Helene Tenzer and Markus Pudelko suggest ways to improve multinational team communicatio

Pudelko, Markus

Tenzer, Helene

LSE Research Online

6/3/2016New technology will make it easier to work in multilingualteamsblogs.lse.ac.uk /businessreview/2016/06/03/new-technology-will-make-it-easier-to-work-in-multilingual-teams/When speaking on the phone, non-native speakers of a virtual team’s working language need to process a foreignlanguage, understand different accents and immediately respond to their conversation partner. If theircommunication is dealing with highly complex topics, the need to master linguistic challenges while simultaneouslythinking and deciding about the task can easily create cognitive overload. To avoid these stressful situations, manymembers of multilingual teams prefer to communicate through email. Asynchronous and written exchanges allowthem to compose messages in the foreign language at their own pace, to look up words in online dictionaries and tothink about the responses they receive at rest. This strategy certainly relieves team members’ brains for themoment, but it creates a daily flood of emails, which many find difficult to cope with.Based on 54 interviews with the leaders and members of 13 global virtual teams in three automotive and three ITmultinationals, we found that new communication technologies could resolve this dilemma. Periodical interviewsover the past five years demonstrated that many companies have recently implemented corporation-wide chatsystems, which allow employees to communicate in a written, but timely form. Many virtual team members use thismedium during their entire working day, but find it particularly useful to sort out language-based misunderstandingsduring large teleconferences. Integrated web-based communication systems also enable video conferences, voice-over-IP telephony, screen- and file-sharing across multiple locations. Teammates frequently use these features torepeat the same message through different communication channels. Whereas this practice may at first glanceappear inefficient, it fosters mutual understanding in virtual communication across language barriers.Practical recommendationsTolerate the media choices of team members who struggle with the working language. Many team leaders andmembers with high proficiency in the official working language become impatient if their less fluent colleagues relytoo much on written communication. These employees should understand the cognitive challenges of processing aforeign language and tolerate their teammates’ preference for writing emails, as these “unhurried” media can assistmutual understanding.1/3Say the same thing twice through several media. Many managers feel overwhelmed by the amount of informationthey receive, so repeating messages through different media is often considered inefficient. However, this practicecan help to bridge language barriers. Repeating messages through several communication channels prevents costlymisunderstandings and improves knowledge sharing in multilingual virtual teams. This additional “safety net” alsoreduces language-based anxiety among team members and fosters trust between colleagues. Therefore, not onlythe less proficient team members, but also fluent and native speaking colleagues should repeat messages to ensureunderstanding.Invest in the corporate media infrastructure. Multinational corporations should invest in integrated web-basedcommunication systems such as Microsoft Lync, IBM Verse or HP Virtual Rooms, as these technologies mitigate theomnipresent language barriers in cross-border communication by providing multiple communication channels. ITcorporations are already on the cutting edge in this respect, but many automakers are introducing thesetechnologies only now. Further investments in the communication infrastructure could help to leverage the largeperformance potential of multilingual virtual teams.Motivate and enable employees to adopt new media.  Whereas the younger generation of “digital natives” is usuallyhighly skilled in the use of new media, some older employees are unwilling or unable to use innovativecommunication systems to their full advantage. To facilitate their participation in virtual communication, team leadersneed to champion the use of integrated communication systems as tools to overcome language barriers and explainthe benefits of communicating through several different channels. Multinational companies should also providetraining and computer support while ensuring that newly introduced communication systems are compatible with theexisting IT infrastructure, with work tasks and the corporate communication culture.♣♣♣Notes:This article is based on the authors’ paper Media choice in multilingual virtual teams, Journal of InternationalBusiness Studies, Vol. 47, Issue 4, 427-452. DOI: 10.1057/jibs.2016.13The post gives the views of its authors, not the position of LSE Business Review or the London School ofEconomics.Featured image credit: Wikimedia CommonsBefore commenting, please read our Comment PolicyHelene Tenzer is Assistant Professor of International Business at the University of Tübingen,Germany. She has earned a Master degree in International Cultural and Business Studies and aPhD at the University of Passau. Her current research focuses on language in internationalbusiness, multinational teams, leadership in multinational enterprises, organizational behavior andthe management of foreign subsidiaries. Markus Pudelko is Professor of International Business at the University of Tübingen, Germany.He has earned Master degrees in Business Studies (University of Cologne), Economics (SorbonneUniversity), International Management (Community of European Management Schools) and a PhD(University of Cologne). His current research is on multinational teams, the impact of language oninternational business, headquarters–subsidiary relationships and Japanese human resourcemanagement.Copyright © 2015 London School of Economics2/33/3

New technology will make it easier to work in multilingual teams

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