Cross-Cultural Management of Virtual Team Collaboration: Cultural Dimensions and Intercultural Competencies for Culturally Diverse Settings

This chapter introduces the cross-cultural management perspective on virtual collaboration, based on the insight that cultural diversity is a characteristic of many teams today. Cultural diversity can become a team asset because it might increase creativity and innovativeness—but only if cultural differences do not trigger misalignment and mistrust. This chapter enables you to assess and, consequently, overcome and integrate differences in cultural orientations, behavioural styles, expectations and perceptions, as relevant in global, cross-functional or interdisciplinary virtual collaboration. The focus lies on cultural dimensions which are the starting point—but not the end goal—of understanding and integrating cultural diversity.