Global Talent Management Essay And Challenges.

Discuss about the Global Talent Management and Challenges.

Globalization is the process that allows the companies to expand their business to the international market. As results in increasing globalization in the countries, more and more companies are going international and thus making different teams that help the companies cross the borders and conduct the business and functions at the international land (Binder, 2009). Mostly, the MNC’s these days make the teams that involve the people from local country and the international country so that the functions can be conducted effectively. These global teams usually provide several benefits to the companies such as efficiency of operations, removal or cross cultural barriers, diversity of culture in the team, etc. But, this also proves to be very difficult for the managers to manage such teams. It is very challenging for the team manager to develop bonding between these people and making them learn about the global aspects so that they can function anywhere in the world (Pinjani and Palvia, 2013).

The objective of this project is to analyse the various challenges that are faced by the managers to manage the global teams. Along with this, the objective is also to analyse that how the global tams can be effectively develops in order to overcome such barriers or challenges. This objective requires the researcher to research about the topic deeply so that various issues in global teams can be identified.

Identifying the challenges faced by the managers in managing the global teams helps in analysing the various factors and the reason of conflict among the team. This study helps in analysing such issues and to come up with the strategies to overcome such challenges and barriers.  The scope of the project is that, it results in providing the learner with the great knowledge of global teams and the various causes that affect the team efficiency at global level.

A global team is the team that has been formed with the aim of functioning at the global level. This team generally involves the people or the employees from different countries having cultural diversity (Shachaf, 2008). It has been identified that people from the same cultural background have similar thinking and thus response to the situations in the similar way (Mendenhall, 2012).  On the other hand, the team with cultural diversity is said to be more creative as the employees in the team used to look at the situation from different point of view and thus resolve the issues in different manner.

Benefits of Global Teams

Cultural diversity is considered as the basis of global teams (Reiche, Mendenhall and Stahl, 2016). It is said to be the twin swords as if the global teams are managed properly, they provide various benefits but if they are not managed properly than it develops lot of issues for the managers to manage the same.

Since the global teams are having employees from different countries thus it provides large opportunities to the companies to address the different requirements of the different markets. The company can have better reach if the global teams are framed and managed properly by the managers (Schuler, Jackson and Tarique, 2011). Different people from different place conduct the business at different places and thus effectiveness can be brought up in the process.

To attain the different site specific expertise, it is very necessary to make the global teams. As discussed that global teams have various employees from different background thus have different skills (Lee-Kelley and Sankey, 2008). These skill set can be learned by other employees of the team. This allows the company to have site-specific expertise from the employees of that particular area.

When a team with homogenous thinking conduct discussion over the issue, they generally come up with the similar type of ideas and viewpoints regarding the problem. While if the team have different employees with different cultural background, they have different thinking process and thus look for the issues differently (Zander, Mockaitis and Butler, 2012). Various viewpoints can be developed for the single issue and make the team more creative and effective. Several solutions can be developed for the single problem and then the best one can be used to resolve the issue.

As per the management perspective, it has been analysed that the people from different culture have different skill set and thus helps the team to learn more about the global aspects from various areas of the world (Maznevski and Chui, 2013). This developed the team and organizational as well as individuals level.

Normally, if more number of employees works in a team than it develops some of the issues for the mangers to manage them. Even the domestic teams managers face the challenges but in case of global teams, more number of challenges developed for the mangers in terms if management. Some of them are discussed below:

Trust issues: It is the biggest challenge that has been faced by the mangers in order to manage the global team. Trust is the basic factor that is required by the companies or the teams to be effective in nature (Barczak and Mcdonough Iii, 2003). Each of the members from the group or the global team provides the different aspect and unique touch to the whole team. If the management is proper, the team provide synergies and efficient performance as a result. But if there is trust issues among the employees or the team member, than it is difficult to gain the effective results (Maznevski and Zander, 2001). Trust is the factor that is not generally found in the global teams because they have different background and thus the pee, feel difficult to trust the person who is not related to him.

Challenges Faced by Managers in Managing Global Teams

Barriers of communication: It is the most obvious issue that cannot be raised in the global teams, as the members of the teams belongs to different geographical area; they may have different mother tongue or nature languages. This acts as the barriers in communication because they do not understand what the other person is saying (Biermeier-Hanson, Liu and Dickson, 2015). Restricted communication also results in misunderstanding and thus conflict arises. As far as the manger is concerned, it is not possible for the manger also to know about each and every language that the people are speaking in a group. Thus it becomes the issue for the manager also to make bonding between the employees. The technological advancement in the communication sector can proved to be beneficial for the teams at global level because it may help them to restrict the barriers of communication among the members. The manager has to take the initiative to implement communication tools.

Cultural barriers: the people who belong to different cultural background have different beliefs and value. When they come together, it becomes difficult for them to interact with each other. As far as the global teams are considered, they are also formed by bringing together members from the different geographic regions having different culture, so the issues of cultural differences is the very common problem that can be raised amongst them (McDonough III and Cedrone, 2000). For example, Japanese are the people who believe in being formal with each other if works in a group whereas Americans are the one who are informal and believes in friendly greetings. If the Japanese and the Americans works in a single team, than they may have clashes regarding these business etiquettes. There is another aspect of belief among the people that is collectivism and individualism. Some believes in collectivism and tries to work in teams while other believes in individualism and perform individually (Govindarajan and Gupta, 2001). This becomes difficult for the managers to deals such people.

Conflicts of thinking: Every individual have their own thinking process and have different views for the similar situation. This can be beneficial for the team only when the members of the team have that much understanding to listen the viewpoints of other person as well. In other case, the differences in thinking process leads to conflicts that is hard to be managed by the managers. It is very common in the global teams that people are not getting satisfied with other person’s views and feeling of biasness came into their minds (Carpenter and Fredrickson, 2001). This develops the conflicts between the team members. It is require by them to have the understanding that diversity should be used as the strength of the team and should not act as the weakness.

Trust Issues

Social behaviour of the people: when a team works together, different people have different personalities. It is not possible that every one of them is social in nature. Here, comes the role of the manger to manage the employees and tries to motive them so that they came close to each other.

It has been analysed that there are different issues in different global teams. The type of issue is dependent on the type of people and the cultural background of the people who are working together in the team.

Managers play a very important role in overcoming the barriers that came into the way of managing the global teams. It is the part of the manger to identify the actual issues of less effectiveness of the team. Following are some of the steps that can be taken by the mangers at the time of developing the global team:

Specification of objectives and the alignment of the strategic initiatives: It is very important for the managers of the global teams to specify the goals and the objectives of the teams and the strategic alignment of that gaols to the overall organizational goals (Aaker and Joachimsthaler, 1999). If the team members have no idea about the objectives and their alignment with the organizational objectives then it will be difficult for the employees to understand about the priorities of the task given to them. Managers should train the employees or the members of type team and provide them the proper and clear information about the task and the scope of the project the team is doing. The proper knowledge of the task and the project allow the employees to have clear understanding so that they can themselves sort the priorities and come up with the ideas for the completion of the project.

Availability of the resources: It is another important element to make the resource available for the members of the global teams. Some of the resources are human resources, technological equipment, meeting rooms etc. to manage the teams and the resources; it is required by the manager to identify the resources that required by the team members. This helps the manner to make the resources available. Analysis and identification of the resources helps the team to have the resources available before starting the process.

Selection of the team members: It is the most important step in developing the team or the global team (Winkler and Bouncken, 2011). This is because global teams require the team members from different countries. The manager should concentrate on the skills and the abilities of the team members. It has been analysed that there are different skills in different people. It is the responsibility of the manager to judge the skills and align those skills with their objectives if the project for which the team has been formed. The duration of the team is also considered when the team is developed. Thus, the manager has to decide that who have the capabilities to complete the task and the project.

Communication Barriers

It is required by the managers to manage the global teams by taking some of the initiatives. One of the major step is to allow everyone to speak for about their views and opinion. This creates a sense of belongingness amongst the members of the team and the feeling of biasness will not be there. Analyse the skills of every person and delegate the work accordingly is another major step that can be initiated. This is because if the tasks are allocated according to the skills of the person that the results would be more efficient. Learning is alos imprnat so provdng similar task to the single person again ad again restricts hi t learn abot new thigs. In this situation, the team amamners have to work cllectvely nad teach different tasks nad ksills to aech ither. Leadership is very necessary in yers og mmaging te team. The laeder or the manger needs to be formalized with the task allocation nad the duties of the team members, it should be properly written in the documented form so that nobody can get confuses of their duties. It is very important that very team member is clear with the duties and responsibilities they have with them. As discussed that the global teams have members from different cultural background, so the leader or the manager needs to realise about the cultural stereotypes the members have in their minds. Realising these stereotypes help the managers to manage the people effectively. These stereotypes need to be removed from their minds otherwise; it will be difficult for the manger to manage such teams.

There are many other considerations that need to be involved by the managers in order to make the team effective (McDonough, Kahnb and Barczaka, 2001). Managers are the only on who are responsible for making the team to work effectively together. Members also have to play their part by making interactions and bonding with the other members of the team. Some of the mutual initiatives by the team and the managers help the team to perform effectively in an efficient manner.

Conclusion:

It has been concluded from the report that global teams are the team that has been formed with the aim of functioning at the global level. This team generally involves the people or the employees from different countries having cultural diversity. It has been analysed that there are different factors or the barriers that act as the challenges for the mangers to manage such teams. It has also been analysed that the managers play a great role in making the teams effective. But, it is also required that members of the team also help the managers to make the team effective. Some of the barriers that have been faced by the mangers of the global teams are communication barriers, cultural barriers, conflicts of thinking, social behaviour etc. It has been analysed that there are different issues in different global teams. The type of issue is dependent on the type of people and the cultural background of the people who are working together in the team. In order to develop the effective team, it is required by the managers to take some initiatives such as specification of objectives, availability of resources, alignment of the gaols etc.

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