure of leadership. The standard organizational design set by the company is intended to govern all the operations in the various countries where the subsidiaries are located. This leadership approach tends to be a challenge in most cases due to the varying trends from one country to another. There is therefore a crucial need for each international organization to enhance flexibility in the execution of its management strategies. This would adequately handle the pitfalls which come with managing global teams.

Bergiel and Balsmeier (2008) in Nature of virtual teams: A summary of their advantages and disadvantages argue that one of the common challenges associated with managing global teams is the aspect of poor communication. Each country is characterized by its unique set of languages which may both be ethnic and national languages. At the same time, the forms of communication as used by societies and individuals tend to vary as one moves from one country to another.  In a case where the global teams comprise people from difference linguistic backgrounds, effective communication of company values to the employees becomes quite a challenge. There are two basic forms of communication which include formal and informal approaches. In countries such as the United Arab Emirates, the society basically upholds an extremely formal approach to communication. The interaction between individuals in the day to day life activities and especially in the organizational set ups is always maintained at very formal levels. On the other hand, the mode of communication in countries such the United States of America is mainly characterized by informal approaches which also includes the use of informal language during interactions.  According to Cascio (2000) in Managing a virtual workplace, managing a global team comprising individuals from different set ups would be quite a challenge. Such obstacles in effective communication caused by variations in responses to information may lead to misinterpretation of messages and misunderstanding among the employees. As a result, managers ought to come up with both common and flexible communication strategies in a bid to ensure that the information passed reaches all the global employees in good and equal measure.

Cultural Differences

Hamilton and Scandura (2003) in E-Mentoring: Implications for Organizational. Learning and Development in a Wired World, note that variations in cultures is another challenge which could be associated with management at a global level. Global management basically involves working with individuals from different countries but with a careful consideration of the organization’s key values and objectives. It is however notable that the cultural approaches to certain aspects of life, for instance leadership, may vary as one moves from one place to another. As a result, the perception of these individuals to the nature of leadership bestowed upon them equally varies depending on their cultural beliefs. For instance in certain cultures, the natives believe in being led by one of their own. As added by Hart and McLeod (2003) in Rethinking team building in geographically dispersed teams: One message at a time, a management strategy involving the leadership of a foreign individual is likely to meet a lot of resistance in certain situations. This particular challenge explains why multinational companies such as Apple, Del and Samsung are yet to find a stable market in some parts of Europe and Africa. Managing a people who are rigidly protective of their cultures and traditions becomes quite a challenge especially when the leadership approach involves the use of principles which violate these cultural beliefs in one way or the other. The approaches used in managing global teams ought to be flexible enough to fit the various differences in cultural backgrounds which the managers are likely to deal with in such global settings. The management structure may need to bend its leadership strategies and approaches in order to effectively respond to the cultural needs present in the global teams.

The other challenge of management of global teams is the difference in the levels of development. As noted by Hertel, Geister and Konradt (2005) in Managing virtual teams: A review of current empirical research, while some countries are already developed, there are those global market areas established in countries which are still developing. The rates of development in turn influences a number of aspects for instance high levels of infrastructure and economic stability is likely to be experienced in the developed global environments.  When a team is made up of individuals coming from areas with different levels of development, their perception and reception towards the established management approaches may be different. According to the author, in the developed world, the use of information technology has been largely incorporated into business management.  This involves the use of computerized approaches in monitoring sales, making orders, executing productions, packaging and even branding. IT incorporation may also involve the use of sophisticated approaches such as mobile computing in communication and actualization of e-Commerce. On the other hand, the level of technology has not hit maximum heights in the developing countries. Consequently, the reception of individuals from such regions to the incorporation of technology in management may be quite a challenge. Managing a team in which the individuals have different technical abilities goes a long way in hindering the effective incorporation of new and efficient leadership approaches.  For example, the Telecommunication companies have to incorporate staff training in their management approaches in order to expose their global employees before entrusting them with organizational responsibilities. This process might be costly to the management hence the need for the appropriate alternative approaches.

Varying Levels of Development

According to Jarvenpaa and Leidner (1999) in Communication and Trust in Global Virtual Teams, the varying trends in political systems also play a crucial role in influencing management at a global level. Each country is characterized by a unique political system and hence a particular form of leadership which is meant to regulate activities within the country. The form of leadership influences the policies which are put in place to govern the operations of the foreign investors. For instance, in countries such as South Africa, the policies are quite stringent on the employment of more foreigners in the business organizations at the expense of the natives. It therefore becomes quite a challenge for the foreign investors to have the right control over the kind of people to employ and trust with responsibilities. This in turn may interfere with the quality of the outcome during the organizational operations. The alternative approach here would involve training the natives instead of bringing in foreign employees, an approach which may be quite expensive to the organization. It can therefore be deduced that the nature of government policies, as influenced by the political systems, influences the acceptable leadership standards which an international organization may apply on its global teams. Some of the policies for instance on labor, employment and human rights may over-cushion the employees hence giving the organization minimal control over the eventual output.

According to Kramer (2005) in Developing Global Leaders: Enhancing Competencies and Accelerating the Expatriate Experience, differences in age, class, educational achievements as well as the sexual orientations also lead to challenges when it comes to managing global teams. When the team comprises individuals characterized by wide age gaps, it may be practically impossible to work with the same management principles on each of these individuals. The young employees’ perception to leadership may be quite different from what the old folks within the team may take it to be. At the same time, different educational achievements lead to differences in class. Educational achievement could be linked to good experience, knowledge and hence skills on the given area of expertise. As pointed out by Linkow (2008) in Meeting the Challenges of Dispersed Workforce: Managing Across Language, Culture, Time and Location, dealing with knowledgeable and self-motivated individuals within the team may be quite manageable. However, due to the different qualities of the education systems as one moves from one global arena to another, a team may be made up of workers who are not adequately exposed on their areas of duty. It therefore becomes a major challenge especially to the managers when it comes to establishing a standard approach in managing such a team (Stark and Bierly, 2009). While one crop of people would require little attention due to their skills and attitude towards work, the other crop would need the managers’ attention in most cases. The latter situation goes long way in hindering the faster growth of the organization. This is because the resources and time used to help up the inexperienced members of the human resource department could have been diverted to serve in other sectors. Consequently, when the global teams comprise people who are different from each other based on the aspects mentioned above, the managers tend to meet various obstacles in their bid to enhance organizational expansion.

Influence of Political Systems

Teams argue that an individual’s bargaining power can simply be described as the asking price that a person may quote in exchange for the services offered. Employees in organizations also have values which are suggested to the managers as the terms of remuneration and motivation. Due to the changing economic times, the employees’ bargaining power tend to change from one nation to another.  In stable economies the bargaining power is most likely to be lower than the case in unstable economies. As noted by Pauleen (2003) in Leadership in a global virtual team: an action learning approach, when managing global teams comprising individuals with different expectations in terms of remuneration and motivation, it becomes a challenge for the managers when it comes to establishing a common remuneration scheme for all team members especially when they work in the same department.

According to Rosen, Furst and Blackburn (2007) in Overcoming barriers to knowledge sharing in virtual teams, appropriate management of a team involves the establishment of close ties between the managers and the team members. This implies, the managers might need to physically access the locations of these individuals. Managing global teams becomes a challenge especially when the team members are separated from each other by long distance.  Geographical distances may imply long period of time in travelling in order to establish the progress of the team workers in terms of the allocated responsibilities (McCuiston, Wooldrige and  Pierce, 2004). This approach may not only be time consuming but might involve the use of resources which is costly to the organization. For instance, the top cream leaders in Coca Cola Company Limited always have to carry out occasional visits to the host countries in order to monitor the progress of the subsidiaries. The alternative management approach here would involve the use of online media in order to carry out virtual management of these teams without having to travel to the location (Schnake, 2007). This process is however challenged by the poor infrastructural networks in some parts of the world which may make the virtual connections hard to achieve.

From the review of relevant and carefully assorted literature, a number of challenges associated with the management of global teams can be deduced.  To begin with, the variations in cultural beliefs influence individual’s approaches to leadership styles. This may challenge the management strategies especially when the leadership principles are resisted. There is also the change in employee bargaining power which makes it hard for the managers to establish a common remuneration scheme. The aspect of ineffective communication is another challenge especially in a situation where the team members are from different linguistic backgrounds. Finally, variations in political systems in countries have been highlighted as another challenge to effective management in the global arena.

References

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