Download Study on Communication Problems in Virtual Project Teams in Global Economy

Study on Communication Problems in Virtual Project Teams
in Global Economy
TANG Haiyan HU Feng
Research Center China Lixin Risk Management School, Shanghai, China, 201620
Abstract: In order to achieve the objective of virtual project teams, members work together by
advanced communication and information technologies within a limited time frame. Communication
among these members becomes very difficult as they work in different places. Managers of virtual
project teams should adopt effective means to improve the communication.
Keywords: virtual project team, communication, control
1 Project Management in Globalization
Facing changes and fluctuations of current global economy, the pressure for enterprises to survive
becomes bigger. With the development of globalization, information and e-commerce, the organization
and management of various designs, construction, production services and other projects is more
decentralized than before. The virtual project team is an important organization form to solve these
problems. Project team is for a certain specific task (e.g. special product or service). It is often
temporary and will dismiss when the task is finished. Efficiency is important to the objective of project
team. Moreover, members of a project team are not stable all the time, but change with the development
of the project. Because the task of a project is specific, there are definite requirements on quality, time
period and cost, etc. In other words, the specific project must be finished within a prescribed time at a
prescribed cost and meet the quality requirement as well.
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．The Rise of Virtual Project Teams in Global Economy
The virtual project team refers to a group of people across space, time zones and organizational
boundaries work together through advanced communication and information technologies within a
limited time frame to achieve common goals. For example, in order to design and build the Beijing
Olympic Stadium, a large number of persons or companies that are transnational and cross-cultural and
have different professional backgrounds are needed to establish a virtual project team for the given tasks
and targets. They should trust each other and believe others can do their work. A virtual project team is
just like a borderless community, and members in this community are cross-geographical,
cross-organizational and cross-functional. These members keep in touch with each other through
electronic means, and complete their work and services in different places. Many companies begin to
abandon traditional ways and switch to a more flexible and efficient way, namely the virtual project
team. Virtual project teams enable organizations to quickly use human resources and the experiences,
capabilities and expertise of the staff who are in various organizations and places, so that they can solve
problems in time and share resources. This is particularly noteworthy. The members will return to their
original jobs when the tasks of virtual project teams are completed [1]. A virtual project team usually
includes a project manager and a certain number of members (this number depends their experiences,
capabilities and expertise). The virtual project team is the first choice for many enterprises because it
helps in reducing cost and time, sharing knowledge, making full use of capabilities of the staff,
improving working environment, increasing the enthusiasm of the staff, carrying out cross-functional
communication activities, enhancing the quality of products, etc. By virtual project teams, lots of
companies allocate better capitals to the potential, experienced and skilled staff and projects, thereby
achieving their targets of “more, faster, better and cheaper”. Many people take this open system as an
important working form because virtual project teams can improve efficiency and ensure the completion
of work at any time.
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3 Communication Problems in Virtual Project Teams in Global Economy
In most cases, a virtual project team is established when necessary. Managers of the project should
make sure the team members have certain professional knowledge and skills which are essential to the
team objective. Project managers should try to find other eligible persons when the team lacks expertise.
Those eligible persons should not only provide expertise, but also commit to the team.
Communication becomes difficult as members in virtual project teams work in different places. The
virtual project team provides a good opportunity to solve this complicated problem. But there are also
challenges of its own survival and efficiency, especially the management and control of the virtual team.
In an era of economic globalization, the development of computers and network communication
technologies, especially the internet, has changed the ways people work and management models [3].
E-commerce, virtual enterprises, dynamic alliances, agile supply chain and other new management
models have emerged. Meanwhile, demands of quality, price, technology, diversity and other aspects are
rising continuously. So the changes of market and the increasing competitions mean higher requirements.
If they want to win in such a competitive environment, virtual project teams must make full use of
information technology, optimize the use of resources, quickly response to customers’ needs, shorten
production and sourcing cycle, strictly control costs and quality, and improve economic profit and the
ability to deal with emergencies. But it is difficult to transmit information through body language
because of the particularities of virtual project teams. Body language is part of interpersonal
communication. Receptors can only obtain part of the information sent by transmitters without body
language. A research proves that 65% of information is transmitted by non-verbal clues. Therefore,
when reading an e-mail, you just get a little of the information. In this case, if exchange among members
only relies on communication tools rather than face-to-face contact, the possibility of misunderstanding
and confusion among them will be high [2]. Similarly, informal exchange within organizations is an
important channel to transmit information and knowledge. Some people think that there is no traditional
channel for information transmission in a virtual environment and it is impossible for members to
exchange useful information by chat. They must contact each other by sending messages or making a
call, which is not always effective.
In virtual project teams, the lack of social scene is a potential hinder for members in virtual teams
to establish and maintain trust. The result is that there will be misunderstandings of information in
virtual project teams. Communication technologies help teams to be more efficient in decision-making
and help individuals to work better. The most significant advantage of effective communication
technology is that it ensures members exchange views with each other effectively (even though they
cannot hold a face-to-face meeting). When members cannot meet each other, asynchronous
communication enables teams to accomplish work tasks within a specified time frame. Non-verbal
information is helpful in communication. But information may be lost because of the variety of media.
Although communication technologies have lots of negative impacts, relationships among members and
social relations can develop as long as teams spend enough time in improving electronic technologies.
Thus there is a great challenge for the organizations to employ virtual project teams. The more
interdependent the virtual project team is, the more efficient the members need to be in communication
through technology. It is important to notice that team work which demonstrates complex dynamics is a
communication-and-collaboration-intensive job. More and more empirical studies begin to analyze how
to use computers to promote collaboration to accomplish work. Technologies were not studied as the
media for managing communication until the 1990s. One challenge for virtual project teams is that it is
difficult for teams to form cohesion, when members are dispersed in different geographical locations
and have few chances to communicate face to face. However, cohesion can be strengthened by many
social factors including the influence of leaders. Therefore, team leaders must be responsible for
encouraging members to improve information processing capability and achieving the integrate goals
with those technologies.
Synchronous communication is the communication occurring at the same time, such as telephone
conversation, QQ, MSN, video conference, all of which are conducted at the same time but in different
places. Senders and receivers communicate with each other at the same time, but are in different
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geographical locations. There is an obvious time delay in some communication methods like email.
Time delay exists in the process that the sender sends message and the receiver accepts or restores it.
Synchronous communication seems very effective because the loop is very tight between the sender and
the receiver, which means that the reply can be gotten quickly. Moreover, it is the most natural means
for communication, for it is face-to-face communication to some extent. But asynchronous
communication or communication cannot occur at the same time. As the distribution of virtual project
teams become wider and wider, members in the same team can hardly exchange ideas at the same time
because of time differences, which brings a huge risk. If information cannot be transmitted correctly, the
entire project may slow down because of a small misunderstanding. What accompanies the inefficient
communication is the bigger risk of delaying the project. Another problem of asynchronous
communication for members in different geographical locations is that the sender cannot be sure
whether the receiver understands the information correctly or not. Of course, the sender cannot make
sure whether the receiver has got the message. For example, if a member in a Spain team sends a
message to one in a Canadian team, how can he be sure whether the other part gets it or not? Moreover,
if the message is a voicemail, how can he be sure whether the other side gets it? Often there is no reply
or notice after many days. This uncertainty leads to frustration and confusion. In a traditional team, it is
easy for the sender to know whether the other side has got the message by asking the receiver directly,
which is impossible in virtual project teams. When members exchange ideas through chat room and
network, they can communicate asynchronously. In fact, non-face-to-face contact makes exchange more
complex. For instance, communication in virtual project teams is conducted at different times, so there
are still misunderstandings, time-wasting, uncertainty and other risks, which have nothing to do with
members’ geographical locations. They are usually in different time zones.
4 The Problems of Communication Control in Virtual Project Teams in Global
Economy
One advantage of electronic communication modes (such as email) is that it enables the receiver to
communicate with colleagues quickly and effectively. However, there are problems in the speed and
communication mode (like information overload). Therefore, it is necessary to set priority levels for
various communication modes. For example, face-to-face conference is the least likely communication
mode to be adopted in virtual project teams. And voicemail is a communication mode of the highest
priority. As a result, under special circumstances or when there are emergencies, members know they
should use a voicemail rather than an email. And they will pay attention to voicemails regularly and give
them the highest priority. Setting priorities ensures that members can quickly identify the degree of
urgency and importance, which is helpful for improving efficiency. Meanwhile, different priority levels
can prevent the loss of information. Otherwise, communication among members may collapse, which
will eventually cause the distrust among them. The ultimate aim to differentiate priority levels is to help
the receivers change their information at hand. Message receivers do not have to reply every message
any more. It is easy for them to identify those important and urgent tasks with higher priority and also
identify which of them are urgent but unimportant at the same time. Thus they can focus on the work of
the highest priority. In this way, teams can help members manage their time effectively to improve
efficiency and ease the pressure as well.
Even though members adopt the above measures to improve efficiency, project managers still need
to adopt other measures to reduce potential risks in virtual projects. It is very important to record events,
which can provide members with the structure that is lacking in the virtual environment. Procedures
must be clear to make sure that every member may receive the relevant information at any time. All
members should not only know the rules but also understand the responsibilities. For instance, members
should understand what their own tasks are and what their responsibilities are. Only in this way can the
virtual project team have a refined structure. Meanwhile, the attitudes of members toward the team are
very important. In a virtual environment, 100% sense of responsibility in a team is vital for its success.
In a traditional team environment, the sense of responsibility of members is not that important for the
team’s success. A sense of responsibility to finish their work in time is sufficient in a traditional team.
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But it is not the same in a virtual project team. Members must realize that they work in an environment
full of challenges and they must increase their senses of responsibility correspondingly. Even if there is
only one member who lacks a complete sense of responsibility, there may be problems in
communication and bigger risks for the virtual project teams.
5 The Communication Culture and the Principles to Improve Efficiency of
Virtual Project Teams in Global Economy
Although most organizations and industries adopt different methods to manage their projects, there
is still something in common, that is, lifecycles of the projects are similar. The process is dynamic and
changing. There are different characteristics in different stages, both for traditional projects and virtual
ones. Lifecycle of a project refers to all the stages that a project goes through towards its objective.
There are four stages: conceptualization, dividing, implementation and termination. All projects begin
with an objective or an idea of doing something, which is the conceptualization or initiation stage.
During this stage, members identify the concept of the project, which is an essential part. A schedule
and budget must be made during the planning stage. The project may continue to develop according to
the plan. This is the implementing stage. Project is monitored and adjusted frequently during this stage.
Finally, the project is done and this is the termination or transition stage. In addition, there are some
other methods to divide project lifecycle. Some of them have more than four stages and have different
names, but the basic principle is the same.
Members of virtual project teams work in different countries, which makes it more complex for
them to communicate. A virtual project team must define a common lexicon manual in advance and
consider different habits and modes in the process of communication. There are many examples of
misunderstandings caused by cultural differences in organizations. For example, when Chinese project
managers refer to “deadline”, they mean a definite date. Because of culture differences, however, a
German developer may understand “deadline” differently. Again, the British’s understanding of “in
time” is different from that of Saudi Arabian. Therefore, it is important for project managers to try their
best to understand these cultural differences in order to avoid mistakes and losses resulted from these
differences. To make communication more successful, virtual project teams should obey four common
principles as follows: (1) members should define and consider the available standards of communication
modes; (2) members should have communication background which is lacking in the process of
communication; (3) members should use synchronous communication modes regularly; (4) message
senders should set priority levels for messages. By defining and considering the available standards,
team members can clearly know the specific time and reach an agreement (for example, an agreement
when they will reply the senders), which is helpful for other members to know the normal working
hours of their partners. It can also solve the problem (mentioned above) how to make sure whether the
other side has received the message or not. Establishing the communication background which is
lacking in communication process can provide receivers with references effectively. But it is not always
obvious. In fact, many electronic communication means are easily to be misused, which results in
reducing, eliminating and distorting the communication background. The ability to understand
information correctly has been greatly improved by consciously establishing communication
background. Through relevant descriptions of the communication background, receivers can obtain the
information relevant to the messages sent by senders. Though the additional background can not replace
non-verbal communication, it is undoubtedly helpful to minimize the possibility of misunderstanding.
Project manages of a virtual team should pay special attention to communication and cooperation,
because team members are in different places. The key is to find a flexible, clear and controllable
method to communicate and cooperate. In addition, members of a virtual team project may be from
different cultures, which should also be paid attention to. Managing a virtual team project is very
complicated as the members are usually in different places and time zones. Therefore, communication
and cooperation must be sufficient and should not be delayed.
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