A multicultural team is one composed of members who have spent their formative years in different countries and thus have learned different values, demeanors, and languages.
Published in Chapter:
Collaboration Among Multicultural Virtual Teams
Kursat Cagiltay (Middle East Technical University, Turkey), Barbara A. Bichelmeyer (Indiana University, USA), Michael A. Evans (Indiana University, USA), Trena M. Paulus (University of Tennessee, USA), and Jae Soon An (Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, South Korea)
Copyright: © 2009
|Pages: 8
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60566-198-8.ch044
Abstract
Due to the increasingly widespread use of various information and communication technologies (ICT), individuals from different countries and cultures are able to learn and work collaboratively in virtual environments (Mowshowitz, 1997). Electronic communication tools, such as chat, e-mail, and the World Wide Web, now make it possible for students and employees to communicate and problem solve with colleagues irrespective of geographical location (Scott, 2000). One of the major downsides of this form of collaboration, though, is that members of a virtual team do not have the advantage of face-to-face interaction and communication. Instead they must rely solely upon an assortment of computer-supported cooperative-learning and class-work tools and strategies—some planned, some ad hoc—to coordinate resources (Bichelmeyer, Cagiltay, Evans, Paulus, & An, 2004). Unfortunately, little research has been conducted to systematically investigate the dialectic between culture and computermediated communication (CMC). There is currently an insufficient understanding of how individual learning and work, cultural features, and CMC mutually influence one another in a purposeful, virtual setting.