Problems of Johnson

Johnson is facing several issues while leading a virtual team of different cultural background. All the problems arise due to the launch of new product within a time of six weeks that is too short to manage. The usual time taken for the new product is three month that has created a problem for Johnson to assist the virtual team. Due to the involvement of diversified members, culture diversity is one of the major issues for Johnson. All the members use different communication skills styles that have created the problem. Members from different cultural background are having different perception about the task. In this way, making agrees upon one situation becomes difficult for the leader. Some of the embers prefer doing telecommunication while some prefers communication in oral or written form.

When team operates in different location, every member has different time as per his or her location. Due to this, Johnson was not able to communicate effectively on time. Due to the urgent launch of product, it is required by Johnson to communicate on continuation basis. Therefore, Johnson was not able to effectively guiding its members due to these communication barriers. In addition to this, there were various conflicts existing among the three members of the team. The conflict was due to the mission of the members. These three members were not agreeing from the actual mission (Jang, 2017). Everyone was having different perspective regarding the mission statement in the group. Besides this, the decision-making of the team members was quite slow that might delay the making of new product in given time. Besides this, there is no adequate and proper structure for promoting teamwork and unity in the virtual team. All these problems were arisen due to no meeting of these members before.

Solutions for the product launch

Despite of the various problems, Johnson has to take some short-term measures for launching the product in six weeks. He must take the sensitive leadership approach to handle the members of different cultural background. It is rightly stated that when the problems are large, divide it in small slots so that it can be solved easily. The same approach can be taken by Johnson to solve the various problems that it is facing in leading virtual team. Training is also one such effective method for assisting the team members. Due to non-availability of team members at one place, it is not possible to take the face-to-face training session. Through the help of video conferring, it can assist the members regarding the problems that exist in the group (Lisak & Erez, 2015). It can start a session for these members. In this session, all the members will interact with each other so that some collaborative approach can be developed. Besides this, there must be some sort of communication channel in which members can continuously interact with each other. For this, an official page for communication can prove to be effective in order to remove the hindrances that are coming on the way. It can also prescribe the described time limit for the completion of the task.

While communicating with the team members on video conferencing, team leader should ask the members to provide their solution for the problems that they are facing. After analysing all the solution, it can assist the member by giving them proper guideline (Dunn, Grannan, Raisinghani & Stalling, 2015). It can also see some forms of motivation such as timely feedback incentive in order to fasten the decision-making process. The leader should also start a “performance assessment tool” within the application used by them. In this way, effective response and level of responsibility for each member will be hunted. Motivation proves to be a key for boosting the morale of team members (Carter et al, 2015). It is generally seen as a tool of increasing the productivity and quality work on the part of members.

Selection of effective team

The solutions that are discussed above can help to overcome the drawbacks that are coming on the way while new product launch. Multicultural teams provide various advantages if working effectively while communicating with each other in a better way. The most important for any effective leader is the best selection at the time of introduction. System should be place in order to encourage the members for [providing feedback (Ford, Piccolo & Ford, 2017). Team leader is also expected to consult not only externally but also internally. It is one the best way to compose a best leadership styles, approaches of work as well as effective communication mode. By doing this, team leader will be able to choose the members with blending skills as well as culture that is based on the task.

During the development stage also, leaders must require to explain the values and missions from starting. This will help the members to know the clear expectations from them. After the starting of the mission into action, there are chances of conflict among the multicultural team. Therefore, conflict resolution mechanism must establish while formulating the team. This will assist in solving the future conflicts in an effective way. Lastly, the teams must have proper structures for development and team building so that members interested to work in a team of diverse culture and background.

Conclusion

From the above discussion, it can be concluded that while incorporating virtual team, there are various problems come on the way. Johnson in the given case study was facing various issues. The major problem was due to the launch of new product within six weeks that was too short time limit given for the new product launch. Synergy was lacking among the team members due to breakdown in their effective communication. Some members of the team preferred oral communication while some preferred written or telephonic communication. Besides this, lack of synergy among the team members were leading to slower decision-making. Different locations of team members were also one of the causes of slower decision-making.

Johnson can solve all these problems by responding appropriately. The major factor for problems was fewer time limits for new product launch. Therefore, it must divide the solution in short time limit so that targets can be achieved. As a leader, it is the responsibility of same to assist its team members for responding quickly. Meeting or session on videoconferencing is the best way to remove the conflicts among team members. In addition, it can also select a best communication channel for continues conversation. It will lead to faster decision-making. The selection of effective and talented members is also necessary for better output with more positive outcomes.

References

1. Carter, D. R., Seely, P. W., Dagosta, J., DeChurch, L. A., & Zaccaro, S. J. (2015). Leadership for global virtual teams: Facilitating teamwork processes. In Leading global teams (pp. 225-252). Springer, New York, NY.
2. Dunn, S., Grannan, C., Raisinghani, M., & Stalling, H. (2015). CommunicationBusiness Strategiesfor Successful Virtual Teams. In System Sciences (HICSS), 2015 48th Hawaii International Conference on (pp. 364-373). IEEE.
3. Ford, R. C., Piccolo, R. F., & Ford, L. R. (2017). Strategies for building effective virtual teams: Trust is key. Business Horizons, 60(1), 25-34.
4. Jang, S. (2017). Cultural brokerage and creative performance in multicultural teams. Organization Science, 28(6), 993-1009.
5. Lisak, A., & Erez, M. (2015). Leadership emergence in multicultural teams: The power of global characteristics. Journal of World Business, 50(1), 3-14.