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Dealing with cross-border teamwork approach
ABSTRACT In recent years of 21st century, development of technology has extended to a process oriented, e-business world that is increasing in business-to-business, web-centric interactions Being regarded as a new approach that emerging in today’s global economics, cross-border teamwork becomes more and more popular in enhancing competitive advantages This paper examines the concepts of teamwork, cross-border teamwork and virtual teamwork It presents a framework to deal with crossborder teamwork approach and to build up an effective cross-border team INTRODUCTION It can be said that globalization has been one of the most hotly-debated topics in international economics over the past few years Unprecedented changes in communications, transportation, and computer technology have given the process new impetus and made the world more interdependent than ever Multinational corporations manufacture products in many countries and sell to consumers around the world In this global prospect, working as team is not only a trend but also meeting work requirement The term “teamwork” or “cross-border teamwork” is becoming more and more popular in every organization, enterprise and company Cross-border teamwork is particularly important in global business management Globalization creates global firms with many subsidiary that differ in culture, time zones and attitudes, communication and management styles, organizational learning and knowledge management, international negotiations, international business strategy, virtual teams, and human resource management issues In the field of human resource management, building an effective teamwork, especially an effective cross-border teamwork, will help companies to improve competitive advantages and meet requirements of globalization process People in every workplace talk about building the team, working as a team, but few understand how to create the experience of team work or how to develop an effective team To understand more about forming and developing a team as well as a cross-border team, this paper will focus on main parts as follows: Part 1: Overview of teamwork Part 2: Dealing with cross-border teamwork approach Part 3: Building an effective cross-border teamwork Overview of teamwork 1.1.Approach of teamwork Being aware of the current swift changes in the business environment, foremost on the global stage, one surely has to underline the growing importance of teams Keeping in mind this new focus in the world of business, commonly described as globalization (Foa, Roberto, 2004), individual skills or self – reliance are in many cases not sufficient to keep up with today’s demand This obviously implies the universally accepted notion that teams in general outperform individuals (See Mooney, Ann C.,2001) In line with this observation Katzenbach and Smith in their widely acknowledged publication on the advantages of teams put it bluntly as “people so committed to something larger than themselves” (Katzenbach, Jon R., Smith, Douglas K.,1993) Team is defined as a group consisting small number of people with the complementary skills who are committed to some common purpose, performance goals, and the approach for which they will hold themselves mutually accountable (Publicguideworld.com, Teamwork) When a person has all the talents and the enthusiasm in the world and yet he doesn’t have free time to work, it all turns out useless Availability of every member is very much needed to work as a team If no one’s there, who you expect to pursue the team’s goals? This work-ability is not all about free-time, however, it also entails a large amount of adaptability Every member must be able to expect different possibilities and must know how to react on them should they arise in the course of events Understanding among team members is a necessity in every team for every member to be able to work in the best of his abilities Everyone must be open to new ideas and suggestions Everyone must have the capability to understand people It is in keeping the communication lines open that the team can more efficiently achieve its goals Every team member must be able to practice respect so that he can expect to be respected in return A team could discuss things and every member could voice out his own opinion in whatever matter they are discussing without degrading his teammate or his teammate’s suggestions no matter how irrational they are It is one thing to listen and be able to humbly object and it is another thing to just avoid to listen Whenever a team is brainstorming, everyone must be able to raise his opinions without having any hard feelings 1.2.Advantages of teamwork As we mentioned above that working as team is not only a trend but also meeting work requirement in the globalization context We should also know that there are several advantages of teamwork Pooling knowledge and resources is one of teamwork benefits In a team with lots of members, members may be from different apartments of the same company, they have different expertise, in such team, members can be free to show their special knowledge, and diversity of information can be provided in the team It will save much more time to find the resources than individual work Teamwork also helps diversify skill and experiences in workplace Every member is specialized in one field A good organization is really needed in proper distribution of work The best member of any group is he who demands work based on what he can It is every group member’s responsibility to ensure that everyone has a work to and that everyone is always the best man for his job A combination of strengths -especially if the team has been chosen carefully, it can get a good range of abilities, fields of expertise and personality types, so for every situation there should be at least one person who can deal with it A range of opinions - if "two heads are better than one," six can be better still - a group meeting is often very useful for ironing out flaws in a plan, testing it out, spotting pitfalls etc “The bigger picture drives your actions; your function exists to serve the bigger picture”(Cited by Susan M Healthfield, About.com) Divided responsibility - while ultimate responsibility rests with the team leader, not much can be achieved without an effective team The team structure allows those who have strengths in a particular area to take more responsibility for that area Team spirit - a good team, well led, creates loyalty in its members Not wanting to let your teammates down can be a powerful motivating force, as can the sense of pride in being part of a successful group Building a team-oriented environment contributes to the overall success of the organization In this environment, one works with fellow members of the organization to produce these results Even though one has a specific job function and belongs to a specific department, he or she is unified with other organization members to accomplish the overall objectives It is necessary to differentiate this overall sense of teamwork from the task of developing an effective intact team that is formed to accomplish a specific goal People confuse the two team building objectives This is why so many team building seminars, meetings, retreats and activities are deemed failures by their participants Leaders failed to define the team they wanted to build Developing an overall sense of team work is different from building an effective, focused work team when considering team building Dealing with cross-border teamwork approach 2.1.Key issues for understanding cultural differences Globalization context requires multicultural knowledge to achieve business results To lead successfully across borders and cultures, it is imperative to understand differences in cultural values, and their influences on everyday business practices Key issues covered include: a deeper understanding of differences in values, behaviors and attitudes, and their practical implications for leading successfully across borders and cultures The first problem in dealing with cross-border teamwork approach is Culture It needs to have a general view of general culture, national culture and organizational culture Culture is defined as a pattern of beliefs and expectations shared by the organization members These beliefs and expectations produce norms that powerfully shape the behavior of individuals and groups in the organization (Schwartz and Davis, 1981) It can be said that culture is the concept we use to explain seemingly patterned behaviors from the perspective of a social group Culture is the complex matrix of behavior; a shared system of valued sensibilities and practices which influence individuals’ habitual ways of saying and doing things Culture is all the things taken-for-granted and presumed as a basis for communication Culture refers to the usual ways of doing and saying Culture is the common sense in situations and their affairs and activities People spend all their time learning how and why to act, learning what emotion goes with what cognitive affair, learning how to use language, how to see things, hear things, and touch things, learning things so well that they become habits of experience Every nation has its own national culture The concept of cultural nation poses one of the major problems in the humanities since there is no consensus how to define it A base line would be to say that the members of a cultural nation are aware of constituting an ethical-political body together, which is differentiated from others by the members sharing a number of defining cultural features Those features can include language, religion, tradition, or shared history All this can be taken as a sign of a historically evolved distinct culture The question whether a nation needs to have an associated territory is subject of debate (En.wikipedia.org, Nation) Each organization has its own distinctive culture, which combined from strategy, leadership, history, size and human It would be said that culture is an important factor that represents the image of one corporate, and it creates the tradition or “the way we things around here” (Deal and Kennedy, 1982) There are many researches about corporate culture including Geert Hofstede’s theory, which defines culture as the “collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from another” (Hofstede, 1991) He stated that culture does not belong to any individual, but to groups Cross-cultural communication (also frequently referred to as intercultural communication, which is also used in a different sense, though) is a field of study that looks at how people from differing cultural backgrounds communicate, in similar and different ways among themselves , and how they Endeavour to communicate across cultures (En.wikipedia.org, Cross-cultural communication) Effective teams have at least two common characteristics First character is individuals' behavioral styles and skills are complementary The second is individuals are aware of how cultural differences affect cooperation and interactions This knowledge will enable team members to work together to assimilate into new teams and quickly become effective In today's multicultural business environment, high-performing multicultural teams can out-perform homogeneous teams when their diverse skills and contributions are maximized (Hodge-ia.com, Cross-cultural business skills) Although human resources departments are becoming increasingly supportive of cross-cultural training for expatriating employees and their families, the effectiveness of this training has not kept pace with the increasing demand for practical, performance-related knowledge and skills As business becomes more competitive, expatriating employees must become competent in working and managing in the new culture We need to raise the bar; instead of generalities, cross-cultural training must be tied to improving performance and bottom-line results 2.2.Dealing with Time Zones Time difference is another problem in dealing with cross-border teamwork approach Time becomes a problem when people who are not in the same place and need some of their activities to be synchronized When working with different time zones, individuals can be a day behind of getting something done Time zones need to be kept in mind when trying to stay connected with someone from another country The time difference becomes a greater concern as the distance between the teams grows We have different time zones all over the world and it may be difficult to get everybody on the right time It may be midnight in one part of the world and it may be the rush hour in another business This is a problem because everybody needs to be on the same page and doing the same thing One may not desires to schedule one team meeting during regular business hours and the other team meeting at a.m Anytime that a communication for instance needs to be immediately connected to Asia countries from the United States, users will have a hard time to obtain communication because it will be a different time in Asia countries and people will probably be asleep and not receive the intended communication in time The time difference makes it hard on cross-border teams but is still an obstacle that can be overcome 2.3.Communication One obvious problem that can arise is communication in different language barriers People in different countries have different languages One of the main problems in dealing with cross-border teams is the difference in languages that are spoken When the team members speak different languages they have trouble in communicating Many things could go wrong if clear communication is not initiated then many problems could occur in such things such as orders, measurements, and prices The language problem can be somewhat difficult to overcome if a common language is not agreed upon The major languages used in businesses today are English, Spanish, Japanese and Chinese If a common language can be agreed upon in advance, this problem can be alleviated The language barrier is a small problem but will be overcome if management selects their cross-border team members with great care Communication is a major challenge because of different cultures among team members However, it may be not necessary for communication to be the same when we match teams in a multicultural environment Clearly transferring information among team members is main problem to deal with Because many of these members reside in different time zone areas, it is a “rule of thumb” to be precise in what each member wants to know and how well they ask a question If team members phrase their questions carefully the first time, they will get their point across successfully without having to deal with sending changes and making up for the time lost (Alexander 2000) Writing clearly and not using acronyms is another way to deal with this issue Advances in technologies have increased each person’s ability and likelihood of interacting with people of cultural backgrounds quite different from their own According to Visions Inc, “Multiculturalism is a process of change by which we learn to recognize, understand and appreciate cultural identities, as well as the similarities and differences of people from other cultural groups.” There are a few issues that can arise from workers from different cultures Maybe some workers will want to be aggressive about their work and others would not want to be like this because they not believe in being that way People from different cultures may tend to misunderstand each other’s behaviors or stereotype people from other countries and hence come to distrust one another (Dash 2001, Alexander 2000, Cascio 2000) Communications needs to be carefully managed when dealing with cross-border teams in order to work efficiently and effectively Working in a cross-cultural team can create awareness concerning the principal cultural differences that affect communication and working situations, and it can provide techniques for lessening culturally-based problems Eventually with the growing use of the Internet to conduct business to business transactions it is essential for cultures to learn to adapt and understand cultural issues 2.4.Virtual team 2.4.1 Overview As we may know that information and communication technologies are impacting today's organizations and businesses in many diverse ways The implications are perceived at the individual, organizational, and national levels The old accustomed-to boundaries of national economies and markets are giving way to globalization and newly emerging trends Due to high competition and the forces of change, the world market will sweep aside the small market players to make way for global organizations that are capable of penetrating the world markets through a massive global outreach strategy In that respect, it is necessary to invest in innovative business models such as virtual multicultural teams that are capable of handling the pressures of growing competition while capitalizing on the evolution of information and communication technology (Portal.acm.org, The role of virtual multicultural teams in corporate culture) Organizations which capable of rapidly creating virtual teams of talented people can respond quickly to changing business environments Capabilities of this type offer organizations a form of competitive advantage Virtual teams can provide an organization with a solid opportunity to compete, making it easier to adapt to different situations and reducing conflicts A virtual team is defined as a group of people who work on interdependently across space, time, cultures, and organizational boundaries on temporary, non-occurring projects with a shared purpose while using technology (Jarvenpaa, 1998; Lipnack & Stamps, 2000; Robey et al., 2000) Virtual working is based on the premise that people not necessarily need to be in the same location to get the job done It has been driven by improvements in technology such as email, mobile phone and internet which means there is less of a need to be office or desk bound A virtual team consists of a group of skilled people who work together on a project but aren’t necessarily in the same location – often they work from home - and in some instances, colleagues never actually see each other, communicating only by phone, fax and email Virtual teams can be project-based, product based, service and support teams, cross-border management teams, or instant response teams pulled together to address emergency situation They can of course also be people trying to make a living and build a business at the same time, requiring the expertise of other workers in areas that will support the company Global organizations need to operate through a very flexible structure that allows freedom and speed, and replaces the hierarchical models with structures that are flatter and adequate for stronger and more efficient communication Such a structure will allow bottom-up decision making and self-management and will capitalize on the advantages of employing multicultural teams 2.4.2 Benefits of virtual team Virtual teams have been now popular in global economics There are many benefits of virtual working or virtual teams The use of virtual teams is growing in popularity especially in work-related and educational organizations Research findings business that allows its employees to work in virtual teams more effectively 10 Working in virtual teams presents unexplored opportunities for peer interaction as teams create new knowledge to resolve their problem or project Damon (1984) asserts that the best conditions for intellectual accomplishment are environments that are motivated by discovery, the reciprocal feedback between mutually respected persons and the free exchange of ideas According to Kitchen, collaboration is a second advantage of working in virtual teams It is cited “To collaborate (co-labor) means to work together, which implies a shared goals … to create something new or different through the collaboration, as opposed to simply exchanging information or passing on instructions”(Kitchen & McDougall, 1999) Working in virtual teams also increase the work-life balance by removing fixed office hours and the need to travel work can be accomplished around the other things that life is supposed to be about People in virtual team also work smarter and more flexibly Wider groups or networks can be involved meaning a greater number of brains applied to the problem; virtual working can mean 24/7 working – not just the eight hours at the office; etc (Businesslink.gov.uk) 2.4.3 Challenges of virtual team Along with the above advantages , there exist a number of disadvantages of working in virtual teams as well We will address three those disadvantages, including: the virtual reality of the team, trust, and communication Firstly, virtual teams, are challenged because they are virtual: they exist through computer mediated communication (CMC) technology rather than face-to-face; they often times report to different supervisors (Cohen & Mankin, 1999) Lipnack & Stamps (2000) assert that “one of the reasons virtual teams fail is because they overlook the implications of the obvious differences in their working environments People not make accommodation for how different it really is when they and their colleagues no longer work face-to-face Teams fail when they not adjust to this new reality by closing the virtual gap” (pg 19) 11 The second challenge is trust in virtual teams, which is a large issue that received a lot of attention in the literature (Jarvenpaa, 1998) While the issue of trust is not insurmountable the ability to develop trust is a major factor of team success Jarvenpaa, (1998) offers that the swift trust theory suggests that virtual teams make categorical judgments of other members (whom they have never seen and had no information upon which to assume their trustworthiness) based on positive stereotypes Jarvenpaa notes several factors that may negatively influence trust in global virtual teams; time, distance, culturally diverse and globally spanning members, and the reliance on CMC technology Although, researchers who examined trust in virtual teams conclude that trust can be established, they caution that the initial impressions of trust among team members is critical making it difficult to establish trust in later stages of team development Finally, communication is also a big challenge in virtual teams The issues with communication include the lack of non-verbal cues, the inability to take advantage of incidental meetings Communication is a major challenge because of different cultures among team members According to Warkentin et al (1999) people rely on multiple modes of communication when conversing face-to-face, such as voice tone, inflection, volume, eye movement, facial expressions, hand gestures, and other body language These cues provide for a methodical conversation process They serve to facilitate turn taking, convey subtle meanings, provide feedback, and thus regulate the conversation flow CMC precludes the normal give-and-take of discussion (Warkentin et al., 1999) Additionally, virtual team members may fail in their attention to the emotional aspects of these environments, which may serve to promote an eruption of a sequence of negative comments, which may prove difficult to resolve in a virtual environment (Jarvenpaa, 1998) Understanding challenges of virtual teams will help us to be successful in building an effective cross-border team Knowing about disadvantages which are inherent in virtual teams can allow the team to become more successful and efficient, particularly by avoiding the many mistakes which lead to failure 12 Building an effective cross-border teamwork 3.1.Set up and develop a team The first step of developing a team is recruiting and selecting members, which is one main function of Human Resource Management In a virtual environment, the skills required to work differ somewhat from that of a worker in a more traditional environment The first required qualification is the proficiency with technical tools and electronic etiquette such as e-mail, collaborative software systems, internet, intranet, desktop videoconferencing systems, non-desktop video conferencing systems, and teleconferencing The applicants should be able form team relationships quickly and effectively Team relationships refer to entering new teams via introduction of self; asking questions to help the team get organized, and showing interest in others; quickly ascertaining other team members’ preferred work styles and adapting their own accordingly; being aware of one’s interpersonal style and planning experiences which lead to improvement (Human Resources and Virtual Teams, Managementhelp.org) Another qualification required is the ability to communicate in a virtual environment and across cultures This qualification is referred to the command of written communication skills for utilization via email and collaborative software systems; communicating effectively via videoconferencing for team meetings; making formal presentations through videoconferencing; managing guidelines about when to see people face-to-face, when to send them email vs voicemail messages, and when to avoid them altogether (Human Resources and Virtual Teams, Managementhelp.org) The second step in setting up and developing a cross-border team is equip team If your team members have resources and know how to get assistance when they need it, they will operate much more efficiently It is necessary to provide resources for team members to their job These resources may be training, definition of expectations, or equipment and software as necessary After that we should provide a reporting structure with a supervisor or coach responsible for each team member Create a mechanism for each person who is involved at a significant level to regularly communicate their goals and progress 13 The major criteria in developing a team is that the team must understand its mission or purpose; develop a sense of interdependence; and have accountability and rewards for team members To build an effective team, we need to identify what skills the company needs in order to achieve common goals and objectives This will help us formulate a team on the most suitable people The great advantage of virtual teams is that it is possible for us to find the right people for the job, no matter where they are (What skills you need to run a virtual team?, Businesslink.gov.uk) 3.2.Provide community In order for a cross-border team to work together seamlessly, there are two things which are critical, and this is connections as well as communications If a virtual team is unable to communicate with each other effectively, then it will be impossible for that team to succeed This is true regardless of the talent of the individual members of the group It is need for team members to clear about the priority of their tasks and communicate clearly and honestly with each other It is also necessary to establish a method for the team to give feedback and receive honest performance feedback so that conflicts can be raised and addressed to be solved Regular communications should be maintained, and when one member of the team contacts another member, they should respond with a reasonable time frame Because of living in different time zones, some members may be sleeping when others email them Anything longer than 48 hours is rarely acceptable simply because critical projects that are deadline sensitive will require rapid communications in order to be completed on time Connections are one of the most important aspects of cross-border or virtual teams The members of the team must be able to connect with each other so they can communicate Without the ability to connect, it is impossible for one to properly communicate If a group cannot communicate, then it is impossible for them to properly complete projects While there are many benefits to building a virtual team, they will only succeed if the team places an emphasis on both connections and communication The mechanisms for communication are critical to the success of the team The ability for team members to connect with each other should form an important and mandatory part of the job No virtual team can survive without communication and connections, there are no exceptions to this rule 14 3.3.Establish Trust in a virtual team Trust in virtual team is a major challenge for building an effective cross-border teamwork Effective teamwork depends on trust and its members need to trust one another In a virtual environment, trust is more ability/task based than interpersonal relationship based Level of member performance over time results in building or denial of trust Past studies of traditional teams have shown that trust evolves in three stages: Deterrence-based trust, Knowledge-based trust, and Identification-based trust (Roderick M Kramer & Tom R Tyler, 1996) Deterrence-based trust is based on consistency of behavior that people will what they are going to Team members what they say they will simply because they fear they will be punished if they not Knowledge-based trust exists as members become more and more familiar with one another, they come to know their teammates well enough to predict their behavior with confidence Identification-based trust is built on empathy and shared values; members are able to put themselves in their teammates place It was already stated that trust in virtual teams is built differently and more swiftly than in traditional teams We should be suggested the following ere additional ways to build an atmosphere of trust in a virtual team • Build the self-esteem of team members by showing respect for their opinions • Help team members focus on the problem rather than blaming each other • Serve as a role model by demonstrating constructive behavior (maintain constructive relationships, take initiative to make things better, lead by example) • Familiarize self and team with why trust is important • Take the time, up front, to allow team members to get to know each other (Take time to be a team) • If possible, meet face-to-face early in the development of teams Miscommunication and conflicting expectations often arise from the lack of face-to-face contact time among team 15 members Face-to-face meetings will allow team members to develop relationships and trust much more quickly • Help team members understand the mission of the team and allow them to voice their concerns in an open manner • Try to give each team member the opportunity to contribute • It is imperative in a virtual environment that organizations establish a clear policy regarding communications privacy and then strictly adhere to it When global business teams fail, it is often due to a lack of trust among team members As a result, executives guiding global teams must institute processes that emphasize the cultivation of trust Also high on the list of culpable factors are the hindrances to communication caused by geographical, cultural and language differences Even in the case of teams whose members speak the same language, differences in semantics, accents, tone, pitch and dialects can be impediments How to create effective teams, team work, and team building is a challenge in every organization Work environments tend to foster rugged individuals working on personal goals for personal gain To mitigate the corrosive effects of these cross-cultural impediments, executives are advised to carefully craft a cross-border team's charter, composition and process with each aspect equally emphasized Above mentioned suggestion elaborate on how these work holistically to increase the odds that cross-border teams will become high-performing sources of invaluable multinational experience leading to competitive advantage 16 CONCLUSION In the recent years, working in team has become popular in business world Along with the development of technology, a new kind of teamwork, which is cross-border teamwork, is now being regarded as a trend of global working or multicultural business With its advantages, cross-border teamwork is an effective tool in managing particularly project management However, there are also many challenges to deal with cross-border team, which members are in different countries, different culture and communication styles An important issue is very critical to organization and company is that how to build an effective team when its members work virtually In this paper, we have examines the concepts of teamwork, cross-border teamwork and virtual teamwork It presents a framework to deal with cross-border teamwork approach and to build up an effective cross-border team This research may contain some limitations due to short time for collecting data It is still hoped that this paper can brings out some benefits in approaching cross-border teamwork of any organization and company 17 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT In the recent years, working in team has become popular in business world Along with the development of technology, a new kind of teamwork, which is cross-border teamwork, is now being regarded as a trend of global working or multicultural business .17 With its advantages, cross-border teamwork is an effective tool in managing particularly project management However, there are also many challenges to deal with cross-border team, which members are in different countries, different culture and communication styles An important issue is very critical to organization and company is that how to build an effective team when its members work virtually .17 REFERENCE 19 Multiculturalism, viewed September 2009, .20 Twelve Tips for Team Building: How to Build Successful Work Teams, How to Make Teams Effective viewed September 2009, 21 18 REFERENCE Alexander, Steve 2000, Virtual Teams Going Global, InfoWorld Cascio, Wayne F 2000, Managing a virtual workplace, Academy of Management Executive Cohen, S G., & Mankin, D 1999, “ Collaboration in the Virtual Organization”, Trends in Organizational Behavior, vol 6, pp 105-120 Damon, W 1984, “Peer education: The untapped potential”, Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, vol 5, pp 331-343 Dash, Julekha 2001, Think of people when planning virtual teams, Computerworld Deal & Kennedy 1982, Corporate cultures: The rites and rituals of corporate life, Addison-Wesley Pub Co Foa, Roberto 2004, “United in a world of difference”, Financial Times, Friday October 15th 2004, London, p.11f Hofstede, G.1991, Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind, McGraw-Hill, New York Jarvenpaa, S L 1998, “Communication and Trust in Global Virtual Teams”, Journal of Computer Mediated Communication, vol 3, no Katzenbach, Jon R & Smith, Douglas K 1993, The Wisdom of Teams, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, USA Kitchen, D., & McDougall, D 1999, “Collaborative Learning on the Internet”, Journal of Educational Technology Systems, vol 27, no 3, pp 245-258 Lipnack, J., & Stamps, J 2000, Virtual Teams People Working Across Boundaries with Technology, John Wiley & Sons, New York 19 Robey, D., Koo, H M., & Powers, C 2000, “Situated learning in cross-functional virtual teams”, Technical Communication, vol 47, no 1, pp 51-66 Schwartz, H & Davis, D 1981, Matching corporate culture and strategy, MAP Concept Paper Cambridge MA See Mooney, Ann C 2001, What makes a top management group a top management team?, Castle Point, Hoboken, USA, p 3ff Warkentin, M., Sayeed, L., & Hightower, R 1999, Emerging Information Technologies Improving Decisions, Cooperation, and Infrastructure, SAGE, pp 241- 262 Internet sources Cross-cultural business skills, viewed September 2009, Human Resources and Virtual Teams, viewed 10 September 2009, Multiculturalism, viewed September 2009, Stone, A 2004, Headaches due to Wind Cold, Al Stone Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Herbal Medicines, viewed 10 September 2006, < http://beyondwellbeing.com/headaches/wind-cold.shtml > Team work and team building: how to work as a team, viewed September 2009, Team Work, viewed September 2009,< http://publicguideworld.com/Team_Work_Page1.htm> The role of virtual multicultural teams in corporate culture, viewed September 20 2009, Twelve Tips for Team Building: How to Build Successful Work Teams, How to Make Teams Effective viewed September 2009, What skills you need to run a virtual 21 team?, viewed September 2009, ... examines the concepts of teamwork, cross-border teamwork and virtual teamwork It presents a framework to deal with cross-border teamwork approach and to build up an effective cross-border team This... well as a cross-border team, this paper will focus on main parts as follows: Part 1: Overview of teamwork Part 2: Dealing with cross-border teamwork approach Part 3: Building an effective cross-border. .. with the development of technology, a new kind of teamwork, which is cross-border teamwork, is now being regarded as a trend of global working or multicultural business With its advantages, cross-border