Free Essay on Navigating Global Frontiers: Virtual Teams, Leadership, and Business Dynamics

The globalization of organizations due to advancements in the internet and telecommunication has raised a new type of team working structure, the virtual team. A global virtual team is a group of different individuals working together on the same project to achieve shared goals and objectives in a virtual environment enhanced and maintained through information technology. The virtual team offers the company many advantages, including tapping talents across the globe, and enables the organization to leverage intellectual capacity across the world. The virtual team empowers global businesses with cultural diversity through interaction with different team members from various regions of the world (Unit, 2009). However, many project managers struggle to come up with a collaborative, effective virtual team, and therefore, several techniques can be used to improve the global virtual team's effectiveness (Hill & Berol, 2020).

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First, to improve effectiveness, organizations need to match technology to the task. Different communication ranging from email, videoconferencing, web conferencing, and chat platforms can be used by a virtual team to facilitate communication (Hill & Bartol, 2020). Most people use tools that they are familiar with and convenient with, but some technologies are better suited to specific tools and tasks (Hill & Bartol, 2018). Choosing the wrong tools and the task can lead to ineffectiveness in the organization. A team's communication mechanism verifies in complexity depending on the different needs to give viewpoints and receive feedback. Therefore, the purpose of proper communication should determine the delivery techniques to avoid misunderstanding.

In addition, establishing ground rules for team behavior is critical for remote teams. Team members should be made aware of the organization's expectations like honesty, timely feedback, commitments, and being present during teleconferences. Having ground rules can help the team be more effective and raise a potential problem in the organization. Besides, team members working from different time zones can have coordination challenges, therefore, considering time zones is important. Planning a mutual working time that favors all the team members across the globe can help improve effectiveness. Routine videoconferencing and teleconferencing have to be well planned considering time zones and respecting each member's time; having rotational schedules ensures that everybody is comfortable and more effective.

Talking about cultural awareness can help improve global virtual team effectiveness. Learning about working and communication styles can help the team understand each other well. Different cultures handle agreements differently, and therefore, proper listening and understanding of meaning in conversation is crucial since different words have other meanings in diverse cultures. In addition, acknowledging contributions and celebrating success can help improve effectiveness. Working online can make team members feel less important in an organization. An organization should have a proper mechanism to make sure that every member is appreciated and recognized.

How Global Leadership Can Be Developed

Global leadership consists of leading people based in different regions of the world. Global leaders work and interact with colleagues and clients across the globe. They need to learn other languages to fit in the worldwide market since they interact with internal clients. Global leadership is still a nascent field, and people have different perceptions that are based on misconceptions about globalization. The development of global leadership should be available in all organizations due to the changing nature of businesses in the world and to meet the rising challenges in the worldwide economy.

Executive coaching of leaders can develop global leadership. An effective coaching program that targets specific issues in line with global work can help leaders grow their skills. Focusing on the cultural dimension that most leaders are less trained about can increase their ability to interact with different people in the world. In addition, developing global leadership needs inclusiveness in a worldwide training program (Vinodhan, 2020). There must be an effort to include leaders with a global mindset who can present an organization in the international market to secure a worldwide client base.

Besides, global collaboration in a project can allow potential leaders to develop global leadership skills working virtually with other team members across the globe. Mastering the skill of collaboration can help leaders have more opportunities and deal with global problems effectively ("Global Leadership Development," 2020). In addition, a leader's skills and competencies should be cultivated for them to gain experience. Organizations should deploy leaders on international duties; opportunities that can help them develop global leadership skills. Besides, recruiting international leaders can help local leaders gain diverse cultural skills. Are there any training techniques that are cultural-free? Why or why not?

All training techniques have cultural aspects because the organization serves people from different cultures and backgrounds. Based on the reading, Malawi people value their culture such that everything done in an organization is based on cultural aspects. Managers adhere to the cultural norm that even the subordinate's staff have learned to respect. In Malawi, the Western culture and innovation models cannot work because it is believed that leaders are supposed to be authoritative, and therefore delegation of duties is not common. It is challenging to perform training programs in Malawi because of cultural beliefs. Managers view the training program as an indication of lowering their status to below average, an opinion that even their subordinates hold. These beliefs can complicate any culturally free training techniques. Managers in Malawi can only be comfortable with training that considers their culture because they will not like to feel inferior to their juniors. Likewise, the subordinates want to respect their seniors in line with the cultural norms, and therefore, training should have a cultural attachment to be successful in Malawi.

Discussion

The readings, assignments, activities, and discussions have helped me gain more understanding of the importance of human resources and specifically IHRM in understanding the global market. IHRM elaborates on the critical steps that are needed in recruiting and developing a global team. Culture is one of the key areas emphasized in the process an organization must have an understanding of different cultural norms around the target markets. IHRM helps understand the importance of global leadership training and development for an organization to be successful. In my view, leaders in the international field should develop some traits such as observation, and learning abilities to help them keep up with the growing stakeholder's demand in the international markets. IHRM elaborates on the importance of a global virtual team, which is important in the growth of the worldwide business, learning, and understanding a different culture. Virtual team enhances effectiveness in carrying out international projects and operations. From the reading, it is important to note that IRHM helps to identify global leadership challenges and come up with a solution that an organization faces in the global market.

References

Global Leadership Development. Amanet.org. (2019). https://www.amanet.org/articles/global-leadership-development/.

Hill, N., & Bartol, K. (2018). Five Ways to Improve Communication in Virtual Teams. MIT Sloan Management Review. https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/five-ways-to-improve-communication-in-virtual-teams/.

Shen, J. (2005). International training and management development: theory and reality. The Journal of Management Development, 24(7), 656-666.

Unit, E. I. (2009). Global diversity and inclusion, perceptions, practices, and attitudes. Arlington, VA: Society for Human Resource Management.

Vinodhan, B. (2020). Global Leadership Development. Main https://www.td.org/insights/global-leadership-development.