Leadership in Multicultural Virtual Teams
Covid-19 brought earth-shattering effects on all aspects of our lives, in the process reshaping the way we previously interacted with each other in our social and business contexts in previously unimaginable ways.
One of the most profound impacts has been on how we understand organizations and work. New organizations have emerged and whole new work cultures emerged, leading to the emergence and rapid development of multicultural virtual organizations, which create utility and value through the collaborative efforts of diverse people from across the globe.

Image from Unsplash by Surface
How has this affected the way we understand work?
Communication technology innovations have shrunk time and space, enabling people in geographically dispersed locations to come together and combine their skills, knowledge and attributes to create value for a global market.
What does this all mean for young people in terms of positioning themselves in this new world? In her presentation at the GiLE4Youth Conference, Zara Alexa Schweimler deployed her expertise in business psychology and experience of working with multicultural virtual teams to articulate leadership requirements for young people finding themselves in multicultural virtual teams. For Zara, an investment in acquiring these leadership requirements will position young people strategically in the context of these multicultural virtual work environments.
Where do you start as a young person?
As a starting point, you will need to develop an awareness of the challenges that leaders working in multicultural virtual environments face such as language barriers, cultural differences, cultural and communication issues, geographic distances and different time zones, performance and efficiency and cohesion, relationships and trust as well as media based communication issues.
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An awareness of these challenges will develop in you the behavioural requirements and strategies to respond to these challenges. These include the need to develop awareness for language barriers and cultural differences, enquiring about team members’ needs and expectations, clarifying expectations about collaboration, establishing binding norms, ensuring compliance, adapting to individual situations, making use of “rich media” such as videoconferencing, and synchronising work schedules to suit the diversity of team members. Zara suggests you will need certain traits, attitudes and skills to manage these challenges successfully. You will need to develop sensitivity, awareness and empathy, active listening, flexibility and adaptability, to understand different leadership styles such as transactional leadership and transformational leadership in order to handle different situations, as well as to develop one’s personal initiative, improve one’s negotiation skills, and nurture the ability to encourage and motivate team members according to their individual circumstances and contexts. You will also need to be assertive in order to achieve your goals and objectives. By way of a rèsumè! In short, Zara has great empowerment advice for you as a young person as she seeks to help you understand the changing terrain of work, demonstrating how multicultural virtual work teams and work environments are becoming increasingly relevant and have also brought to the fore the kind of challenges that leaders encounter when their teams work this way. The suggested behaviours, skills, attitudes and traits that you develop as you discover how to overcome these challenges can provide the ‘icing on the cake’ for you. Paying attention to these skills will definitely position you for success in the global marketplace.
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Disclaimer:
The opinions expressed in this article/publication are those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions or views of GiLE or its members.
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