Dynamic Multicultural and Virtual Teams

Virtual teaming is fast emerging as a critical phenomenon of global leadership (Bergiel, Bergiel & Balsmeier, 2008; Gatlin-Watts, Carson, Horton, Maxwell, & Maltby, 2007; Lu, Watson-Manheim, Chudoba, & Wynn, 2006). Understanding and leveraging insights of virtual teaming across cultures is no more a luxury but a necessity in global leadership study and practice (Bergiel, Bergiel & Balsmeier, 2008; Gatlin-Watts, Carson, Horton, Maxwell, & Maltby, 2007; Lu, Watson-Manheim, Chudoba, & Wynn, 2006).

Assess the conceptualization, analysis, and synthesis of key research concepts presented by your Group Leader.

The study of effective management of multicultural and virtual teaming as well as collaboration focuses on diverse conceptual dimensions characterizing issues such of: globalization, diversity, culture, trust, communication and communication technology, conflict, the internet, multiple time zones, language (Bergiel, Bergiel, & Balsmeier, 2008); stakeholder concerns, relationship building, ongoing collaboration, balancing control and shared objectives, inclusive contribution towards decisionmaking (Gatlin-Watts, Carson, Horton, Maxwell, & Maltby, 2007); teaming, team performance, virtuality, and coordination (Lu, Watson-Manheim, Chudoba, & Wynn, 2006); cultural diversity, creativity, team learning, team satisfaction, global integration (Stahla, Kristiina Mäkeläc, Zanderd, & Maznevskie, 2010); and simultaneously playing multiple leadership roles or exhibiting behavioral complexity that includes mentoring, empathy, and influence (Kayworth & Leidner, 2001) to mention a few.

Your submission is reflective of diverse conceptualization of themes characterizing the concepts mentioned above. Your attempt of conceptualizing virtual teaming towards unconventional motivational factors within the pharmaceutical and medical device sales industry and across cultures can be cited. More so, you appropriately analyzed and synthesized some of the key concepts associated with multicultural and virtual teaming that includes trust, communication, and leadership and related subconcepts-multiple time zones, language, conflict resolution, geographic diversion, and technology.

Evaluate the extent to which your Group Leader has addressed the elements from the Learning Outcomes from this pair of weeks.

Your submissions were consistent with what has been found to characterize multicultural and virtual teaming vis-a-vis found to address the elements from the learning outcomes from this pair of weeks. First, although you mentioned the enabling of intercultural collaboration as key to developing multicultural and virtual teams, your discussions regarding the scope of knowledge and experience for developing organizational structures towards global collaborations was brief citing some of the few elements of collaboration as training team members and leaders towards global mindsets, developing trust and cohesion among team members, and sharing knowledge within virtual teams. Berman and Korsten (2014) see leading in an increasingly global and interconnected era as being about promoting intercultural collaboration across organizations and stakeholders-customers, employees, and partners.

Second, you provided selected fundamental assessment of the strengths and weaknesses associated with working with multicultural and global teams. You highlighted having a larger talent pool per Bergiel, Bergiel, and Balsmeier's (2008) insight as one of the advantages of virtual teaming and identified in detail why this phenomenon is advantageous regarding the broadening of the talent pool beyond geographic barriers. Third, although the discussion was not detailed, you mentioned email, text, phone, the internet, the intranet, FAX, and video conferencing as key communication technology resources virtual teams use to reduce barriers vis-à-vis to sustain effective communication and accomplish given organizational tasks.

Fourth, you synthesized selected conclusions and outcomes in the field of multicultural management sighting for example the need to acknowledge virtual teaming across both multicultural and global landscapes as a common submission shared by existing researchers including Bergiel, Bergiel, and Balsmeier (2008) Gatlin-Watts, Carson, Horton, Maxwell, and Maltby (2007) Lu, Watson-Manheim, Chudoba, and Wynn (2006) Stahla, Kristiina Mäkeläc, Zanderd, and Maznevskie (2010) Kayworth and Leidner (2001) and Berman and Korsten (2014).

Finally, you identified opportunities for new research regarding virtual global teaming, stressing on the need to extend future research into identifying and understanding emerging motivational factors of multicultural and virtual teaming within the pharmaceutical and medical device sales industry and across cultures. Overall, your submission that further scholarly exploration of virtual teaming using more tangible and feasible data per existing literature is on point.

Does the presentation provide a cohesive summary of the assigned concepts with an effective evaluation of their implications for organizational leadership?

Aside from being reflective of the various concepts associated with multicultural and virtual teaming dynamics as indicated per the highlights above, your submission also reflects a cohesive summary of the concepts of multicultural and virtual teaming dynamic and an effective evaluation of the implications of these concepts for organizational leadership: identifying and understanding multicultural and virtual teaming dynamic is eminent in study and practice of global leadership and cross-cultural leadership (Bergiel et al., 2008; Gatlin-Watts et al., 2007; Lu et al., 2006; Stahla et al., 2010; Kayworth & Leidner, 2001).

Did the Group Leader provide a meaningful academic argument or interpretation that demonstrated fluency with the material?

As mentioned above, communication, trust, technology, leadership and virtuality, and collaboration are some of the core elements of multicultural and virtual teaming (Bergiel, Bergiel, & Balsmeier, 2008). Aside from being articulate, your argument and submission reflected these concepts and others in a systematic and logical manner. Your presentation was also meaningful, academically, and reflective of your fluency with the literature about multicultural and virtual teaming.

Notwithstanding, a more insightful discussion regarding your intention to extend virtual and multicultural research towards unconventional motivational factors within the pharmaceutical and medical device sales industry and across cultures could have been much welcome.
References

Bergiel, B. J., Bergiel, E. B., & Balsmeier, P. W. (2008). Nature of virtual teams: A summary of their advantages and disadvantages. Management Research News, 31(2), 99-110. Retrieved from ABI Inform database.

Berman, S., & Korsten, P. (2014). Leading in the connected era. Strategy & Leadership, 42(1), 37-46. doi:

http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/SL-10-2013-0078

Gatlin-Watts, R., Carson, M., Horton, J., Maxwell, L., & Maltby, N. (2007). A guide to global virtual teaming. Team Performance Management, 13(1/2), 47-52. Retrieved from ABI Inform database.

Kayworth, T. R., & Leidner, D. E. (2001). Leadership effectiveness in global virtual teams. Journal of Management Information Systems, 18(3), 7-40.

Lu, M., Watson-Manheim, M. B., Chudoba, K. M., & Wynn, E. (2006). Virtuality and team performance: Understanding the impact of variety of practices.Journal of Global Information Technology Management, 9(1), 4-23. Retrieved from ABI Inform database.

Stahla, G., K, Kristiina Mäkeläc, K., Zanderd, L., & Maznevskie, M. L. (2010). A look at the bright side of multicultural team diversity. Scandinavian Journal of Management, 26(4), 439-447. Retrieved from

http://dx.doi.org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1016/j.scaman.2010.09.009

http://dx.doi.org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1016/j.scaman.2010.06.002