Global Virtual Teams: Investigating pre-destined advantages of Millennials in virtual teamwork situations. A research paper on the basis of a virtual team simulation at the Hochschule Furtwangen in April 2018.
- Digitalization has made business virtual. As the current workforce is slowly adapting to it, the “digital natives” come into play. We all know, that Millennials have a different approach to media and virtuality. They are practically born with it. But how would they perform if they had to use virtual media in a professional setting? Does the experience and the technology surrounded upbringing give them a clear advantage? Or will they struggle with this entirely new dimension of communication the same way older generations do? This Thesis focusses on the challenges of virtual teams, predominantly in cross cultural situations. But especially on how Millennials tackle virtual teams in a global setting, if they did not have extensive prior preparation. The first part tries to identify the theoretical background of this paper – the classical challenges of cross-cultural communication in virtual teams but also the willingness of Millennials to use digital work tools for their future. The main segment then introduces data and observations collected on the GVT project - a pilot project from the Hochschule Furtwangen University, where students from Spain, Finland and Germany took part in a simulation of virtual teamwork. In groups, these students had to develop a project about Erasmus at their university – but purely virtual to experience physical borders in teams. A pre-survey and a post survey have been carried out on this group to analyze and investigate how perception and reality differ. Furthermore, the participants left testemonials and many virtual meetings were monitored. This Thesis will conclude with chapter 3 to show if Millennials have a valid advantage in working with virtual teams. It will also show the necessity to train young people and change our education to a more digital approach, as business will inevitably become increasingly virtual.
Author: | Armando Bleher |
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URN: | https://urn:nbn:de:bsz:fn1-opus4-46617 |
Advisor: | Nikola Hale |
Document Type: | Bachelor Thesis |
Language: | English |
Year of Completion: | 2018 |
Granting Institution: | Hochschule Furtwangen |
Date of final exam: | 2018/08/28 |
Release Date: | 2018/11/29 |
Tag: | Cross-cultural communication; Virtual teams; Virtuality |
Page Number: | 100 |
Degree Program: | IBW - Internationale Betriebswirtschaft |
Functional area: | Human Resource Management |
Open-Access-Status: | Closed Access |
Licence (German): | Urheberrechtlich geschützt |