Article Review: Virtual Teams and Multiculturalism in EWS Project

This assignment presents a student's critical review of articles concerning virtual teams and multiculturalism within a management context, specifically considering the implications for the EWS project. The discussion covers the advantages and disadvantages of virtual teams, emphasizing the importance of communication and HR strategies for employee retention, while also addressing the challenges of low trustworthiness and confidence. The review contrasts the benefits of diverse teams, including varied perspectives and global talent, with the complexities of managing multicultural teams, such as potential misunderstandings and challenges in achieving project quality. The student provides insights into the practical aspects of virtual team management, including the use of collaboration tools and the need for clear goals, processes, and regular feedback. The analysis also touches upon the impact of cultural diversity on business operations and decision-making, highlighting both the potential for innovation and the need for careful planning to mitigate conflicts and ensure project success.

Management
“Article review”
Market research
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Management
Discussion Topic 1
Discussion on Laura Natalia Cotes Gomes post
The article has primarily discussed about the pros and cons of having virtual team as a
part of an Organisation. Yes. I agree with the author where he suggested designing substantial
communication and HR strategy to retain the employees in the team and continuously
motivating them. It was observed that virtual team is not successful every time. Infrequent
face to face conversation leads to have low level of trustworthiness and confidence level
within the team. However, if the company opts for good collaboration technological tools,
then they can have video conferences on a daily basis, which minimise the drawback. To
maximise the benefit of virtual team, one needs to have crystal clear goals and processes in
the department to avoid conflicts. Regular and 360 degree feedback helps leaders to be in
touch with their team (BAKKEN, 2018).
It is observed that diversity prevails everywhere starting from school, college to
workplace. Organisations nowadays tend to adopt more culturally diversified team, where it
is believed that different point of views will help the EWS to grow and be competitive in the
market. Since the globalisation concept has been introduced, virtual team is getting its
existence. Here, an organisation needs to have at least one person at particular location to
conduct a video conference. Recruiting local employees helps the EWS to know about the
local culture, language and expectations (Weed, 2016).
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Management
Discussion Topic 2
Discussion on Doris Pesca Belt post
The topic focuses on the aspect of multiculturism. It is observed that most of the
organisations have hundreds of employees working with them and each of them belong to
different city, state or country. Multiculturism is simple to understand yet difficult to accept.
The country culture affects the business processes and operations. I do not agree with the
author, as he is focusing on big projects and advantages of multiculturism. But is it difficult
to cultivate. However, there are ample of reports which supports the argument of having
multiculturism at the workplace, however, I feel that it should be avoided especially when it
is a customer facing job. If a person knows about local language, he will facilitate the
company to understand the customer requirement more efficiently without even doing market
research (Reynolds, 2018).
Multiculturism initiates the aspects of discrimination and differentiation at the
workplace. When it is a small project, we may require less expertise and a basic team of
people having same point of view will get better results. People from different culture make
the decision process complex and lengthy. When people meet face to face and discuss about
the project related aspects with each other, it holds more relevance and meaning to go ahead
with next steps efficiently. The concept of Virtual team should be put in place only when the
company has devised a robust action plan around the same; in order to avoid conflicts
(Hartland*, 2018).
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Management
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Management
References
BAKKEN, R. (2018) Challenges to Managing Virtual Teams and How to Overcome Them,
[Online], Available:
https://www.extension.harvard.edu/professional-development/blog/challenges-
managing-virtual-teams-and-how-overcome-them [2 April 2019].
Hartland*, J. (2018) 'What Effect does Multi-Cultural Background have on Identity?',
iMedPub Journals, vol. 2, no. 12, pp. 1-5.
Reynolds, K. (2018) 13 benefits and challenges of cultural diversity in the workplace,
Decmber, [Online], Available: https://www.hult.edu/blog/benefits-challenges-
cultural-diversity-workplace/ [2 April 2019].
Weed, J.E. (2016) The Culture of a (Multi)Culture Center: A Quantitative Analysis of the Use
of a Multicultural, May, [Online], Available:
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?
article=1267&context=cehsedaddiss [1 April 2019].
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