Challenges of managing communication within virtual...

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/1352-7592.htm The challenges of managing cross-cultural virtual project teams Margaret Oertig and Thomas Buergi Managing crosscultural virtual project teams 23 University of Applied Sciences, Basel, Switzerland Abstract Purpose – This paper seeks to present the challenges reported by project leaders of cross-cultural geographically distributed, or virtual project teams operating within the matrix organisation of ABC, a multinational company based in Switzerland. Design/methodology/approach – The research is qualitative and exploratory, taking the form of inductive thematic analysis. Findings – The key themes reported to be†¦show more content†¦Many of the project team representatives also lead a sub-team in their own ï ¬ eld or function, and these sub-teams also work virtually. Study aims and methodology The study had two aims. The ï ¬ rst was to discover what project leaders perceived as the main challenges arising from managing international teams working in geographically distributed locations, and second, how they managed these challenges. This paper outlines the main themes which emerged from a thematic analysis of interview data, summarising areas of difï ¬ culty and how the project leadership deal with these. The research is qualitative and exploratory, taking the form of inductive thematic analysis. The themes emerged from the qualitative data collected. Interviews were conducted at two sites, in Switzerland and the USA, with six project leaders, six project managers and two ex-project leaders, who are now product area heads. Background interviews were also conducted with three members of senior management responsible for strategic planning, innovation management and executive information systems. Ten interviewees were based in Switzerland and seven in the USA. The nationalities of the interviewees were as follows: three Americans, four British, four Swiss, three German, one French, one French- Canadian and one Japanese. Nine interviewees were male and eight were female. Interpretation of results Interviews were coded for key themes and three major themes emerged asShow MoreRelatedKey Challenges in Cross Cultural Management1071 Words   |  5 Pagesculturally sensitive. Although it appears that managing virtual teams is more complex than managing traditionally aligned teams, success of virtual teams in software fields would suggest otherwise. This paper focuses on the interactions of people in virtual teams trying to understand its challenges as well as its advantages. It also highlights the importance of managing virtual teams in view of its advantages. Whereas it appears that cross cultural issues in teams arise primarily due to miscommunicationRead MoreCommunication Is Defined As â€Å"A Process Of Circular Interaction1190 Words   |  5 PagesCommunication is defined as â€Å"a process of circular interaction involving a sender, receiver, and message† (Moran; p. 80). Effective workplace communication can be difficult when interacting with employees from different cultures and areas of the world. Familiar social and communicative norms may be interpreted as offensive to employees who are not accustomed to the culture in the country of operation. Managers incur the sole responsibility of building and employing best approaches for employeesRead MoreCross Cultural Relationships1105 Words   |  5 Pagesneed t o develop intercultural competences that can help them be more aware of their own culturally-based perceptions, norms, and patterns of thinking, and consequently adapt their behaviors according to specific cultural contexts. 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Virtual teaming has a number of potential benefits; not only in terms of human resources flexibility but it can also reduce the operating costs of one organisation. On the other hand, the challenges of such environmentRead MoreManaging Virtual Teams15162 Words   |  61 Pages(2005) 69 – 95 www.socscinet.com/bam/humres Managing virtual teams: A review of current empirical research Guido Hertela,T, Susanne Geisterb, Udo Konradtb a Department of Psychology, Work, Industrial Organizational Psychology, University of Wuerzburg, Roentgenring 10, 97 070 Wuerzburg, Germany b University of Kiel, Germany Abstract This review summarizes empirical research on the management of virtual teams, i.e., distributed work teams whose members predominantly communicate and

Themes in Frankenstein Free Essays

Shelley uses multiple narrators, nested and frame narratives and an epistolary style to tell the story of Frankenstein. Comment on the effect of these and why she may have done this. Mary Shelly’s novel â€Å"Frankenstein† was written in 1818. We will write a custom essay sample on Themes in Frankenstein or any similar topic only for you Order Now The author uses different types of techniques to create a variety of different narrators and points of views by using a form of epistolary. Frame narration is also another great part of the novel that supports the complexity of layers in the book. These help present the suspicion element, characters point of view, the similarity between the main characters, and allow the reader to develop a personal opinion without the author resorting to the device of an omniscient narrator. The book starts with the letters from Robert Walton describing his voyage to the North Pole and his sighting of an ill man, who Walton later nurses back to health â€Å"A man in wretched condition† pg.11. After a recovery, the stranger, Victor Frankenstein, tells him the story of his life. The letters set up the novel and create suspicion due to the reader not knowing what the significance of these letters is. However, Walton is the first of the characters that tells his story, which gives the reader an advantage to conclude for himself about his opinion towards the different characters. This device, frame narrative, establishes a complex layer of stories, hence, the reader listens to Victors story, so does Walton, and Walton’s sister to him. Throughout the story, Victor occasionally interrupts and addresses Walton directly, or when Walton signs the letters he is sending off to his sister. These are the first encounters with the different language devices that Mary Shelly uses to create more depth in addition to a different structure to other books. Moreover, the reader is compelled to give more attention to the book, in order to understand the plot, and have an own opinion about the different situations in the book. Furthermore, the letters also display the similarity between Walton and Victor, since they both seek to discover and complete objectives for the world. For example Walton describes how it will benefit the entire human race â€Å"Inestimable benefit on all mankind to the last generation† (pg.16 Walton) and Victor states that it will reveal the greatest power in the world â€Å"pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation† (pg.49 Victor). The ambition to figure out the answer drives them both to their death and that of other innocent lives, demonstrating how the pursuit to solve such mysteries, with desire and determination, can result differently than one’s expectations. On the other hand the letters also surface the resemblance between other characters. Walton and the creation, Frankenstein, both present their loneliness and their wish to find a friend to share their stories. The isolation and loneliness in the novel is one of the most significant themes, which are presented throughout the form of epistolary. In the opening of the letters Walton expresses his lonesomeness â€Å"I shall commit my thoughts to paper, it is true; but that is a poor medium for the communication of feeling. I desire the company of a man who could sympathize with me, whose eyes would reply to mine. You may deem me romantic, my dear sister, but I bitterly feel the want of a friend† (Shelley 10). This is one of the first encounters with the theme, but later on this suffering repeats itself with the creation, Frankenstein, ‘When I looked around I saw and heard of none like me. Was I, the, a monster, a blot upon the earth from which all men fled and whom all men disowned?'† Chap. 13 pg. 105 The most appropriate reason why Mary Shelly would come to such a structure, would be to show the similarity between a normal human and a creature, also known as a monster, and matching hopes of not resulting abandoned. Mary Shelly questions here if humans and monster share a similarity, and if the humans can also posses these qualities of monsters. This insight to the emotions and perspectives of the characters, establishes an insight for the reader to their feelings and deeper thoughts, as well as a bond between the reader and character. Mary shelly motivates the reader to develop a personal opinion about these characters and the entire story and to judge whether or no the creature is a monster or simply misunderstood. Frankenstein has a very creative structure that helps create a meaningful effect on the reader, and compelling story. This form of frame narration, multiple different perspectives, provides us with the opportunity to develop our own opinion towards the characters and their actions. Not only opinions  are formed, but we also come to realize that creatures and humans, in this novel, share certain similarities. These can be interpreted that us humans have traits, similar to monsters, or the other way around. Overall, the novel has effects that cannot be established if the form of epistolary would have not been applied. This shows the complexity of layers in this novel and how the variety stimulates the story and provokes the reader. How to cite Themes in Frankenstein, Papers

Shame Essay Example For Students

Shame Essay Shame Criticism of ShameShame, published in 1983, a year before his most famous work The Satanic Verses, presents a fabulistic account in a country that disturbingly represents Pakistan. Critically, Shame is compared to Midnights Children because the of its resemblances in themes and style. The idea for Shame, reported interviewer Ronal Hayman in Books and Bookmen, grew out of Rushdies interest in the Pakistani concept of sharam, a word that denotes a hybrid of embarrassment, discomfiture, decency, modesty, and a sense of having an ordained place in the world. Reaction to Shame was mostly positive; many applauded the style of Rushdies work and the themes it presented . Many critics appreciated the subject matter and presentation of Rushdies work. Cathleen Medwick in Vogue stated, His new novel. . . reveals the writer in sure control of his extravagant, mischievous, graceful, polemical imagination. (414, Editor) Magic realism, a technique often employed by Rushdie is essential to the structure of how the story of the book is conveyed. Michael Gorras characterization of Rushdies style stated, His prose prances, a declaration of freedom, an assertion that Shame can be whatever he wants it to be coy and teasing an ironic and brutal all at once. . .Rushdies work is responsive to the world rather than removed from it, and it is because of this responsiveness that the mode in which he work represents the continued life of the novel. . . and one wants something better to describe it that the term magical realism is an assertion of individual freedom in a world where freedom is strangle. . . (360, Editor) Christopher Lehmann-Haupt boldly asserts, If Mr. Rus hdie had followed the logic of realistic psychology in Shame, he would have robbed his novel of its spectral magic, its breakdown of narrative logic that allows time to rush suddenly forward and reveal the end of things, or permits characters to be reincarnated in each other. He would have robbed his novel of the truthnot precisely the truth of the parable or allegory or myth, but the truth of a narrative that describes a world apart and is a system accurate and logical only unto itself(356, Editor) Lehmann-Haupt then goes on to compare Shame to Midnights Children: . . .this doesnt begin to account for the extravagantly tragicomic nightmare evoked by Shame, which does for Pakistan what Mr. Rushdies equally remarkable first novel, Midnights Children did for Inida.(356, Editor) Una Chaudhuri review of Shame digressed from Haupts review in that it compares Shame and Midnights Children differently. She declares, Shame has a vast and exotic a cast of characters as Midnights Children, and it is as rich in incident, yet it is a wholly different sort of book. History here is a collective fantasy clinging to the dusty deserts and dilapidated cities of reality, not-emanating from the wild imagination of a single, terribly self-conscious narrator. The laughter it provokes is consequently edged with familiar pain and the marvels it contains are never free of palpable horror.(357, Editor) When compared to The Satanic verses, the books length is miniscule. Chaudhuri applauded this by saying that Shame is profoundly disturbing book. Courageously, Rushdie has resisted the temptation to write another exuberant epic. Instead, he has created a concentrated and dark masterpiece, an answer to those who may claim that certain evils of modern history are beyond either representation or translation.(357, editor) Patrick Parrinder agrees with Chaudhuri by admitting, Shame, his most tightly-controlled and perhaps his best novel to date. . . It is as if the Decameron or Arabian Nights h ad been yoked with the Sub-Continental equivalent Animal Farm.In another criticism for the same book he comments, his own profuse and multiply-branching fictions do not give the impression that anything has been prevented from being told (219, Editor). .u49cbbc85c05c771d64700c07ec6553e8 , .u49cbbc85c05c771d64700c07ec6553e8 .postImageUrl , .u49cbbc85c05c771d64700c07ec6553e8 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u49cbbc85c05c771d64700c07ec6553e8 , .u49cbbc85c05c771d64700c07ec6553e8:hover , .u49cbbc85c05c771d64700c07ec6553e8:visited , .u49cbbc85c05c771d64700c07ec6553e8:active { border:0!important; } .u49cbbc85c05c771d64700c07ec6553e8 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u49cbbc85c05c771d64700c07ec6553e8 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u49cbbc85c05c771d64700c07ec6553e8:active , .u49cbbc85c05c771d64700c07ec6553e8:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u49cbbc85c05c771d64700c07ec6553e8 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u49cbbc85c05c771d64700c07ec6553e8 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u49cbbc85c05c771d64700c07ec6553e8 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u49cbbc85c05c771d64700c07ec6553e8 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u49cbbc85c05c771d64700c07ec6553e8:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u49cbbc85c05c771d64700c07ec6553e8 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u49cbbc85c05c771d64700c07ec6553e8 .u49cbbc85c05c771d64700c07ec6553e8-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u49cbbc85c05c771d64700c07ec6553e8:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: The Effects of Clumbus Arrival in the Americas EssayLike Midnights Children, Shame has affirmed Rushdies eminence as a gifted writer. Perhaps, Christopher Lehmann-Haupt had praised Rushdie among his peers most appropriately with his statement, . . . Milan Kundera, Franz Kafka, Nikolai Erdmann and George Buchner. Here and there in the text, one cant help thinking of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. These are extraordinary writers with whom to be associated, but its company that Salman Rushdie deserves. Indeed, with the melange of political narrative and cultural contemplation found in Shame, it is undoubtedly one of Rushdies best works yet.