Multicultural virtual team members' perceptions of management's efforts in addressing cultural and geographic distance affecting team collaboration

The purpose of this study was to investigate, analyze, and determine how geographically and culturally distanced virtual team members perceive and adapt to management's efforts in addressing geographic and cultural distance's influence on team collaboration. Although current literature outline organizational leadership best practices in managing multicultural and geographically distanced virtual teams, less is known about how virtual team members perceive and adapt to management's efforts to address geographic and cultural distance. An open-ended interview guide was presented to 16 participants, and Seidman's (2006) 3-step thematic analysis process was used to derive meaning from participant's narratives. The data revealed four key thematic categories. These include (a) challenges in working within the virtual work environment and teams, (b) management strategies to address geographic distance and cultural differences, (c) organizational strategies to address cultural diversity, and (d) management strategies in ensuring effective virtual team collaboration. Based on the results, the study was able to illustrate how individual contributors' process, assimilate, and ultimately shape their reality as a reaction to managerial efforts to address geographical and cultural distance. The study's findings may be significant because, with a greater understanding of how virtual team members interpret management's efforts to address multicultural and geographic distance, organizational leaders may be better informed when aligning IT solutions and ITM strategies that can more efficiently support the needs and actions of its multicultural and geographically distanced workforce.