Importance of Effective Communication in Global Virtual Teams Analysis

This report delves into the critical role of effective communication within global virtual teams. It explores the significance of communication in fostering efficient employee relations, particularly within the context of geographically dispersed teams relying on technology. The report examines the convergence and divergence of employee relations, analyzing leadership challenges, team development, and the impact of technology on communication effectiveness. It highlights legal standards related to international employee relations and proposes strategies for improving communication and collaboration. Furthermore, the report provides a critical analysis of global virtual teams over time, considering international employment relations and cultural differences. The analysis includes cognitive, behavioral, and emotional constraints on communication, comparing and contrasting various dimensions of employee relations, such as power distance and individualism-collectivism, to provide a comprehensive understanding of effective communication in global virtual teams.

IMPORTANCE OF EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION IN
GLOBAL VIRTUAL TEAMS
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
4.1.1 Importance of effective communication for ensuring efficient employee relations in global
virtual teams.....................................................................................................................................3
4.1.2 Significance about the debate of convergence and divergence of employee relations in
global virtual teams..........................................................................................................................4
4.2.1 Analysing effective communication and employee relations in global virtual teams
applicable in understanding complexities........................................................................................5
4.2.2 Comparing and contrasting effective communication in global virtual teams with respect to
international employee relations for proper judgement:..................................................................6
4.3.1 Legal standards related to international employee relation that facilitates effective
communication in global virtual teams............................................................................................8
4.3.2 Strategies for effective communication in global virtual teams and improving international
employee relations...........................................................................................................................9
4.3.3 Critical analysis of global virtual teams over time in context of international employee
relation...........................................................................................................................................10
Conclusion:....................................................................................................................................11
Reference List:...............................................................................................................................12
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Introduction
The significance of communication in the context of global virtual teams has raised curiosity
among different schools of thoughts over time. The virtual teams usually involve people working
together from different geographic regions that depend on communication technology. This
mainly includes email, video or voice conferencing activities and FAX for a productive outcome.
In this study, it discusses about the linkages among communication and the performances in
global virtual teams. Maintaining healthy employee relations influences organisational success.
Strong international employee relations mainly deal with avoiding and resolving the problems
that concerned individuals influencing the working environment. Overall, the study contributes
to the given area of knowledge on global virtual teams by conforming conflicting outlooks on the
essential of communication in it for running the virtual work productively in different areas.
Furthermore, different various strategies have been used in order to make the international
employment relations better for working collaboratively in a systematic structure in terms of
effective communication in global virtual teams.
4.1.1 Importance of effective communication for ensuring efficient employee
relations in global virtual teams
According to Austin and Pinkleton (2015, p.11), the global virtual team work together from
different location in order to achieve specific and urgent requirements which are mainly,
planning an event, designing new initiatives, running major campaigns and executing regular
team meetings. International employee relations programs is a part of human resource strategy
created to make sure the most productive use of mass for in order to achieve the organisation’s
mission. This mainly focus on problems affecting employees which includes, pay and profits,
supportive balance in work-life, and secure working environment. The virtual team members
have been observed to report that they never had an effective session team-building. Due to lack
of face to face meeting with other team members there the communication lags and results into
difficulties to work.
In recent scenario, it has been found that most of the employees worldwide work virtually one
day per week at least and be a part of a global virtual team. As stated by (Fan et al. (2015,
p.1090), communication is significant in virtual team because they need support to gain
resources in order to proceed with the work successfully. It will provide the virtual team
members with more contextual information. Some companies create charts in their web portals
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that contain behavioral norms of participation in virtual meetings which includes, avoiding
background noise and side conversation, clear speaking and good listening skill. This generates a
communication between the management of the company and the virtual team members.
The development of collaborative technologies will help in communication among the virtual
team members working globally through multipoint video conferencing. When the team is
working on a technical domain, then for effective communication languages of science and
engineering is provided because virtual team has cross-cultural language. One of the most
significant mechanisms for a company to achieve good employee relations is to accept human
resource strategy for which creates a high value on employee as investors in the business. This
will make them feel more valued in the workplace.
4.1.2 Significance about the debate of convergence and divergence of
employee relations in global virtual teams
As asserted by Klitmøller and Lauring (2013, p.398), various issues have been rising that are
causing problems in virtual team work and the most serious issue among it is lack of effective
communication. The benefit of persuasive communication in global virtual teams incorporates
both converging and diverging impacts. The three aspects of performing through global virtual
teams are discussed below:
Leadership: Hoch and Kozlowski (2014, p.390) opined that the challenges faced by the virtual
team members in context of leadership generate from the differences in the perspective of
participants. This sheds light on the importance of utilising devices for effective communication
in a virtual meeting environment which will build strong international employee relations as
well. As the employees need to pursue greater passion for passing interest among others in the
workplace, this might take into divergence. The other issues are difficulties in recruiting new
members and while the leaders are not present due to emergency work, the employees sometimes
get feel ignored by other members. In this scenario, it is the duty of the leader to get back to his
team members once he is free from his work. However, Gibson et al. (2015, p.217) contradicted
this view stating virtual teams provide greater scope of involving passionate people from
different parts of the world and therefore, self motivation of the participant can outweigh the
leadership challenges.
Development of Team: In this context the problems faced by the virtual members include
accountability issues and the lack of effective communication, where difficulties are seen among
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the team members while performing the task. Taras et al. (2013, p.414) asserted that ineffective
communication can lower down the quality of the job. Different opinions will be created in the
performance of the split task. This also enhances the problems of being cross-cultural employee
relations with diversity of culture, languages and learning styles. Carter et al. (2015, p.225),
nevertheless, mentioned the impact of personal expertise in integrating the expectations of
people working under virtual teams. This reflects the potential of efficient teamwork in this
context.
Technology: Sudden introduction of new technologies for running their work causes problem to
the virtual members in adopting due to lack of physical presence of any guidance to make them
understand how to operate. This problem will distract the meetings and hence will delay the
work. Without any kind of learning session on how to utilize different modes of technologies in
the work will lead the virtual member to have an incomplete job. This will lead to divergence of
effective employee relation and their communication power in worldwide virtual teams.
The convergence points are also there which supports the effective communication in global
virtual teams which are listed below:
Schedule for regular communication: The virtual team members’ following systematic
schedule for regular communication will run the work in progress and will provide a discipline
check-in.
Creating time saving communication: This type of planning help the virtual team members to
sort out their issues fast to complete the task within deadline. The most critical tools are E-mails
and instant messaging through which it can be easily answered with yes or not.
Rules for responsiveness: People working diversely generally through this process define their
rules of responsiveness as per their culture in order to meet the criteria for working. Virtual team
members who are working in a customer service environment needs to have proper expectations
for responding the customer's queries. Thus, it leads to a convergence of effective
communication in global virtual teams.
4.2.1 Analysing effective communication and employee relations in global
virtual teams applicable in understanding complexities
According to Fan et al. (2014, p.421), international employee relations plays a critical role in
establishing effective communication in global virtual teams for running the work efficiently
from different parts of the globe. People working from various countries together will create a
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barrier of international relations to communication leading to a distortion in work.
Communication effectively with the people from across the globe is very challenging because
employees from different countries will provides, different ways of thinking, ways of seeing,
hearing and analysing the world. Hence, it shows that working internationally will create impact
on the relationship of the employees by creating different meanings of the words due to lack of
proper meetings. The potential for understanding increases when the employees of different
teams meet once in a year and attend meetings or conferences. Three such barriers are discussed
below to understand the complexities involved in global virtual teams with respect to persuasive
communication.
Cognitive constraints: This issue is on the basis of worldview that provides backdrop to all the
new data inserted into or compared to. Thus, it creates a serious problem in international
employee relations where the virtual employees are unable to understand the new information
and the work gets delayed because the management cannot communicate immediately to all its
virtual employees.
Behavior constraints: As mentioned by Tenzer and Pudelko (2016, p.427), different employees
across the globe have different rules about suitable behavior which affects both verbal and
nonverbal communication. The members working virtually worldwide not are unable to contact
face to face but can hear or message through technological advancement. Apart from this, the
closeness maintained between the virtual members while discussing will reflect the rules of
politeness which varies from one culture to another.
Emotional constraints: Individual employee from different regions manages the emotional
display individually as per the different cultural regions. While debating an issue in virtual job
field, some people get very emotional openly while some tried to hid or share only the factual
features of the situation. Thus, it affects the environment of global virtual teams to have
communication problems and will affect the international relationship of the employees to grow.
4.2.2 Comparing and contrasting effective communication in global virtual
teams with respect to international employee relations for proper judgement:
According to Paul and Ray (2013, p.344), internationally scattered employees generate
differences by creating problems to communicate effectively among the global virtual teams.
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Due to lack of prosodic aspects and paralinguistic features which include; stress, intonation and
pitch will reduce the communication level. In context of international employment relation, the
prime focus has to be on identifying the rights of an employee. Further, respecting the rights of
the employees and protecting them against any dismissal reflects the efficacy of organisations in
meeting the international employment standards.
Hofstede mentioned four key dimensions on which diversity of employees vary in maintaining
relations: power distance, avoiding uncertainty, individualism-collectivism, and masculinity-
femininity (refer Table). Furthermore, among these, the individualism-collectivism dimension is
prominent as the most influential researched item of the model.
DefinitionDimension
In high-power-distance countries, like in United Kingdom
virtual teams have high respect for the authority - managers
and bosses which tend to be more autocratic in maintaining
employee relations. In low-power-distance regions, like in
Asia the virtual team members are more likely to challenge
bosses and managers thus creating dominancy in workplace
with lack of communication which also creates impact in
building relations among the employees internationally.
Power distance (responses of
people to power and
authority)
UK culture are low in avoiding uncertainty which means
they like to take risks and work in hand not matter of their
power or positions which leads to effective communication
and strong bonding between employees even in virtual team
work. Whereas Asian cultures are high in avoiding
uncertainty which reflects that they are more emotional and
pursue team harmony; virtual team members here need
persuasive communication in order to have clear rules,
responsibilities and mechanisms.
Avoiding uncertainty (the
reaction of people unknown
situations)
As stated by Anandarajan et al. (2014, p.22), individualistic
culture mainly in UK, involves virtual team members who
are expected to have an outlook for themselves by
Individualism-Collectivism
(Primary function either as
an individual or group
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communicating effectively. In contrast to collectivistic
culture like in Asian countries, individuals build strong
personal and protective bond among globally scattered
employees in order to work in virtual teams. The members
provide loyalty to the group without any kind of queries or
conflict.
member)
UK culture is rated high on masculine dimensions where
males are in-charge to communicate effectively to make the
virtual members worldwide understand. In contrast, Asian
countries have a stronger feminine dimension, which means
that the position are more running between males and
females with communication process more.Thus, it reflects
on the bonding created among the employees.
Masculinity-Femininity
4.3.1 Legal standards related to international employee relation that facilitates
effective communication in global virtual teams
In order to optimise and regulations in order to eliminate the hindrances that limits the
productivity of these teams. As commented by Saafein and Shaykhian (2014, p.459), the
legislation imposes certain guidelines in this case to provide a direction to the participants of
these teams. In addition to improving the performance of this team, it allows the participants to
establish effective communication among the members. In order to excel in this context, the
participants of global virtual teams need to follow this guideline. In this context, the prime focus
has to be on ensuring the rights of individuals working in these teams.
The Employment relations Act 1999 incorporated certain changes in the employment relation
standard in international context (legislation.gov.uk, 1990). Although the standards differs to
certain extend in different countries of the worlds, the working climate as per the legal standard
of international employment relation remains largely same. The imposition of Employment
relations Act 1999 sheds light on the collective changes in the British Labour Law highlighting
needs to acknowledging labour unions and protecting them against the dismissal for participating
in industrial actions. Despite certain shortfalls, this Act sets a legal standard in context of
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employee relation that adheres by the international standard. This legal standards, nevertheless,
is persistent in case of performing in global virtual teams.
Further, in case of working through virtual medium, protecting the information of individuals is
essential. The Data Protection Act 1998 covers the primary responsibilities and duties of
participants in this case (Legislation.gov.uk, 1998). According to this Act, people need to protect
the confidentiality of information shared on virtual medium. As the global virtual teams
incorporate, significant information related to work gets involved, ignoring the confidentiality
can affect the credibility of work of these teams in long run. Further, it can lead to various legal
actions against a team and deteriorate the true essence of working on global context. In contrary,
ensuring the confidentially enhances the trust and satisfaction of participant along with
improving the excellence standard of these teams. From this aspect, it is evident that in order to
ensure productivity of global virtual teams, the communication pattern of these teams need to
adhere by the aforementioned legal guidelines.
4.3.2 Strategies for effective communication in global virtual teams and
improving international employee relations
As asserted by Morgan, et al. (2014, p.607), for having effective communication in worldwide
virtual teams and improvement of international employee relations, few strategies have been
discussed below for improving the communication in this sector more to avoid the problems
faced by team members.
Building trust in person to grow clear expectations: Trust is essential for the team members to
work productively virtually. So, the virtual team needs all members working together from
different regions to come in person at least once in a year to have a training session for team
building followed by growing clear expectations set by the leaders.
Managing results than activity: In case of virtual environment, members cannot see what other
team members are doing which lead to managing results. As commented by Lilian (2014,
p.1251), it is essential for the global virtual teams to set expectations and monitor the outcomes
to empower the team members who are taking initiatives.
Implementing regular communication: The virtual team needs to have regular time in order to
report their progress of the work and failures as well. This will encourage the members to be in
track and provide disciplinary team check-in with a systematic way of communication.
Providing incentives: In order to improve employee relations internationally the management
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needs to break the monotony of pay check and sometimes can come up with interesting
incentives to boost up confidence of the employees towards work.
Honouring a job for well participation:
Appraising employee performance appears crucial for strengthening the foundation of employee
relations in international context. This is because appraisal makes employees feel more dedicated
towards the work. This will make them feel that they are appreciated by the management for
good work.
Career Development: It is important for the employees to realise even the ones working in
virtual teams that the organisation is providing them activities for getting promotion depending
on their target performance as per required for the position. This will improve the international
employee relations.
4.3.3 Critical analysis of global virtual teams over time in context of
international employee relation
Pinjani and Palvia (2013, p.144) asserted that over time it has been observed that clear internal
communication rules have been adapted in global virtual teams for better communication so that
the employees do not stuck while processing their work and cannot create imbalance in
international employee relations. It is seen critically that the need for developing employee
relation in virtual work environment can be effectively supported by virtual teaming through
delivering opportunities for interacting and communicating persuasively. The management
cannot provide visibility on each team member’s work because of diversification in region and
different time zone schedules. As the global virtual teams incorporate, significant information
related to work gets involved, ignoring these aspects can affect the credibility of work of these
teams in long run. Further, it can deteriorate the true essence of working on global platforms.
As commented by Ebrahim, (2015, p.1), virtual team have developed as a powerful structure in
the global business world and are featured by using advanced technology, radical changes in the
design of organisations and various emergence of multinational workforce. Many companies
have more than one employee relations representatives working in the human resource
department for ensuring all the company policies meet in a fair and consistent system. It is their
duty to work with employees and supervisors even in virtual workplace for resolving issues and
concerned and look after the concerns.
Conclusion:
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The effective communication is vital in terms of employee relations for global virtual teams for
creating productive outcomes. The various constraints lie which acts as barrier to communication
because of involving employees from across the world. The influence of technologies and class
assessments have helped in running the job internationally by proving ways of effective
communication and its importance in employee management for successful results. The
strategies have been implemented by different organisation to improve communication progress
for virtual teams, improving employee relations internationally, and expand this procedure of
working culture globally. Thus it shows that interpersonal skills help to erode away the problems
with the help of positive criticism and in developing international employee relations strongly.
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Managing Effective Communication Campaigns. Abingdon: Routledge.
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global virtual teams: Facilitating teamwork processes. In Leading Global Teams New York:
Springer, pp. 225-252.
Ebrahim, N.A., (2015). Virtual R&D Teams: A New Model for Product
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Klitmøller, A. and Lauring, J., (2013). When global virtual teams share knowledge: Media
richness, cultural difference and language commonality. Journal of World Business, 48(3),
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legislation.gov.uk (1999), Employment relations Act 1999, Available at:
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1999/26/introduction [Accessed on: 29 Apr 2017]
Lilian, S.C., (2014). Virtual teams: opportunities and challenges for e-leaders. Procedia-Social
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