Challenges In Managing Global Teams †Free Samples For Students

Question: What are the challenges in managing global teams? Answer: Introduction Presently the term globalisation occupies the headlines and therefore it can be considered as the most discussed and researched topic among the business tycoons throughout the world. As a result of globalisation almost all the larger conglomerates have expanded their markets enormously and at the same time, they are also dependent on an extremely diverse workforce to exceed the present and future needs of the consumers (Mendenhall, 2012). In accordance with this, the global teams have proliferated based on the trust that the diverse talents present within each team will in turn help to achieve the organisational goals of reaching the markets overseas and also in the execution of complex strategic frameworks. This research work will solely focus on determining the challenges that the managers may face while managing a global team. This work will also concentrate on determining the plausible methods for mitigating the challenges as well. Background: Since years, the managers of the team have been facing several challenges. They were not only facing issues regarding the development of the business-oriented global teams but also in managing the challenging situations in controlling the team members. Sometimes these difficulties arise because of the poor communication between the team members. On the other hand, due to the cultural and language differences, they also fail to create impressive connections. Earlier researcher has gone through this issue and arrived at their opinions. This project aims to identify the concept of global team, the challenges faced by them and the process of team management. Problem definition: The only problem associated with this topic is that in the current scenario, the global-based organisations face serious challenges regarding the team management as well ascontrolling the team member for different reasons. Therefore, it is necessary to mitigate the challenges and develop an effectively maintained team. Project objective: Research aim: The broader aim of this research work is to determine the key advantages and disadvantages of the global teams and thereby arrive at the plausible solution. This will help to bridge the gap between the advantage sand disadvantages and thereby ensure the successful operability of the organisations. Research objectives: In order achieve the desired outcomes the following will be considered as the main objectives of this research work, To obtain a broader overview of the concept of global teams To determine the challenges faced by the global team management process To determine the advantages and disadvantages of global team management To state a measure through which the challenges faced by the global teams could be mitigated Project scope: Presently in the era of continuous advancements and rigorous changes in the business environment globalisation has become a very popular term. On a more precise note, through the emergence of globalisation, the organisations have become able to operate in different countries at ease (Williams, 2013). Now in order to ensure effective operability of these organisations overseas, it is necessary to manage global teams effectively. Therefore, the global team management has become an interesting issue of research. Presently, as the organisations are expanding their businesses rapidly it is necessary for them to develop a knowhow of the management skills required for managing global teams. Therefore, this research provides the scope of generating a broader knowledge on the challenges faced by organisations in managing global teams. Literature review: Concept of Global Team Management As pointed out by Daim et al., (2012) presently the use of global teams by the multinational conglomerates as part of strategic human resource management is evolving. The global teams are constructed across different geographical, cultural and temporal boundaries to grab the pool of extensively talented human resources spread across the globe. Challenges of Global Team Management Reviewing the available literature in this regard has revealed the fact that the global teams face a number of challenges which is a result of the geographical dispersion and technological mediation (Boutellier et al., 2013). The first and foremost challenge arises because of the geographical dispersion and decreasing physical cues gives rise to a lack of mutual knowledge among the team members and this, in turn, may result in faulty attribute about the remote team members. As pointed out by Heizer and Barry(2013), the distributed team members are found to be more likely to generate faulty attributes about the distance colleagues and this is solely because of the lack of physical cues and the situational awareness. Secondly, the global team members often face challenges regarding the knowledge sharing across different geographical locations (Richardson et al., 2012). As the team members are always working from a distance they are less likely to get a chance to have an informal encounter with each other which acts as a great source of knowledge sharing. Moreover, sometimes the team members are again members of another team, which gives rise to different levels of commitment that contributes to different levels of commitment towards knowledge sharing. Thirdly another challenge which is faced by the global teams is regarding the management of time and attention. While the emergence of email facility, instant messaging has facilitated communications across various time zones and allow the team members to communicate with each other as per their convenience, however, the use of excessive email and other technological communications systems may give rise to interruptions and distractions from work (Klitmller and Lauring, 2013). Advantages and Disadvantages of Global Team Management The advantages of the global teams can be listed as follows, Cost Savings The first and foremost advantage that the organisations enjoy through these global teams is savings a huge amount of costs. The cost of production reduces because of the reduction in cost associated with accruing raw materials and the lower wages of the employees who are working in their own geographical locations (Colomo-Palacios et al., 2014). Accruing Global Talent Global team enables the organisations to search for talents beyond their country of operations. This brings together the experts and the specialists across the globe on the same project. This, in turn, increases the innovativeness, knowledge sharing and the overall productivity of the organisations (Colomo-Palacios et al., 2014). Reduced Time for Marketing As the members of the global teams work across different time zones there are different teams who are working 24*7. This means that when one member is not working some other member is working and this, in turn, reduces the time for product development and generates a faster response to market demands. Secondary question: In accordance with the research objectives, the questions of the research has also been framed which are stated one by one below, What is the key concept of global team? What are the challenges faced by the global teams? What are the advantages and disadvantages of global team management? What is the precautionary measure through the challenges faced by the global teams could be mitigated? Research design and methodology: Research methodologies are necessary to follow while conducting a research. The research onion (See appendix for research onion) shows the methods need to carry out for a research. The current research is based on mix method methodology. Therefore, the researcher will propose main steps of both the methodologies for the research Qualitative research methodology: Qualitative research is based on descriptive data that cannot be measured or counted. Therefore, qualitative research follows certain methodologies for proceeding with the research. Inductive approach will be used for qualitative research as it focuses on the fact that not all social phenomenons cannot be counted. Inductive approach gives the provision for generalising data and analysing based on observation. Positivism philosophy will be used to interpret the data logically. Descriptive research will be used to explore as well as explain the research questions and objectives identified. Research data needs to be collected from a large number of respondents. However, collection of qualitative data from large population is difficult for a researcher within a limited timeframe (Brinkmann, 2014). For the current research, the population for the qualitative research part will be 4 managers from who will be selected from different multinational conglomerates that has teams in different parts of the globe. Non-probability purposive sampling method will be used for selecting the 4 managers from different multinational companies to gain insight regarding the challenges that they face in managing global teams. The research instrument will be interview. Interview is both good and bad for collecting qualitative data as in one hand; the researcher is able to observe the opinions and behaviour of others without inventories. Reliability and Validity: As the data is collected through qualitative methodology and interview instrument is subjective, there are chances that personal opinion of researchers may reflect on the final outcome of the research (Taylor et al. 2015). However, the researcher will set the interview questions according to the research questions and objectives, which will bind the respondents to provide accurate information. The researcher will restrain own self from inducing personal opinion which will further help in overcoming the barriers present in reliability and validity of the research. The collected qualitative data will be analysed in descriptive manner. Quantitative research methodology: Data Collection Method and research instrument: Survey will be used as the data collection method. Yin (2013) pointed out that survey helps in obtaining rich and enough numeric data, which is essential for quantitative research where numeric data is the instrument for analysing the variables. 80 employees of the global conglomerates who are working as a part of the global team in different multinational companies will be surveyed. This sample will be selected based on non-probability simple random sampling method. The current topic is about challenges in managing global teams. In this context, the samples for quantitative data collection should be those that are working in global teams. Therefore, employees who are working both in virtual method and on field in different companies around the globe for more than 1 years will be selected for this research. The independent variable is global teams whereas the dependent variable is the impact of global teams in organisations.The collected quantitative data will be analysed by using regression, descriptive statistics, and correlation by using SPSS tool whereas the data will be presented in tabular and graphical manner by using Microsoft Excel. As survey will be used, the respondents might provide haphazard answers, which in turn might influence the research outcome. In this context, the researcher will introduce the purpose of the research first to the respondents and then, the importance of the research outcome for teams working globally. Further, questionnaire will be developed Operation the research objectives with close-ended options which will help in overcoming the reliability and validity issue of the research. Research limitation: The researcher will face the limitation of limited time and limited budget. Due to these two factors, the researcher will not be able to collect enough secondary and primary data. Further, multinational organisations might not provide consent to interview their managers, which might become a barrier in achieving the research objectives. Time schedule: This research s planned to be progressed through a sequence of steps. At first, the idea and planning are set. Then the aims and objectives are fixed. The background of the study is also analysed. Afterwards the relevant literature is discussed in order to make the concept of the topic clear for the future development of the research. Even, the approach, design, method and timeframe of the research are also set. The sample size and data analysis method have also been controlled systematically. Finally, the conclusion is developed as per the entire evaluation. Task And Time 1st week (2nd-4th) week (5th-7th)Week (8th-10th) week (11th -16th) week (17th -20th)week (21th-23th) week 24th week 25th week 26th Week Introduction and Search for Data Literature Review Research Methodology Design of Data Collection and Methods Data Collection Data Analysis and Presentation Conclusion and Recommendations Proof- Reading Sending the First Draft to Supervisor Printing, Binding, and Submission Conclusion: Thus, this research proposal has identified the research problem, the current and available literature as well as the methodological tools that are required for conducting a research. Reference List Brinkmann, S., 2014.Interview. In Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology(pp. 1008-1010).Springer New York. Daim, T.U., Ha, A., Reutiman, S., Hughes, B., Pathak, U., Bynum, W. and Bhatla, A., 2012. Exploring the communication breakdown in global virtual teams.International Journal of Project Management,30(2), pp.199-212. Heizer, R. and Barry, R., 2013.Operation Management, Sustainability and Supply Chain management(Vol. 11). Pearson, UK. Klitmller, A. and Lauring, J., 2013. When global virtual teams share knowledge: Media richness, cultural difference and language commonality.Journal of World Business,48(3), pp.398-406. Mendenhall, M.E., 2012.Global leadership: Research, practice, and development. Routledge. Richardson, I., Casey, V., McCaffery, F., Burton, J. and Beecham, S., 2012. A process framework for global software engineering teams.Information and Software Technology,54(11), pp.1175-1191. Taylor, S.J., Bogdan, R. and DeVault, M., 2015.Introduction to qualitative research methods: A guidebook and resource. John Wiley Sons. Williams, C., 2013.Principles of management.South-Western/Cengage Learning.