{"id":20802,"date":"2017-03-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-03-21T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/global2020prd.wpengine.com\/insights\/leadership-challenges-in-global-virtual-teams\/"},"modified":"2020-05-18T09:23:47","modified_gmt":"2020-05-18T09:23:47","slug":"leadership-challenges-in-global-virtual-teams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/insights\/leadership-challenges-in-global-virtual-teams\/","title":{"rendered":"Leadership Challenges in Global Virtual Teams"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continuing our series of ‘Matrix Monday’ reviews of papers and literature, we\u00a0 take a closer look at Leadership Challenges in Global Virtual Teams: Lessons from the Field<\/strong>, a paper by Kenneth W.Kerber & Anthony F.Buono.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

This article is a review of global virtual working using a real case study of the set-up of a global virtual team against a setting of corporate re-organization and rationalization.<\/p>\n

The authors note that performance of virtual teams often fall short of expectations and state that less than 5% of virtual teams ever reach optimal performance, even when they have had the opportunity of meeting face-to-face. They review the advantages and concerns inherent in virtual working.<\/p>\n

The advantages, in their view, included being able to bring together geographically separated expertise, and being able to hire and\/or retain individuals who are unable or unwilling to relocate, amongst others.<\/p>\n

The concerns included the difficulty in achieving alignment to the teams\u2019 purpose, and an increase in interpersonal conflict based on weaker relationships within the team, again amongst others.<\/p>\n

The case study is based on a corporate training and development virtual team within a $3bn company with 8,000 employees who were going through significant re-organization following declining revenues. The team had 11 team members, and they were spread over the face of the globe, but with a heavy US bias. The team had no budget for travel.<\/p>\n

The authors saw the dynamics of virtual teams as a balance of forces that pulled the team apart and those which helped bring the team together.<\/p>\n

The forces that pulled these teams apart in their view were: lack of casual face-to-face contact with team members; time differences; cultural differences; \u00a0and the pressure to pursue local priorities with the latter being the most powerful.<\/p>\n

The forces that bring the team together – in their view – included defining a compelling challenge; jointly defined identity goals and processes; performance management; and a lavish information flow – both synchronous and asynchronous.<\/p>\n

Based on this model and the experience of this virtual team, the authors recommend the following:<\/p>\n