Communication Challenges in Global Teams

This article discusses the communication challenges faced by global teams and their management. It explores the difficulties in team formation, literature review, research methodology, and more.

Running head: COMMUNICATION CHALLENGES IN GLOBAL TEAMS
COMMUNICATION CHALLENGES FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF VIRTUAL
GLOBAL TEAMS
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

1COMMUNICATION CHALLENGES IN GLOBAL TEAMS
The completion of the assignment or for that the course which I am undertaking had
enhanced my knowledge base in a substantial manner and also helped me to gain information
or knowledge regarding different important aspects of the modern-day business world. For
example, the course as well as the assignment acquainted me with the methods which are
usually used for the purpose of undertaking business researches. More importantly, I was also
able to acquaint myself with the different aspects of academic writing and also the dynamics
of team work since I was required to work in a team for the completion of the assignment.
However, at the same time I would like to say that there were various challenges or
difficulties that I and my team mates faced during the completion of the assignment which we
were able to resolve in an effectively. In this paper, I would reflect on the previous
assignment which I have completed and also the course that I am presently undertaking.
I personally believe that the major challenge that we faced was at the initial stage of
the team formation wherein me and my friends were grouped together for the completion of
the assignment. For example, at the initial phase there was no unity between us and thus even
for the selection of the topic on which we would be completing the assignment. In this regard,
I would say that we came up with different topics on the basis of the things or the concepts
that we have been taught in the class. However, the majority of them were being rejected by
us because either some of the members of the team were not comfortable with the topics or it
was a challenging one for us since we had a very limited knowledge regarding the same.
Finally, on the basis of the concepts that had been taught to us in the class the different
members of the team agreed upon the topic “Communication challenges for the management
of virtual global teams” for the completion of our tasks. Once we agreed upon the topic we
consulted out Supervisor for approval and after getting the same from the Supervisor we
started with the review of past literature related to the concerned topic.

2COMMUNICATION CHALLENGES IN GLOBAL TEAMS
I and my team members were not sure regarding the manner in which we should
proceed with the literature section of the assignment however our Supervisor was very patient
with us and helped us to understand the manner in which we should go ahead with the
literature review. In this regard, I would like to say that me and my team members began by
browsing through the online database “Google Scholar” so as to find relevant peer-reviewed
articles related to the topic which we selected for analysis, namely, “Communication
challenges for the management of virtual global teams”. I was able to find two peer-reviewed
articles, namely, “Lockwood, J., 2015. Virtual team management: what is causing
communication breakdown?. Language and intercultural communication, 15(1), pp.125-140”
and “Lohikoski, P., Kujala, J., Haapasalo, H., Aaltonen, K. and Ala-Mursula, L., 2016.
Impact of trust on communication in global virtual teams. International Journal of
Knowledge-Based Organizations (IJKBO), 6(1), pp.1-19”. On the other hand, my team
members were being able to locate other similar peer-reviewed articles, namely, “Jimenez,
A., Boehe, D.M., Taras, V. and Caprar, D.V., 2017. Working across boundaries: Current and
future perspectives on global virtual teams. Journal of International Management, 23(4),
pp.341-349”, “Ford, R.C., Piccolo, R.F. and Ford, L.R., 2017. Strategies for building
effective virtual teams: Trust is key. Business Horizons, 60(1), pp.25-34” and others. After
finding these articles along with other ones each of the team members were being assigned
some articles which they analysed thoroughly and on the basis of the information that each
one of us gathered we conducted the review of the past literature.
The selection of the required research methodology was another major challenge that
we faced for the effective completion of the assignment. In this regard, I would like to say
that this was the first time when me and my team members were required to take the help of
the framework of research methodology and naturally it was a difficult one for us. However,
our Supervisor once again offered us the required help and thus we were able to select the

3COMMUNICATION CHALLENGES IN GLOBAL TEAMS
required methodological framework for the completion of the assignment. For example, on
the basis of the research which we were conducting we opted for the positivism research
philosophy, deductive research approach, descriptive research design and primary data
collection method. Furthermore, the primary data that would be collected for the research
would be analysed through the framework of the quantitative data analysis method.
I and my team members decided to take the help of the software of SPSS for the
analysis of the primary data which we collected from 50 respondents who are a part of global
virtual team. In addition to this, as per the academic standards of conducting research, we
also undertook a discussion of the major findings which we derived from the primary data in
the particular context of the ideas or the concepts that was highlighted in the literature review
section of the assignment. Furthermore, we also tried to link the major findings which we
derived from the primary data with the objectives which were formulated by us at the very
beginning of the assignment. This in turn is likely to help us to complete the “Project Report”
in an effective manner since we would be required to compile the major findings of the entire
assignment for the completion of the same.
To conclude, the process of completing this research was a great learning experience
for me. For example, I was not only able to gain new insights regarding the concepts of
global virtual teams, the communication challenges that it faced and others but also regarding
the manner in which academic researches or studies are being conducted. In addition to this, I
was also given the opportunity to work in a team and this in helped me to understand the
diverse facets of team dynamics, team work and others. I am hoping that the knowledge
regarding the topic that I gained through the completion of the research or about the team
dynamics would help me in the later part of my professional career when I start to work in the
professional world.

4COMMUNICATION CHALLENGES IN GLOBAL TEAMS
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5COMMUNICATION CHALLENGES IN GLOBAL TEAMS
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