Lesson 2: Team Processes

Culture Practices

Cultural practices take many forms on a GV team. However each has the potential to disrupt the flow of the GV team's work. If one culture has a holiday within the project time line, how will this holiday affect team interactions?

For example, if Chinese New Year's falls within the project deadline it may be a one-day, two-day, or longer break from work. Due to religious practices some students may not respond to e-mails or have meetings on Sundays or other religious weekdays.

It is important to know of these constraints on when and how a GV team may interact with one another. Conventional methods of interaction based on specific knowledge of a country and its culture are not readily transferred from one culture to another. For example, one culture may be very bound to beginning and ending meetings on time as scheduled, while other cultures view start and finish times for meetings as guidelines and not set times. Knowing each culture's view of works and schedules affects how the team will meet. On GV teams this scheduling becomes even more complex with the addition of adjustments do time zones. Such knowledge prepares teams for the complexities that occur in GV teams.