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Study the Knowledge and Culture Factors in the Global Virtual Team
HU Feng
Zheshang Research Center Zhejiang Gongshang University, Hangzhou, China, 310002
Abstract: The global virtual team must innovate upon communication in organizations, and learn how
to make members cooperate effectively in a cross-cultural, cross-organizational and trans-regional
environment. Mutual communication among members and the positive relationship between individuals
and organizations are the basis to establish a knowledge-sharing culture in a global virtual team.
Key words: global virtual team, culture, knowledge-sharing
1. Ensure the Knowledge Management in Effective Work of the Global Virtual
Team
Nowadays, teamwork is an important work form. Actually, organizations cannot exist without
teamwork to a certain extent. Advanced information and communication technologies enable team
members to work together in a virtual environment, and finish those tasks which were considered to be
done only in a face-to-face environment. Because of the pressure of competition, many companies have
to shorten the period of product development and reduce cost by outsourcings all over the world. In such
a context, the virtual team came into being. Companies increasingly realize that the virtual team not only
improves the flexibility of companies and speed up market changes but also reduces cost. Global virtual
team is one of the corporate-globalization phenomena. Meanwhile, advanced information and
communication technology plays an increasingly important role in global business network, especially
in the working structure of transnational corporations and the virtual working environment. Information
and communication technology is necessary for transnational corporations when establishing a virtual
working environment beyond geographical boundaries. Moreover, for employees in different areas, both
communication and knowledge sharing process cannot work without information and communication
technology. Even though information and communication technology may influence knowledge sharing,
team cohesion and team performance, people and interpersonal relationship in the virtual environment
can promote or block the development of knowledge-sharing culture and organization learning as well.
In the virtual environment of computer-based communication media, the global virtual team takes
advantage of information and communication tools to exchange, spread and share knowledge. But only
information and communication tools cannot create a knowledge-sharing environment, and other factors
are also necessary, such as team confidence, team internal cooperation, supervision and management,
intercultural communication skills and cross-cultural training. Cross-culture training can form a
harmonious interactive space which enables the involved members of the global virtual team to
participate actively in communication. It is normal, frequent, and an effective way to exchange
cross-cultural views and solve new problems of the team as well. Knowledge management usually can
be a kind of information gathering, organization, storage, retrieval and transmission process. Knowledge
has nothing to do with position, society and people. Knowledge is a kind of deformation, assessment,
addition and deletion based on a society and culture. In fact, knowledge is not as objective as what we
assume. The transmission of knowledge, which includes transmission process and the information itself,
is influenced by culture. In addition, basing on culture structure and knowledge sharing, the ability of
the global virtual team to solve problems and make innovations has been improved. Though many
scholars emphasize the difficulties resulted from the lack of meeting chances and cross-culture traits,
they ignore the fact that knowledge is the result of defining and reconstructing culture; meanwhile it is
limited by the cultural context of the global virtual team. It can be said that there will be new
communication and comparing ways in the virtual environment of computer-based media, and those
ways can also influence learning process. At the same time, the relationship among team members will
influence the establishment and maintenance of the knowledge sharing basis.
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2. The Basis of Culture and Knowledge Sharing in the Global Virtual Team
Culture can have a deep influence on conceptualization and the spread of knowledge which is
devalued in practice. Communication including exchange of ideas can promote knowledge sharing, but
communication process is dynamic, multifaceted and complicated. Culture atmosphere will influence
the assessment of team members and the ways to spread information and knowledge as well as the
learning style. Another problem is that the transmission of information does not mean the effective
learning of information. In the process of sending and receiving information, the sender is often in an
active state but the receiver is not. In a multicultural environment, there will be misunderstandings of
information when the sender cannot (or reject) to use the form which the receiver can understand easily.
Actually, both information sender and receiver are active participants in spreading knowledge and
exchanging culture. In an environment with culture differences, communication is effective when
information can be understood in other cultural contexts by coding and decoding. It is helpful to
improve learning ability by various ways of information transmission, including video, audio, oral
examples, written examples and written expressions, etc. In a pluralistic environment, it is difficult to
have a good result by using ways mentioned above among members with different cultural contexts. Not
all of them are applicable in a virtual environment. In the environment of computer-based media, the
way of information transmission is stable but hard to learn and maintain. Generally speaking, the higher
the virtual degree is, the newer the ways are needed to manage relationship, knowledge sharing and
professional skills as well as coordination of collective activities. Moreover, various communication
channels, media and feedback mechanism are needed to promote exchange process in the virtual
environment. The key to establish knowledge sharing and cultivate team culture in a virtual team is to
know how national culture and corporate culture influence the dynamic changes in the team.
(1) The influence of national culture on internal dynamics of the global virtual team
The behavior and communication ways of members from different cultures are different. According
to the contextual theory, cultural context should be understood first in order to understand the behavior
traits and ways of communication. Some cultures can be seen as “high context”, which means culture
depends on external environment in a large degree and people prefer indirect communication; other
cultures are “low context”, which rely on non-language or behavior clues and people prefer direct
communication, avoiding the ambiguity of communication. Members in the global virtual team from
high context seldom use direct communication. Therefore, if members can mutually understand
communication ways and eliminate errors or doubts, there will be fewer conflicts. Generally speaking,
members in the global virtual team who agree culture collectivism prefer to work in a team and attach
great importance to personal relationship. However, members advocating individualism think that
collectivism is redundant. So the former may not treat the latter as team members. A good solution is to
establish a harmoniously interactive space (such as chatting room) where members can mutually
compare notes and exchange ideas. It is good for members to establish and maintain working
relationship with others. The other problem is if a member comes from a low-uncertainty cultural
context, he/she may be anxious under a totally new and strange working virtual condition unless
working process and rules are identified at the beginning. Explicit rules can bring safety to the members
from a low-uncertainty cultural context. Meanwhile frequent and intimate communication among
colleagues can form continuous, stable, predictable and credible communication channels, which can
reduce their anxiety.
(2) The influence of corporate culture on the global virtual team
Besides nation culture, corporate culture also has a great influence on management system.
Corporate culture roots in nation culture where the corporate locates. Though the two cultures are
different, they both affect the operation of transnational corporations at the same time. Corporate culture
is complicated. In terms of definition, corporate culture or organization culture is the value and belief
expressed in devices, texts, symbols and company activities. It is also revealed in language, tradition,
myths and stories of the company. In fact, corporate culture is to learn, absorb and share value, belief
and culture. Therefore, corporate culture influences greatly on the information and communication
technology used by the global virtual team. It can either impede and limit the use of information and
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communication technology or support the development of technology and basic infrastructure.
To form a team, team members should know and accept culture differences and trust each other
through negotiation, communication and agreement. It is easy to solve problems with trust. The key to
success is to manage conflicts within the virtual team. If the initial solution is not satisfactory, it will be
hard to establish and maintain knowledge sharing culture in the global virtual team. Company managers,
team leaders and members should work jointly and negotiate mutually to establish a unified mechanism
for conflict solutions.
3. The Necessity to Understand Culture Differences among the Global Virtual
Team Members
The virtual team environment based on information and communication technologies can
strengthen the relationship among members, form a fair participation and weaken corporate hierarchy
concept. Compared with face-to-face meeting, the virtual team improves members’ participation. The
global virtual team uses information and communication technologies widely and there are few chances
for social interaction and face-to-face meeting. Ostensibly, this may be harmful to a knowledge-sharing
culture. As time passes by, however, it can improve members’ enthusiasm and strengthen mutual
relations. But in traditional teams, there will not be such a result.
Some cultures have plenty of body languages, gestures and facial expressions. It is difficult for
members of such cultures to communicate without videos. For instance, in high context, people involved
in communication pay more attention to minute indirect language, such as nod, smile, gesture, voice and
eye contact, all of which provide important hints for the other part to understand to a certain extent. It is
difficult for people to work sometimes without these hints. Another point is that members are scattered
and lack sufficient visual hints, so people from high context have difficulties in establishing trust and
friendship. When members in a team don’t know each other, they can have some judgments from their
appearances. If the culture of the global virtual team is direct and informal, communication will be
strengthened by information and communication technologies. After establishing the internal trust,
non-face-to-face interaction will promote understanding. Therefore, understanding the culture
differences of the global virtual team is an important basis to totally understand the behaviors of
members.
4. Members of the Global Virtual Team Should Possess Communication Ability
Before the global virtual team, companies had to take many measures to become established. Team
members are selected carefully (mainly according to their professional and technological skills) and then
tasks and programs are assigned. At the beginning of the process, one important problem often ignored
is whether these members have the experience of working in a virtual team, whether they have the
necessary multicultural knowledge, or whether they are willing to acquire the abilities mentioned above.
The above problem if not settled can lead to bad results when the organization begins to conduct the
assigned tasks. Who can be selected to participate in the global virtual team is as important as what kind
of technology they can bring to the team. The larger the culture differences are, the more attention the
point should be paid to. Whether these team members have the ability to work in a cross-cultural
environment and whether they are willing and expect to acquire this ability should be considered when
selecting team members. After all, in a cross-cultural environment, a person should be more motivated
to communicate with others actively and effectively and establish common ground without considering
culture differences. In a word, in order to work effectively, members in the global virtual team should
not only know proper information technology, but also have the ability to communicate cross-culturally.
So it is necessary for the global virtual team to establish global communication mechanism by
coordination in order to solve conflicts, maintain a good internal relationship and establish an effective
knowledge sharing culture. Communication is a necessary aspect of cooperation. Either from the point
of view of individuals or the collectivity, the key to successful cooperation is the effective cross-cultural
communication among members in the global virtual team, which is as important as the technological
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ability of the team. Generally speaking, if a person can get along well with others from a different
cultural context and can understand the different culture, he/she can be considered to have cross-cultural
communication ability. So if the global virtual team expects to be competitive, individuals and the team
itself should have a global thinking pattern of being open-minded, behaving properly, and being
sensitive to the deviation and ambiguity during communication and cooperation. This is the basis to
establish and maintain a knowledge sharing culture. Therefore, cross-cultural training is important to
both individuals and the collectivity. The training is helpful for members to realize, adapt and adjust to
the working environment with cultural differences and establish the global thinking pattern. In the global
virtual team, training can help members discover cultural differences in telecommunication. Members
can be conscious that cross-cultural communication not only changes individual behavior to fit culture
differences but also enables members to work well in a team with culture differences. Though the
cross-cultural obstacles can be reduced to some extent by information and communication technologies,
members have to accept related knowledge in accordance with the cross-cultural training.
5. Further Discussion
In the context of computer-based media, new patterns of communication and social interaction
have a positive influence on learning process in the global virtual team. The potential advantage of the
global virtual team is to create harmonious culture atmosphere, increase members’ cohesion and
creativity, and improve their ability to accept new ideas, which further improves the competitive
advantage of transnational corporations. The global virtual team often impedes or promotes knowledge
sharing and organization learning. Meanwhile, the quality of members may affect the establishment and
maintenance of knowledge sharing. Teamwork is complicated. Culture differences are increasing with or
without using electric technology. The global virtual team should create new patterns for knowledge
sharing, communication and social interaction in the virtual environment. Establishing an effective team
is an unshakable task for any organizations, especially when there are ineffective decisions and
misunderstandings, and when conflicts among members are difficult to resolve. Recently, the global
virtual team can complete certain short term tasks. Such work can be abolished if it is not very efficient.
With the increasingly wide use of the virtual team, however, the above idea is changing. In the near
future, the global virtual team will be a permanent and non-short program and a common organization in
international working environment. When the global virtual team takes a more durable organization
form, the possibility of success will increase, more resource will be invested, and the knowledge sharing
environment based on information and communication technology will be improved positively.
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