Teaching / Training Virtual Global Teams in the Business Communication Classroom

Panel convenors: Sofie Decock, Christophe Wybraeke, Stefan Diemer and Marie-Louise Brunner

Virtual global teams (VGTs), “temporary, culturally diverse, geographically dispersed, and electronically communicating work group(s)” (Jarvenpaa & Leidner 1999), play an essential role in today’s globalized economy. In increasingly project-based business settings, VGTs provide the necessary flexibility for businesses to solve complex issues and to coordinate a broad range of aspects along the value chain, from research and development over internal processes to marketing. Providing training for working in VGTs has thus become an essential part of the business communication curriculum (Crawford et al. 2019, Hazari & Thompson 2015).

Research on VGTs has emphasized the manifold challenges of working in such a setting. In addition to adapting to the affordances of the respective medium (Bjorvatn & Wald 2019), different conceptualizations of leadership or collaborative dynamics have to be resolved , and knowledge sharing and the division of tasks have to be organized (Charlier et al. 2016). Existing studies also stress the need to establish rapport and trust (Grosse 2002) and to develop a suitable team culture (Zając 2012) in the face of potential intercultural and corporate culture issues (Goettsch 2016). Although English is frequently the shared language and medium of choice in VGTs (Komori-Glatz 2018), studies also point out the need to negotiate terminology and integrate plurilingual elements to prevent or mitigate misunderstandings (Ehrenreich 2010, Vigier & Spencer-Oatey 2017).

Our panel will explore teaching approaches to integrate these challenges as part of a business communication course, improving students’ ability to collaborate in international team settings using digital channels.We invite contributions by practitioners implementing research-informed methods to train business communication students. The panel will reflect both best-practice approaches and innovative teaching methods, e.g. global classroom cooperation, peer-to-peer projects, simulations and case studies. In addition, the panel will investigate how these approaches can in turn inform and advance research in the field of VGTs.

References:

Bjorvatn, T., & Wald, A. (2019). Complexity as a Driver of Media Choice. International Journal of Business Communication. doi.org/10.1177/2329488419874367.

Charlier, S.D., Stewart, G.L., Greco, L.M., & Reeves, C.J. (2016). Emergent leadership in virtual teams. The Leadership Quarterly, 27(5), 745-764.

Crawford, I., Swartz, S., Luck, S., & Barbosa, B. (2019). Building intercultural competence through virtual team collaboration across global classrooms.

Ehrenreich, S. (2010). English as a business lingua franca in a German multinational corporation. The Journal of Business Communication (1973), 47(4), 408-431.

Goettsch, K.L. (2016). Working with Global Virtual Teams. Global Advances in Business Communication, 5(1), 3.

Grosse, C.U. (2002). Managing communication within virtual intercultural teams. Business Communication Quarterly, 65(4), 22-38.

Hazari, S., & Thompson, S. (2015). Investigating factors affecting group processes in virtual learning environments. Business and Professional Communication Quarterly, 78(1), 33-54.

Komori-Glatz, M. (2018). Conceptualising English as a business lingua franca. European Journal of International Management, 12(1-2), 46-61.

Vigier, M., & Spencer-Oatey, H. (2017). Code-switching in newly formed multinational project teams. International Journal of Cross Cultural Management, 17(1), 23-37.

Zając, J. (2012). Towards successful communication in global virtual teams. Kwartalnik Neofilologiczny, (3).