Virtually there – global virtual teams and the competencies involved
In the context of an interconnected global workforce and especially during the recent COVID-19 pandemic crisis, employees are working more in virtual teams around the globe instead of travelling and meeting personally (Stewart & Menon, 2020). Alexandra Kolm, international PhD student at SHE and her supervisor Jascha de Nooijer reflect on the research on global virtual teamwork.
It is expected to see this increasingly global virtual working environment even after this pandemic, but the future workforce is not fully prepared for this. “Going digital means more than just using technology” as the World Economic Forum puts it (Stewart & Menon, 2020). Therefore, higher education needs to train students in information literacy (Sorgo, Bartol, Dolnicar, & Podgornik, 2016) and International Online Collaboration Competencies (IOCCs). IOCCs are considered to be essential for global virtual teams, yet only minimally explored.
Are we prepared for global virtual teamwork?
Young employees might be seen as perfectly prepared for the global virtual working environment since they are often seen as 'digital natives'. This presumption could lead to an overestimation of the digital skills of students (Magrino & Sorrel, 2014). Studies show that they might have skills limited to basic office skills, e-mailing, text messaging, social media use and surfing the internet (Kirschner & van Merriënboer, 2013). Students and employees are required to work differently in global virtual teams (Boag, 2018), optimally enhancing important competencies such as communication, technology use, leadership, project management and valuing cultural diversity (Cleary, Slattery, Flammia, & Minacori, 2019). Higher education plays an important role in laying the foundation for competence development for global virtual teamwork. However, educational scholars often focus on isolated but not combined competencies for IOC.
What competencies are needed for global virtual teamwork?
There are several advantages of global virtual teamwork. For example, the collaboration across national borders without the time and money needed to travel, the potential to collaborate across ethnical and cultural borders to bring together multiple perspectives (Krumm, Terwiel, & Hertel, 2013), and an increasing value of cultural diversity. Challenges of global virtual teamwork are feelings of isolation and decreased interpersonal contact, increased chances of misunderstandings and conflict escalation to some extent due to cultural differences, limited availability due to different time zones, and difficulty in understanding each other due to different accents and communication styles (Hertel, Geister, & Konradt, 2005; Solomon, 2016). In order to overcome these challenges, it is important to explicitly teach IOCCs in higher education, to prepare students for the challenges of the global virtual working environment.
Our recent systematic review on IOCCs aimed at developing a competence framework for IOCCs to inform higher education on developing training programs and evaluating the competencies (Kolm et al., 2020). This study was needed since educational scholars often focus on isolated but not combined competencies for IOC, such as international or intercultural competence, competence in using information and communication technology (ICT), collaboration competence and language competence. As a result of the review, six competence domains and 112 competencies within the domains formed the framework for IOCCs:
- information and communication technology (ICT) competencies
- intercultural and cultural competencies
- communication and language competencies
- self-management and organizational competencies
- collaboration competencies
- domain-specific competencies
As a second step, a consensus study on this competence framework will be discussed with academic and practice-based IOC experts. Interested global virtual team workers are welcome to contact the research team, the consensus study (Delphi method) will be conducted from June to October 2020.
Alexandra Kolm, international PhD student at SHE. Contact: a.kolm@student.maastrichtuniversity.nl
Jascha de Nooijer, Supervisor
References:
Boag, P. (2018). Why and how to adopt a digital first or digital by default approach. Retrieved from https://boagworld.com/digital-strategy/digital-first/
Cleary, Y., Slattery, D. M., Flammia, M., & Minacori, P. (2019). Developing strategies for success in a cross-disciplinary global virtual team project: Collaboration among student writers and translators. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, 49(3), 309-337. doi:10.1177/0047281618775908
Hertel, G., Geister, S., & Konradt, U. (2005). Managing virtual teams: A review of current empirical research. Human Resource Management Review, (15), 69-95. doi:10.1016/j.hrmr.2005.01.002
Kirschner, P. A., & van Merriënboer, J. J. G. (2013). Do learners really know best? Urban legends in education. Educational Psychologist, 48(3), 169-183. doi:10.1080/00461520.2013.804395
Kolm, A., de Nooijer, J., Vanherle, K., Werkman, A., Wewerka-Kreimel, D., Rachman-Elbaum, S., van Merrienboer, J.J.G. (2020). Teaching and Assessing International Online Collaboration Competencies - A Systematic Review. Submitted
Krumm, S., Terwiel, K., & Hertel, G. (2013). Challenges in norm formation and adherence: The knowledge, skills, and ability requirements of virtual and traditional cross-cultural teams. Journal of Personnel Psychology, 12(1), 33-44. doi:10.1027/1866-5888/a000077
Magrino, W., & Sorrel, P. (2014). Professionalizing the amateur: social media, the „Myth of the Digital Native“, and the graduate assistant in the composition classroom. Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, 3(1), 76-94.
Solomon, C. (2016). Trends in global virtual teams. Virtual teams survey report 2016. Retrieved from http://cdn.culturewizard.com/PDF/Trends_in_VT_Report_4-17-2016.pdf
Sorgo, A., Bartol, T., Dolnicar, D., & Podgornik, B. B. (2016). Attributes of digital natives as predictors of information literacy in higher education. British journal of educational technology, 48(3), 749-767. doi: https://doi-org.ezproxy.ub.unimaas.nl/10.1111/bjet.12451
Stewart, K., & Menon, A. (2020). How to navigate the transition to remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic. Retrieved from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/03/covid-19-transition-to-remote-work/