Multicultural Diversity
The topic of the project is "multicultural management in the virtual project setting." In today's globalized business environment, multicultural work teams are become the norm, rather than the exception. Often, projects are undertaken at multiple work sites around the world, so that not only are teams diverse, but they are virtual as well. The members of these teams, with their different ethnic backgrounds, will often have different values, and different perspectives on the issues that the team faces. Such diversity can aid with problem-solving and also with decision-making where the employees' different experiences and worldviews contribute to seeing the problem in multi-faceted ways. This can help to drive innovation and help the company to derive original solutions, allowing the organization to better compete in the global environment. Promoting creativity and building global consensus are two of the most important benefits of multicultural, diverse work groups (Horwitz & Horwitz, 2007).
At the same time, multicultural diversity can be challenging for managers in that the differences between the team members can create conflict and dissention. While leadership might wish to encourage tolerance and understanding and appreciation of each culture, this ideal might be challenging to achieve in practice. As hard as it is to lead in a multicultural workplace in an offline setting, the problems are compounded in a virtual environment where one does not meet face-to-face with the other members of the team. Time zone differences could even mean that chats and virtual meetings are not possible, such that there might not be any direct communication at all between some members, at least not without some time lag.
This project will explore the issue of multicultural management of virtual teams. This is a unique skill for leaders, known as e-leadership. E-leaders are presented with challenges that include bridging the physical distance from the followers and to do so in a manner that is sensitive to cultural differences; communicating effectively with remote team members incorporating cultural understanding in e-communication; conveying enthusiasm and inspiring followers electronically and doing so in a manner congruent to cultural differences; and building trust with someone who may never see the e-leader (Trivedi & Desai, 2012).
Background
There are a number of key terms that help clarify and frame the issue. Diversity reflects a workplace, team or organization that features people from a wide range of backgrounds. The more backgrounds are present, the more diverse the team is said to be. The issue of diversity is tied to the concept of multiculturalism. A multicultural environment is one that is diverse, featuring people from a number of different cultures. There are differences between multicultural environments along the continuum of integration and distinctiveness. In some situations, the group members may move strongly to a collective cultural norm, but in other cases the different cultures within the group might maintain their own individual characteristics to a significant degree.
Horwitz and Horwitz (2007) note that when a group begins to think as one, groupthinking is occurring. The use of teams can work as a foil to groupthink, as individual members bring their different perspectives to the problem. However, a group might also lean towards groupthink as the different cultural views within the team begin to complement one another, bringing the group to a unique way of working that is a distinctive blend of the different characteristics of the different group members -- this is what the authors hint at groupthink in a positive sense.
The workplace is the setting for this group work. The workplace in the virtual context is more difficult to define than a traditional workplace. There are a number of physical locations, but critical to the function of the group is the virtual workplace that the group members collectively inhabit. The design and function of the virtual workplace substantially affects how the group functions. The leader within this setting is the e-leader, somebody who specializes in leadership in an electronic or virtual workplace. These leaders not only have basic leadership skills, but they also know how to apply these skills in a virtual environment. The virtual environment has unique characteristics that need to be understood. For example, team members often have no face-to-face interaction with one another. There may be language barriers, and cultural differences, and there will also be time zone differences as well. Understanding these unique characteristics of the virtual environment is a critical skill for the e-leader.
Challenges of e-Leadership
It can be challenging enough to lead in a multicultural workplace in an offline setting....
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