Managing diversity in virtual teams

Based on the conference “Virtual Teams and International Business” by the lecturer Dr. Eoin Higgins on February 11, 2010 in Medellin; it will answered the question ¿Do you consider managing diversity a key success factor in the performance of virtual teams?

Virtual teams are known as a group of people in different locations, working in a common issue, who use communication technology in order to use less costs and be more efficient in getting access to expertise.

People who participate in virtual teams have different ways of doing things because they have differences in: resources, location, time differences and non verbal communication.

Image taken from: Getty Images

Managing diversity is a key success factor in the performance of virtual teams, because it is necessary to understand and develop the diverse workforce in order to take advantage of the expertise variety that will produce more creativity.

To manage diversity in virtual teams, participants need to listen to all member´s ideas, achieve a level of trust, reciprocity and closeness of relationships among members of a team; that will produce an expertise integration in which members of the group are able to share knowledge and generate new knowledge.

It is challenging to manage diversity in virtual teams, because cultural differences can often be “perceived” and not be “real”: attributing (in negative way) the behavior of people with the culture; also, the companies politics are a challenge for virtual teams that sometimes don’t know what information can be shared; in addition, an important issue that is difficult but not impossible to develop is trust, but it can be created when the group make efforts to establish personal relations, have a regular and consistence communication, meet the expectations: “do what you say”, and people is technological and psychological available, which allows all the members to know that you are committed with the team.

In conclusion, managing diversity is a key success factor in the performance of virtual teams because after knowing some of the challenges that face virtual teams, it is necessary that leaders help establishing all the rules and manage diversity in a very wise way in order to achieve the best results.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Getty Images, “virtual teams”, [Online] Permanent URL: http://www.gettyimages.com/Search/Search.aspx?contractUrl=2&language=en-US&family=creative&p=virtual%20teams&assetType=image#. Last accessed: February 21, 2010.