Advantages and Disadvantages of Communication Tools and Team Working

This article discusses the advantages and disadvantages of communication tools and team working in diverse teams. It highlights the importance of virtual meetings in addressing the issues of working within a diverse environment. The article also discusses the challenges of coping with cultural differences and language barriers in virtual teams.

Running head: MANAGEMENT COMMUNICATION
Management communication
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To: the employees, XYZ Company
From: the Marketing Director, XYZ Company
Date: April 15, 2018
Subject: advantages and disadvantages of communication tools and team working
The Sydney headquarter of the XYZ Company has planned to develop a new marketing
team with the team members of Sydney, Beijing, New York and Mumbai. This planning has
resulted in the management of diverse team using synchronous and asynchronous
communication. The advantage of managing diverse teams lies in the integration of talented
workforce for conducting a complicated project work by utilizing innovation and creativity.
According to Barak (2016) a diverse workforce in the company will increase productivity
as the teams will work together to achieve a common goal. The use of different skills of the
individuals in the team will enhance their loyalty in the organization and help in employee
retention. However, there are certain problems in working with a diverse population in the
organization. Some of the critical areas that need to be addressed are time management, language
barrier, no face- to- face contact, style of communication, decision- making process and
viewpoint on deadline meeting.
A virtual meeting will be effective in addressing the issues of working within a diverse
environment. Virtual team operation helps in cutting down time and travel costs. The employees
will have to consider the benefits to rise over the caveats. It is important to understand the
benefits otherwise; conflicts and misunderstanding will take place. The employees need to
believe that there are potential benefits of working within a diverse team because it will help in
improving their learning skills.

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As Harvey and Allard (2015) mentioned, it is important to express the opinions directly
without any kind of hesitation. This increases the value of the message, which needs to be
conveyed. The employees get convinced that there is validity in the subject and they will be
benefitted by following the same. A virtual meeting will help in the interaction of all the team
members and they will be acquainted with each other. There is a huge difference between the
cultures of the four places of Sydney, Beijing, New York and Mumbai. It is a big challenge to
cope with the cultural differences.
In order to state the differences, Guillaume et al. (2017) commented that cultural
diversity can pose a huge impact on the workplace in terms of miscommunication, rising
barriers, problem in behavior adaptation. The difference in opinion and beliefs of the diverse
workforce might become responsible for a misunderstanding and conflict. The actions related to
a specific culture need to be adopted by all others in the team so that do not offend any member
of different culture. For instance, the people of America write the date in a different way than the
Australians. The Australians write the date as Sunday, 15 April 2018 whereas the Americans
write it as April 15 2018. On the other hand, the people of China writes the date as 2018 April 15
and Indians write it as 15 Aril 2018. From this instance, it can be observed that the format of date
varies from one country to another, which will make the understanding difficult within team
members.
Similarly, the people of China believe in ethics whereas the Indians believe in religion. It
might pose a severe impact while working in the same organization under the same roof.
Conflicts might arise based on ethics and religion. In addition to the cultural problems, language
is also a major issue while working in virtual teams. Severe complication might arise if a certain
word used by the Indian is misunderstood in a different way by the Chinese. Similarly a gesture

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of the Australian member might annoy the American member if he is unable to interpret the
meaning.
In my point of view, I think it is important to work with virtual teams by accepting the
benefits and working on the caveats. The disadvantages were discussed and it is required to work
on them for maintaining a peaceful environment in the organization. The employees might not
accept the change in the organization gladly but they need to find the underlying benefits. They
can strengthen their skills and abilities by working with a diverse workforce. It will help them in
the process of job rotation.
Therefore, we look forward to your cooperation in implementing the changes for
organizational benefit. In case of any query kindly, contact us in the details given below.
Phone: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]

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References
Barak, M.E.M., 2016. Managing diversity: Toward a globally inclusive workplace. Sage
Publications.
Guillaume, Y.R., Dawson, J.F., Otaye‐Ebede, L., Woods, S.A. and West, M.A., 2017.
Harnessing demographic differences in organizations: What moderates the effects of workplace
diversity?. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 38(2), pp.276-303.
Harvey, C.P. and Allard, M., 2015. Understanding and managing diversity: Readings, cases, and
exercises. Pearson.
Bibliography
Branzei, O., Robinson, S., Vertinsky, I. and Cui, V., 2018. Trust in the Workplace: The Role of
Social Interaction Diversity in the Community and in the Workplace.
Leng, C.Z. and Yazdanifard, R., 2014. The relationship between cultural diversity and workplace
bullying in multinational enterprises. Global Journal of Management And Business Research.
Warrier, S. and Pandey, S., 2018. Gender Diversity Management at Workplace: Time for a
Paradigm Shift in Organisational Programs and Practices an Empirical Study on it Organizations
in Navi Mumbai. AADYA-Journal of Management and Technology (JMT), 8(1), pp.1-15.