Global harmony is their dreamBy Sar

Global harmony is their dream

By Sarah Murray

If managing diversity in the workplace is a tough task for business leaders, the challenges of keeping executives from different backgrounds working together efficiently in various parts of the world is even more difficult.

However, virtual working presents some unexpected benefits to teams whose members come from a variety of backgrounds.

For executives whose first language is not English,

for instance, working by means of e-mail or online chat rooms can eliminate many of the communication inequalities that might exist were the group to be working together face-to-face in the same location.

People tend to be more comfortable reading and writing in their second language than speaking it, and e-mail technology provides those less sure of the language with an opportunity to reflect before communicating.

"It certainly suggests that one of the things you should take into account is whether your team includes members who don't speak English well," says Joanne Yates, a professor of management at MIT Sloan, who has studied the use of communication and information systems in companies.

"Any good virtual team has a communication plan that includes weekly conference calls or e-mail check-ins, but with a virtual team where not everyone speaks English well, the regular report-ins should be in written mode rather than by phone or conference call."

The other advantage of e-mail communications is that, for those working in different time zones, group messages can be responded to when it is convenient, reducing the need for early morning or late night calls.

At the same time, using e-mail for work exchanges can remove much of the hierarchy of professional communications, since many executives find it far less intimidating to send an e-mail to someone in a senior position than to telephone them.

"In many organisations that are fairly hierarchical, the lower and middle management executives often won't communicate with senior managers if it means picking up the phone," says Emma Kirk a psychologist at Pearn Kandola, a UK-based research business and consultancy of occupational psychologists.


Prof Yates points out that, when people in professional groups come from different backgrounds or cultures, it is often useful to appoint someone in the team who knows both cultures

as the person responsible

for setting the norms of working behaviour during

a project that is being

carried out from different locations.

And virtual working certainly does not eradicate the sort of cultural misunderstandings that can arise in a face-to-face situation.

Prof Yates cites an online mini-conference she recently observed that took place between a group of US and Japanese executives working in the research and development unit of a Japanese company.

"A Japanese executive was putting text into a window for instant messaging when one of the Americans started asking questions in the middle of the presentation," she explains.

"That was not culturally familiar and required an instant response, which caused real problems.