Managing Intercultural Communication Differences in E-Collaboration

With the heightened trends of globalization and increased sophistication of computer-mediated communication (CMC) technologies, people can collaborate anywhere, at anytime, and with anyone. Thus, it can be argued that distance no longer matters. Yet at the same time, people will continue to be confronted with different cultural backgrounds that present conflicts in terms of value systems, attitudes, beliefs, and basic assumptions. In this respect culture does matter, even at a distance. As such multinational corporations (MNCs) need to ascertain the compatibility between the types of technology to be selected and used, and their employees’ cultural values when they assemble global virtual teams from all parts of the world. Global virtual teams can be defined as people who work in a geographically and organizationally dispersed locations, composed of heterogeneous team members, and they use computer-mediated communication technologies during e-collaboration (Zakaria, Amelinckx, & Wilemon, 2004). Due to the increasing use of global virtual teams as a new working structure, MNCs need to manage intercultural communication, defined as interaction between people of diverse cultural backgrounds with distinct communication patterns, preferences, and styles (Novinger, 2001; Gudykunst, 1997). Edward Hall (1976), an intercultural communication theorist, has established that different cultures communicate using different styles that impact face-to-face communication and collaboration. In addition, manifestations of culture are often shown in a person’s intercultural communicative behaviors. Several studies have established that communicative behaviors vary across and within cultures, and that these variations can be explained by Hall’s concept of cultural diversity. In his theory called high vs. low context, he explained that communicative behavior is strongly rooted in one’s cultural background. For example, in high context cultures (e.g., Malaysia, Korea, Japan, France, etc.), people put more emphasis on non-verbal cues, and in low context cultures (e.g., USA, UK, Italy, Australia, etc.), people rely more on words spoken or written. In order to avoid misunderstanding and misinterpretations, it is important to comprehend the meaning in what a person says and also how things are said—that is, the communication style one uses for generating ideas, exchanging opinions, sharing knowledge, and expressing ideas. Therefore, this article presents two key research questions: