Teaming across time zones—the new era of collaboration is on our screens

Leaders, managers, and employees’ schedules are often filled with numerous meetings. However, more and more often these meetings are with colleagues outside of our buildings and even continents!

Why is this occurring? Two big trends—internationalization and globalization and rapidly changing information technology—have fueled the shift from workplace teams to global virtual teams (GVTs).

GVTs involve three main dimensions. First, the global dimension means that work teams can include people from anywhere in the world that the organization is located. Second, the virtual component means that these teams organize their work using information and communication technologies (ICTs) like Skype, Google Hangouts, Slack, Doodle, WhatsApp, and other new apps and services evolving literally monthly. Third, the “t” stands for team which is more than 1 person working interdependently towards a shared goal on a task, series of activities, or process over time. Most organizations involve teams and nearly all of us have experienced the up and the downsides of teamwork. Adding the global and virtual elements “ups the ante” for the teaming experience.

Preparing the next generation of responsible leaders and collaborators for this new era of teaming is a must. Data from leading international think tanks and employer associations show that year after year organizations want employees who have team skills. The most recent Job Outlook 2018 Survey, sponsored by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), reported that 82.9% of employers desired evidence of a candidate’s ability to work in a team when reviewing resumes.

You might ask what is Nazareth doing to prepare student for GVTs? In the School of Business and Leadership we have joined an initiative to help prepare students to collaborate in these rapidly evolving organizational structures. Every student graduating with a B.S. in Business Administration has the chance to participate in a GVT through a global educational initiative called X-Culture.

X-Culture was founded a little under a decade ago when an international business faculty member, Dr. Vas Taras, realized that talking about GVTs wasn’t enough for students and that they needed the actual experience of GVTs. Thus, X-Culture was born and has now evolved into an international collective of educators and businesses providing a multitude of learning opportunities.

Every semester Nazareth SBL graduating seniors are placed in international virtual teams with their peers from around the globe. Our students are among the approximately 5,000 students from over 40 countries participate each semester. Teams range in size from 5-7 people per team, typically each in a different country and often time zones.  The teams are tasked with solving real-life challenged presented by small and medium sized organizations (business, non-profit, and governmental). In this semester-long assignment, students learn about other countries and cultures, online collaboration skills, teamwork, and addressing business opportunities and challenges using interdisciplinary knowledge. According to X-Culture, “[a]s of 2018, over 45,000 students have participated in X-Culture, and about 5,000 more are added every semester.”

Working on X-Culture is a tough assignment, no doubt, and there are several reasons why we have elected to include this as part of the program. As faculty the X-Culture project aligns with our core focus on providing an education that is global, ethical, entrepreneurial and experiential. First, the “G” of GVTs meets our first dimension. Next, working in GVTs brings up numerous ethical challenges and questions from team member behaviors to strategic decisions and recommendations to the organizations. Third, the project forces students to think like entrepreneurs since they are consulting to actual business founders. Additionally, students need to hustle resources to get their reports done—just like most entrepreneurs. Lastly, X-Culture offers a very realistic experience of the pros and cons of GVTs—a favorable asset in today’s marketplace.

Students have experienced a wide range of emotions during their X-Culture project. Learning to deal with the frustrations of negotiating meeting times, coordinating schedules, interpreting cross-cultural behavior, dividing labor, listening to numerous types of English, and so on pushes student to take on new leadership and team roles and hone their emotional intelligence. Students receive weekly feedback from their peers on their performance and do self-evaluations as well. These evaluations mimic the workplace practices and help prepare students for the real and virtual office.

In our short experience so far, employers have responded well to the X-Culture project. Students are able to include it on their resume and even receive a certificate of participation upon completion, as well as a detailed report on their cultural intelligence competencies based on data collected during the project. Hiring managers appreciate project based learning and have even asked students about it during interviews.

We enjoyed watching our seniors engaged this year with over 15 X-Culture Challenges from companies in India, Peru, Columbia, Italy, Ukraine, Ghana, and the US in a variety of industries from entertainment and gaming to adventure travel and organic tea. It’s clear from the last year students will gain a variety of desired skills like teaming, communicating, taking initiative, problem-solving, and adapting and most likely make some new international friends along the way.

- Jennifer S. A. Leigh, Ph.D.

Jennifer Leigh is the Kilian J. and Caroline F. Schmit Endowed Chair and professor in the School of Business and Leadership, Nazareth College. This past year she received a Best Instructor Global Educator Award from X-Culture.