Expanding on the brief mention of the use of SWOT analysis in my earlier strategic planning post, following is a more comprehensive description of SWOT analysis, why you would use the technique, how you would use it and where in the strategy development sequence. What is a SWOT analysis So,... read more →
Aug
25
Aug
22
Every organisation, whether for profit or not for profit, large or small needs a strategic plan, yet many either don't believe they need one, have one that has not been touched for far too long or have one, maybe even a great one, but it is kept locked away, only... read more →
Aug
20
Communication styles, by which I mean the individual's preferred or default manner of communicating, can have a great influence on their ability to be effective in communicating in virtual team environments. There are many different sources of information on communication styles and, among them, a reasonably confusing assortment of terms... read more →
Aug
18
One of the first things to consider when setting up a new project in the modern working environment is how the team will be structured. Historically, it was simply a case of assembling the project team in one location and getting on with the work, but with the evolution of virtual... read more →
Aug
14
One of the most demanding and complex tasks in a large virtual teams project is that of interface management. This work is typically undertaken by someone with a title such as 'interface manager' or 'coordination manager', and is the person, or group of people, with responsibility for ensuring each location is aware of... read more →
Aug
12
Turnover of personnel in an organisation is always a problem, personnel join, learn the ways the company does its business, meet and work with their colleagues in the organisation and from time to time, decide to move on. Understanding the impact of personnel turnover in a co-located team is relatively... read more →
Aug
08
Ambiguity is a curse in almost any business environment. Dealing with uncertainty in most endeavours can be frustrating for all concerned, but managing ambiguity in virtual teams is one of the most challenging tasks facing any team. As discussed in an earlier post, many cultures deal with uncertainty differently, but the cultural... read more →
Aug
06
Continuing the discussions of cultural diversity in virtual teams, the cultural concept of uncertainty avoidance is that each regional or national group has a level of uncertainty they expect in general life and consequently communications. Similar to power distance, individuality, cultural masculinity and long term orientation they are largely ingrained into the fabric of the society... read more →
Aug
04
Continuing the series of posts on cultural diversity in virtual teams, I will next discuss the concept of individuality. The impact of individuality in a cultural sense can be important to the efficient functioning of a virtual team. The concept of individuality and its opposite pole of collectivism was explored... read more →
Aug
01
Continuing the series of posts that began with a brief overview of cultural diversity in virtual teams , Long Term Orientation sits along with Power Distance, Individuality, Cultural Masculinity and Uncertainly Avoidance as one of the measured cultural differences from Hofstede's research. As the name of this characteristic suggests, long term orientation is a measure of a culture's... read more →