How Culture and Motivation Interact in an International Virtual Project Team

What is it about?

Globalization had a significant impact on project management, especially on its structure and the working environment of project teams, because of the increased connectivity due to technology innovations, offering the international project managers the possibility to access high quality human resources across country frontiers, at reduced prices. Internet communication transformed traditional teams in virtual teams, which activity is based on the electronic collaboration tools. The high diversity degree characteristic to virtual teams, from culture to technical tools, can be overwhelming for the international project manager which has to lead its virtual team to success. One of the key processes which lead to a high effective team is the team building process, based on motivation and trust. Even if this seems similar to traditional teams, the path of achieving them is very different and it involves more variables and one of them is the national culture, which we consider one of the most important. This article aims to highlight the importance of understanding each dimension of the national culture so that international managers choose to establish the motivational practices and tools accordingly. We also proposed the profile of the national culture most suitable to work in a virtual environment.

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