Culture Counts! “It Is Not What You Said, But How You Said It!”

Throughout this book, my standpoint, based on my research findings and other related studies, has been clear: culture does matter. Culture influences the way that people work, communicate, and collaborate across geographical distances and time. Multinational organizations, especially their GVT leaders, need to pay attention to cultural differences when building a team structure. The readiness of an organization to fully employ the GVT work structure is directly dependent on their ability to develop GVT leaders and teams that are culturally competent. What makes the GVT work structure more challenging is that team members are asked to collaborate with strangers in a virtual space, across geographical boundaries and time zones. Organizations need to nurture leaders who have the right capabilities and competencies to deal with the challenges of working in a virtual collaborative environment. GVT leaders need to develop and hone their skills in all three areas: (1) cognition, (2) emotion, and (3) behaviors-the CAB model (refer to Chapter 15 on the intercultural competence model) when they begin to work with and manage teams in the virtual workspace.