Geographically dispersed teams are increasingly common in the modern workplace. Perhaps you are based in your company's US headquarters, but your team works in Brisbane, and you also manage a group of software engineers in India. Or your entire team works virtually.
How do you overcome the cultural challenges? How do you help virtual teammates feel that they are part of a team? What more can you do to strengthen your company culture in a virtual setting?
Conventional leaders are familiar with leading conventional on-site teams. Conventional teams working in a single physical location may find it easy to pull together and avoid bad habits that might harm teamwork. Virtual teams may have a harder time keeping the team together, especially when team members all have diverse backgrounds, talents, and skills.
The three-level process outlined by Vera W Chang, a professor of International Human Resource Development at National Taiwan Normal University, can help virtual leaders to manage successful virtual teams.
A Spectrum of Culture
Humans are not born with the genetic imprint of a particular culture. Culture is learned from the people you interact with as you are socialized. People learn culture from the explanations they receive for the natural and human events around them.
Faced with a new culture, virtual leaders must adapt to many changes. For example, they may discover similarities and differences between cultures, they may encounter different communication styles, or they may be frustrated by the physical absence of team members.
Vera W Chang, a professor of International Human Resource Development at National Taiwan Normal University.
Photo: Vera W Chang
"Not only does the term 'culture' emphasizes the idea of handling differences - it is also the key to unlocking success for a team," Vera W Chang said.
Virtual leaders need to adjust their mindset from the peripheral level, to the cognitive level, and finally to the reflective level, in order to understand how they can best work within these new environmental conditions. The following are Chang's three levels of the cultural competence process:
*Peripheral level
When trying to learn about people from other cultures, learning about artifacts may not be enough because one's interpretation of superficial appearances will be tainted by one's cultural background.
*Cognitive level
There is no ground for shared beliefs until members of a group have engaged in some joint action and seen its outcome.
*Reflective level
If people strongly believe in an idea or assumption, it can cause them to act in ways that are not rational. But after a person has moved past the peripheral and cognitive levels, that person can recognize that starting beliefs do not always match reality. This recognition of reality is called the reflective level. At this level, it's easy for people to see that injustices happen in all cultures. People at the reflective level can realize their inadvertent ethnocentrism. This helps them break free from the subconscious belief that different cultures are always inferior cultures.
Table 1: Chang's Three Levels of the Cultural Competence Process (2007) | ||
Description | Peripheral level | *An individual encounters and recognizesa new environment and artifacts |
Cognitive level | *An individual becomes familiar with a new environment and adjusts work strategies or behaviors | |
Reflective level | *An individual transforms underlying assumptions and become enlightened | |
Source: Adapted from Chang (2007, p. 201).
Case Study #1: Glints
The Glints leadership team celebrating the news of their successful Series C round of funding. Credit: Glints
Online talent recruitment and career discovery platform Glints, which has done all the administrative work for its clients for years, is mindful of company culture just as much as they are about their other tasks.
Glints fosters organizational culture for its clients; Glints workers act as mediators between clients and their employees. They act like trainers, making sure new hires get up to speed with the company culture.
When it comes to virtual work after the pandemic, many companies have started to demand that workers always stay on camera. Some companies adopt a mixture of rules - if employees don't want to have their cameras on, they can turn it off at normal times, but they must turn it on before meetings.
At some companies it is compulsory for employees to turn their cameras on and keep them on all the time. A Taiwanese employee, Employee A, is camera-shy and doesn't want to use her company-provided webcam but works for a Southeast Asian company. She feels like she can't do her best work because she is constantly being monitored and would prefer not to use the camera.
Ask yourself: If you were Glints how would you handle this situation?
What the Practitioner, Glints did
Glints explained to Employee A about the importance of "camera culture" in the virtual work environment and guided her to see things differently. Glints said,
"You might want to work for a company where you share the same culture as your coworkers and boss. But you are working with colleagues from different cultures now, which is something you should think about. If you want to be part of this company, you have to be part of the experience, you need to get your feet on the ground."
"You don't have to forget your identity, but you do need to try and help the company grow. You need to make an effort to join the culture for both parties to be successful in this relationship."
Glints further clarified, "This reflects on changing people's mindsets. Some people are so set on their ways of doing things, even when it might be better to do something different."
To sum up, when you work with overseas companies or remotely, you don't have the visibility with your colleagues and managers that you normally would. It's important to be open-minded about the ways in which different people work and how they might do things differently. Different companies have different policies. However, as an employee, it is important to do your best to fit in and comply with the company's culture and practices.
Analytical Comments: Vera W Chang
Working virtually can make bosses feel like they are not in control, which can sometimes be overwhelming. If you were a non-managerial worker, I could see your desk from my office. Your salary is on my budget, and so I know if I have questions for you, all I need to do is call you in as you're just sitting at your desk.
But if you were working virtually, I would feel I did not have "control."
When we talk about the out-of-control situation, in this subject, you're using your definition to define the word 'control.' More specifically, you are applying the principle of on-site work to remote work. In some ways, it is not working. Therefore, we need to find new ways to define "control" in the remote work setting. This raises the question: How to manage a virtual team successfully?
2 steps to manage a virtual team successfully
Step 1: Drop the old mindset
A leader should refrain from assessing the situation with the old mindset and apply a new definition of 'control' to virtual work.
Step 2: Create a set of shared values
If a team is made up of members from 10 different countries, then the group should have a very diverse set of backgrounds, skills, or experiences. With each member scattered across the globe, it is challenging to keep a virtual team together.
But there are ways that leadership can find and emphasize shared values to unite the team. This set of shared values will be the team's culture.
In applying the theory outlined above, leaders can use artifacts. For instance, although your virtual team may be in the comfort of their own homes most of the time, when they go online it can seem like they're surrounded by members with the same background image (e.g., your company's logo). It gives a sense that they're all in this together and everyone belongs. In short, artifacts such as the same background image can create a sense of group identity on the peripheral level.
The second layer is known as the 'Cognitive level,' which is invisible. If all members of the virtual team have the same background image, this triggers a little effect cognitively. Maintaining a clear direction is key to success. The virtual team members acknowledge a shared direction. The clearer the direction is, the better it is.
In other words, leaders need to be more 'visible' in the context of organizational goals. It doesn't matter whether I am in Paris, you are in India, he is in Taiwan, they are in New York, or she is in Malaysia; the team members should all be steering towards the company's goal together. Thus, the leader should offer a map that displays the organization's short-term and middle-term goals. This will help the virtual team to make better decisions.
I realized that even though a team shares the same office, there is still some ambiguity about the 'common' goal in this specific team. For instance, the leader is announcing that the team has to pursue Goal A. Some members interpret Goal A as an orange, while others interpret it as an apple. Those who don't like oranges, won't contribute anything. But those who like apples will put a lot of effort into it. Can you spot the problem here?
All of this happens because the common goal isn't clear enough. Leaders assume that the team knows what they are working on and that it aligns with the company's goal. Leaders are blinded by this assumption, and the common goal is based on everyone's perception and interpretation. To tackle this problem, leaders must schedule a regular time to check in with the team to ensure that their goals, interpretations, and understandings are aligned with the company's goals.
In a nutshell, if you lead a virtual team, you need to create a new culture and craft it delicately. I personally will focus less on the peripheral level elements. But I will emphasize the cognitive level element a little more than before. Thus, everyone can have the same goal deep down in their hearts and know where they are going.
What if leaders decide to go full transparency across all levels of an organization?
My answer is 'yes' and 'but'. 'Yes', means that transparency allows employees to understand more and build more trust. And I will say 'but', it depends on the culture. This means that some cultures might value transparency while others would expect less disclosure.
For example, in some cultures, transparency can be interpreted as having to share all information. However, in that case, it's possible that the other culture may not want every detail shared openly. They might even feel anxious about what is being communicated about them in this way and feel uncomfortable in their own space. Then, it will affect their work emotion.
I think the value of transparency is good, and I personally would agree with this direction. But don't go too quickly with it because you need to keep the team together. Why?
The rationale behind this is that when we see something that seems to be very good, we jump right in. But we forget to wait for others to get on board. This action will offend others.
Transparency can be perceived as a good thing, but you also need to factor in the working pace of the others involved.
About Glints
Glints is Southeast Asia and Taiwan's largest talent platform for career development and recruitment. Over 4 million professionals visit Glints every month to grow their careers. Founded in 2013 in Singapore, Glints has empowered more than 2 million professionals and over 40,000 organizations to realize their human potential. Every day, we are helping organizations build great teams and pair talent up with great opportunities, one match at a time. Glints currently operates in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, and Vietnam.
About Vera W Chang
Vera W. Chang, Ph.D., is a professor of the Graduate Institution of International Human Resource Development at National Taiwan Normal University. She has written more than 70 scholarly papers on topics including intercultural competency, leadership, and talent development. Her most recent book is More than Saying Hello: International Competence and Intercultural Learning (Ainosco Press).
References
Chang, W (2007). "Cultural competence of international humanitarian workers." Adult Education Quarterly, 57(3), 187-204.
Schein, EH (2017). Organizational culture and leadership (5th ed). New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
