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[Audio] What are the principal causes of communication problems in global virtual teams? Outline the main elements of a strategy designed to address these problems. Members of the Group: Name : Wickramaarachchi Athukoralage Shalika Yashodara LMU ID : 00159824 Name : Wejekoon Herath Mudeyanselage Tharindu Danushka Wejekoon LMU ID : 00160367 Name : Harshani Dulanjalee Jayawardena LMU ID : 00164217.

Table of Content. Introduction …………………………………………………………………………….………………………. 3 What is a culture? ………………………………………………………………………………………………. 4 What is Cultural Diversity? ……………………………………………………………..……………………… 5 What is Global Virtual Team? ……………………………………………….…………………………………. 6 What are the advantages and disadvantages of working as a virtual team? …………………………….........… 7 Where the Global virtual Teams work? ………………………………………………………………………… 8 What is Communication? ………………………………………………………………………..……………… 8 How the communication affect Global Virtual Teams? ……………………....................................................… 9 Communication problems faced by Global Virtual Teams ………………………….………………………… 10 What Is SWOT ……………………………………………………………………………………..………….. 16 Recommendations ……………………………………………………………………………….…………….. 18 Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………………………..………………. 24 References ……………………………………………………………………………………….…………...… 25.

Introduction. Topic: What are the principal causes of communication problems in global virtual teams? Outline the main elements of a strategy designed to address these problems..

What is a culture?. Social behaviors, languages, signs, ideas, beliefs, rituals, traditions, arts, and thinking ways, Gathering all these things in one place we could define a culture. And cultures are very sensitive things in the world that because they could affecting to the human race directly. We could identify two formations of the gathering people to do work. Those two are teams and groups. A group can be defined as a number of people, who work together with independently different goals and individual accountabilities. In teams, it is different from the above, a team could be identified as a bunch of people working together with sharing the same goal and mutual accountability (Asana, 2021). We can identified two different teams in here, and those are: Homogenous teams – people here are, similar to each other in culture, age, sex likewise Heterogeneous teams – people here are, different from the above. Here culture, sex, and age are different form the each other (Jones, 2017)..

What is Cultural Diversity?. There are so many cultures in our world, with different languages, different beliefs, different traditions, etc. as we mentioned above. These differences made cultural diversity. ( Durison , 2022).

What is Global Virtual Team?. Inside web-based working environments, cooperative teaming are known as worldwide virtual teams. These teams are absolutely remote, but can be hybrid. Also known as distributed teams, dispersed teams, and remote teams. Teams are increasingly global, rather than having a normal go-to office. The global team phenomenon has become an essential component of every organization since the Covid-19 pandemic. There are types of virtual teams depending upon the lifespan, objectives, targets, and roles of members. Those are: Networked Teams Parallel Teams Product Development Teams Production Teams Service Teams Management Teams Action Teams (Team, 2022).

What are the advantages and disadvantages of working as a virtual team?.

Where the Global Virtual Teams work?. Telecommuting team members who do their business from their homes, cooperating offices, or open public regions, for example, bistros, libraries, and parks. With a dependable internet connection, virtual teams might work from basically any place. What is Communication? Communication can be defined as the process of understanding and sharing with each other. And for the progress of this process, trust is playing a very important role. Good communication could stop a disaster and also could prevent wars without a single damage. There types of communications: Verbal Non-verbal Visual Written Active listening (Ayres, 2022).

How the communication affect Global Virtual Teams?.

Communication problems faced by Global Virtual Teams.

Cultural difference Dispersed work teams with members from different countries face unique cultural differences that can affect the overall success of the group's performance. (Dube & PARE, 2001) Language differences create miscommunication due to a lack of accuracy Differences in non‐verbal styles create miscommunication Differences in verbal style create miscommunication Differences in the accents of members create a lot of misunderstanding in the communication process ( Shachaf , 2008).

Interpersonal Relations Humans primarily communicate through body language and voice. Only the tone of voice is transmitted via telephone communication; none of these elements are present when communicating via computer. ( Daim , et al., 2012) The messages people send to each other can be verbal and non-verbal - we communicate not only by what we say, but also by things like body language, tone of voice, facial expressions, and gestures. (future learn, 2022) In some cases, this can lead to anxiety, confusion, and miscommunication. In a study of e-mail correspondence between college students and their professors, it was found that many professors recorded abusive and unpleasant communications with their students via e-mail. ( Biesenbach -Lucas, 2007). In remote teams, these problems can be exacerbated by cultural differences between geographic regions and can negatively affect relationships among team members. ( Daim , et al., 2012).

Leadership Strong leadership is critical to GVT moving forward and succeeding. Leaders have a responsibility to encourage ongoing communication and feedback among team members, with particular attention to setting standards for contextual signaling with each message to minimize the possibility of misinterpretation ( Zigurs , 2003). ( Daim , et al., 2012) Unlike hierarchical relationships (a highly centralized control structure) that typically exist in co-located teams, GVTs rely more on peer interaction (a flat and usually decentralized control structure). Although teams have well-defined project managers, projects are highly dependent on the team's ability to draw on each other's knowledge (regardless of roles) and work in sync. ( Daim , et al., 2012) However, synchronicity and project complexity can cause ambiguous expectations around roles and goals, thereby leading to weak leadership, competing lines of authority, and poor delegation. A study by Purvanova and Bono (2009) found that transformational leadership had a greater effect on team performance in virtual teams than in face-to-face teams. Their findings suggest that transformational leadership behaviors are particularly useful for teamwork under the more ambiguous communication conditions created by electronic communication media. ( Daim , et al., 2012) There is a risk of Miscommunication or misinterpretation when tasks are virtually Assigned to team members. Leaders must set clear expectations for success. Discharge at all levels of the project should be communicated. Delegation should Include communication earlier than the evaluation criteria used to explain results and expected results. ( Daim , et al., 2012.

Technology Managers must choose from a menu of technological solutions to meet their GVT needs. Beyond choosing technology, managers must define how and when the tools should be used. Managers must tailor a solution that works best for the product being delivered as well as the GVT dynamics. ( Daim , et al., 2012) Almost everyone has encountered a problem with the meeting software or network connection during a critical virtual meeting. Such problems introduce additional "noise" that can interfere with communication. ( refinem project management consulting, 2022) These issues cause following factors: Less budgeting for hardware or software solutions, like dedicated bandwidth or a stable. dependable meeting platform Proceed without Having a backup solution available, such as an audio conference Although we live in the age of the Internet and technology is advancing rapidly, problems still arise when working with global virtual teams. That's why it's so important to always have a backup plan in case something doesn't go as planned or users decide not to cooperate. ( Apploye Blog, 2022).

Trust Trust is essential to any GVT and allows people to engage in risky activities that they cannot control or monitor. ( Daim , et al., 2012). trust has been defined in many ways. Cummings and Bromily define trust within a partnership as the worker's conviction that his team, (Smith & Ruiz, 2020) "makes a good faith effort to act in accordance with any express or implied undertaking, is honest in all negotiations prior to such engagements, and does not take undue advantage of another, even when the opportunity arises. This difficulty in establishing trust has profound implications for collaboration, (Smith & Ruiz, 2020) Corrosion of task coordination and cooperation Decreased interest in communicating. Unstructured tasks and inability to systematically cope with uncertainty Fewer members willing to take initiative Lack of empathy for teammates Low amount of feedback Collaborators and increased risk.

What Is SWOT?. SWOT analysis is used as one of the good strategic planning tools which categorizes and estimate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of certain circumstances. In this scenario, communication problems occurring in global virtual teams can be evaluated through the strategic analytical tool of SWOT ( Lurati & Zamparini , 2018).

Strengths Weaknesses Experienced individuals are easy to contact Greater time to response due to time difference Team volume not a subject Continues online attendance (Morley, et al., 2015) Efficient act of virtual teams (Byrne, 2018) Self-decided operating environment ( Aronen , 2017) Cultural differences Lack of interpersonal relationships Bad leadership style Not enough technology Distrust ( Daim , et al., 2012) Opportunities Threats Multiple choices in technology (Morley, et al., 2015) Advanced new technologies (Byrne, 2018) Reduce the stressful situations Improved work-life balance Improved productivity Improved self-management assistances ( Aronen , 2017) Mental and physical ill-health Disturbances occurring in working environment Lack of motivation by the leaders Wrongly improved team work management ( Aronen , 2017) Leaders possess lack of cultural knowledge (Byrne, 2018).

Recommendations. Cultural differences Identify whether team members recommend individualism or collectivism character (Mathieu, et al., 2005) Evaluate your strengths with competitors ( Daim , et al., 2012) Interpersonal relations Can be followed following steps to enhance the interpersonal relations: Stipulating a schedule to response the sender What to do when the respondent unable to deliver entire information or delays in responses How senders should mention themselves and when and how sender can be received What to do if the sender consider that the message has been miscommunicated What to do when a receiver unable to understand the message.

Recommendations Cont.. Interpersonal relations Cont. Extra procedures can be stipulated for written communications as: Entire requested arrangements must be added to the final paragraph, not all over the message Appropriate sentences only from earlier messages should be cited in replies. (Smith, 2001) Use Face-to-face communication method when initiating a project and appoint a team facilitator during the task (Smith, 2001).

Recommendations Cont.. Leadership leaders should "think globally" when communicate their colleagues ( Zigurs , 2003). In all stages of the project need to be clearly communicated and delegation must consist assessment criteria which leads final fulfillments (Lee, 2009) Identify and define the power and duties towards dispensed tasks among the team (Zhang, et al., 2009) The functional, organizational, and national features should be understood by the team leaders to reinforce the team and their characters (Smith, 2001).

Recommendations Cont.. Technology Technological solutions must be selected and outline where those to be used by team leaders ( Daim , et al., 2012) Increase the use of e-collaboration tools. More software available e.g. Microsoft's Share-Point which helps to store the records, increase the productivity, high responsiveness, comply with any culture with varied tactics (O'Kelly & Peter, 2006).

Recommendations Cont.. Trust There are five theories to enhance the trust in a team ( Jarvenpaa & Leidner , 1999) TIP theory: Consists Time, Interaction, and Performance ( Mcgrath , 1991). It defines, team involved endlessly under three segments, such as production, group well-being, member support by developing teams activities associated with four modes, inception of project, project execution and problem solving Social Presence theory: describes various facilities of technology induce to assume psychologically individuals physically exist on the other side. ( Calefato & Lanubile , 2010) Media Richness theory: proposed that media has the capacity to convey required records, by relying upon whether the facts could be used in uncertain situation. (Daft, et al., 1987).

Recommendations Cont.. Trust Cont. Social Identification/ De-individualism theory (SIDE): No dissimilarity between communication through technologies and face-to-face, even in the absence of communication, individuals classify themselves by contrasting the limited information on characteristics of others within the team. (Walther,, 1997). Swift Trust theory: Classifies through information of others. This theory generate trust through interpersonal relationships. Leaders must convey the importance of the team and should assign required tasks ( Jarvenpaa & Leidner , 1999)..

Conclusion. The purpose of our study was to find the principal causes of communication problems in global virtual teams and outline the main elements of a strategy designed to address those problems. In this globalized world global virtual teams are inevitable. In this study we have identified the main issue of communication, importance of global virtual team and the difficulties faced by when communicating with team members. We researched about the previous findings of authors Used SWOT analysis to find the communication problem and implemented recommendations and strategies for the communication problem This study may assist the future researchers to overcome the cultural miscommunication barriers by evaluating an appropriate strategy..

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