SCENARIO:
Your U.S. headquartered firm wants to explore the feasibility of
expanding internationally by first partnering with a firm in Greece for
some of its products and services. Preliminary discussions at the senior
levels of both firms have been positive, suggesting the potential for a
strong and mutually beneficial relationship. For your firm, expected
benefits include not only improved capacity and increased efficiency but
also an expansion of the company’s talent pool and added knowledge
about operating in southern Europe. There is a specific interest in
learning what is needed to build and support highperforming teams
that are multicultural, multifunctional, geographically dispersed, and that
must rely on technology for communication and decision making.
You have been given a short amount of time to conduct the necessary
research and to brief the executive team on the issues you anticipate the
virtual team will confront and the resources needed for success.
Specifically, your boss has shared that one of his biggest concerns is
with key national cultural differences that may impact the team’s
ability to work effectively with counterparts in Greece. Your boss has
also shared with you that the firm’s leaders want to use your experience
as a way to improve both the cultural intelligence and teaming
competency of its workforce. Your company is not only new to working
internationally but is also new to using such complex virtual teams.
Your boss knows you are pursuing an MBA so expects you will be adept
at finding useful and reliable information but one source he has heard
about and recommends is the Hofstede Center (see https://geert
hofstede.com/greece.html for comparison of Greece to the US), which
profiles the research of one of the leading experts on country cultural
differences and their implications for businesses.
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NOTE:
You should assume individuals on this global team will have the
necessary jobrelated skills for success and that all employees have a
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command of the English language. In other words, don’t focus on
language training. The focus here is on working with individuals from a
different culture virtually as a team.
Assume members from the two locations will NOT be able to get
together physically. The emphasis is on working virtually.
Question #1 is asking you to identify any other assumptions that your
team has agreed to when framing what you would do with the project
(i.e., providing the context). Some teams find it helpful to create a
hypothetical organization. They name the organization, briefly provide
the company’s mission, specify what they do (service provided, product
manufactured or sold, etc.), identify how big they are (number of
employees, number of sites, etc.), and provide some basic parameters for
this project (e.g., supported by leadership, have sufficient or limited
budget, etc.). This is all up to your team if you’d like to do that. There is
no minimum or maximum number of assumptions you should add. This
is just your chance to frame or identify the scope of your project, since
you can’t address everything.
Question #6 asks you to identify about what else the team should be
thinking about, what else they (you) would want to know prior to taking
on this work assignment.
PROJECT QUESTIONS:
What assumptions (other than those listed below in NOTE) has the
team agreed upon to help frame and appropriately limit this
project?
What challenges and opportunities should this virtual team that is
multicultural, multinational, multifunctional, timezone challenged,
geographically dispersed, and comprised of members from two
companies expect and why?
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What knowledge, traits, behaviors, and attitudes should the leader
and members of this type of team have and why? (Note: The
knowledge referred to here is for working in this type of virtual
team, not job specific/content knowledge.)
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What readings and training would you recommend to help ensure
this team’s success (provide rationale)?
