Question: How to nurture team trusts and develop effective collaboration in multi-cultural online learning communities?
Introduction
Nowadays, our online learning communities are increasingly diverse and multi-cultural. Students all around the world can attend the same online courses and form different learning communities. Team members interact with each other by sharing knowledge and obtaining feedback, connecting solely via technology. They not only have to complete their individual assignments, but most of the time, have to finish a group project in collaboration. This research paper explores cultural differences in the globalized online learning communities and gives solutions for developing team trust and effective collaboration. It introduces two of Hofstede’s five dimensions (revering hierarchy, and individualism versus collectivism), showing how people from different cultures think about their relationships with superiors and teammates. Also, this paper describes two of Hall’s five dimensions (time, and friendship), which talks about people’s different opinions on friendship and different habits of time management. Furthermore, it explains the inefficiency in communication caused by language barriers and temporal distance among community members. Lastly, developing cultural awareness, embracing different opinions and habits, as well as conducting frequent interactions through video-conferencing are the three essential solutions for nurturing team trust, developing effective collaboration within global online learning communities.
Brief review of literature
This research paper is written according to four literature which introduces Hofstede’s dimensions of national culture, Hall’s dimensions of national culture, different cultural learning styles, and barriers in global software development. Charle’s article is about Hofstede and Hall’s dimensions. It mostly describes that Hofstede used data collected between 1967 and 1978, conducting over 100,000 surveys from IBM personnel in 40 countries to conclude the five dimensions. Judith work also talked about their dimensions, with further explanation of synchronous and asynchronous groupware in distributed team. Adeoye’s literature explains different learning styles of Nigerian university students according to their cultural backgrounds. Lastly, John’s work about global software development explains the barriers and solutions to collaboration, which are geographic, temporal, cultural, and linguistic distance.
The articles can help me find a solution for my research goal, which is figuring out ways to overcome cultural differences and build team trust within globally distributed learning communities. Charle and Judith’s work can provide enough information for me related to Hall and Hofstede’s five dimensions, helping me conclude the importance of cultural awareness in team trust. John’s work specifically describes various barriers in global collaboration and shows me proper methods to overcome those barriers to build team trust.
Hofstede’s five dimensions
Hofstede’s five dimensions are revering hierarchy, individualism versus collectivism, task- or relationship-focused, risk avoidance, and long-term orientation. Revering hierarchy and individualism versus collectivism are more frequently happened during globally distributed learning community. Revering hierarchy refers to how people think about the “equality and relationships with superiors and subordinates” (Charles, 63). For examples, Individuals in some countries (China and Russia) are careful about expressing their opinions to team leaders and show “proper respect” (Charles, 63). However, in some countries (United States, Netherlands, and Germany), team leaders are less concerned with status and are more willing to even expect their teammates to speak out. Individualism versus Collectivism is to the extent of how an individual sees himself/herself as an individual rather than part of a group. For examples, In collectivist cultures, people are expected to work well in group, which protect them “in exchange for their loyalty and compliance” (Adeoye, 4). In individualistic cultures, learners are concerned with their personal achievements and individual rights. “The United States and the Netherlands are very high on individualism, whereas China, West Africa, and Indonesia” are collective (Judith, 54).
With the purpose of developing team trust, individuals in online learning community need to develop the awareness of cultural differences, understanding various opinions among each other. As values of hierarchy and personalities of whether being individualistic or collectivist are different, these should be “discussed and resolved” in a group that is willing to be productive and building trust in the long run (Judith, 58). For example, a learning community needs to have conversations about how they are going to work and learn together before they started working, “[developing] shared team work habits” (Judith, 58). By building the awareness of teammate’s different values and personalities, they can build team trust and understand each other.
Hall’s five dimensions
Hall’s five dimensions are space, material goods, friendship, time, and agreement. Friendship and time dimensions are more often occurred in globalized online learning community. Relationships and friendships among people are considerably different across cultures. For examples, Americans are more willing to develop short-term relationships between co-workers or co-learners. They make friends and then lose friends quickly, seeing “friends as transitory” (Charles 69). For those cultures with long-term relationships, people tend to take long time to build friendships. They are more willing to form a learning community with those they already know. In terms of the time dimension, “linear time cultures” (such as United States) take time very seriously, “in a very rationalist sense” (Charles, 69). They usually do one thing at a time with careful planning and scheduling. Other cultures (such as China, Russia, Middle East, Latin America) are more “fluid” as human interactions and relationships are valued outweigh time and material things (Judith, 54).
To build team trust for effective collaboration, community members need to embrace different people’s opinions and habits. In global online learning community, there are definitely friendly and approachable teammates, as well as shy and introverted teammates varied by cultural backgrounds. Those who are more approachable may not prefer long-term relationships with people. Individuals in a learning community need to embrace the difference in people’s ideas about friendships in order to build team solidarity. Also, understanding different people’s plannings for tasks are very important. Teammates need to figure out each other’s habits of time management for better collaboration. In addition, If conflicts happens during work, individuals in a community ought to look for attributions that are not personally negative, but directed more toward cultural understanding. In this way, individuals can embrace different ideas and habits of time management.
Language barriers and time-zone differences
Language barriers can impede communication in global learning community. Different levels of English in a community affect “not only the quality of communication, but the choice of communication media” (John 72). Those who are not confident with their English are more possible to prefer instant messaging or email in communication with community members. However, video and teleconferencing are most of the time regarded as more efficient communication tools in a global learning community. Also, cultural diversity can affect interpretation of communication. For instance, polite “expressions of acknowledgement” by Asian community members can be misinterpreted as “agreement or commitment” by European colleagues (John 72). Moreover, when people’s level of English are different, those who have stronger English language skills “[occupy] a more powerful position and can appear to be more powerful, and thus suppress important communication through unintended intimidation” (John 72). The second issue is the time-zone difference in a global learning community. When community members are distributed around the world, they will have fewer hours for synchronous meetings. Also, there are delay in response to “asynchronous communication”(John, 72). For example, in an online learning community, a student is in China, but other team members are all in United States. When the student in China asked questions to the learning community members by text messages in the morning when US is at midnight, it takes at least 8 hours for those who are in US to see his messages and reply.
In order to build team trust, the problems caused by language barriers and time-zone difference need to be solved by having frequent interactions via technology. Team members should use video-conferencing technologies to have both formal and informal conversations with each other. This synchronous face-to-face online meetings can definitely build trust by seeing each other’s facial expressions and through verbal communications. Also, choosing teammates who are in culturally similar locations can be a solution to overcome the language barriers, for example, Chinese and Japanese. The same idea to dealing with the time zone difference, online learning communities can be formed in the same or adjacent zones to avoid delay in response.
Conclusions
This research paper analyzes cultural differences in the global online learning communities, offering solutions to build team trust and enhance team collaboration. It firstly talks about Hofstede’s dimensions of revering hierarchy and individualism versus collectivism, which shows people’s distinct ideas on relationships due to multi-cultural factors. Then it explains Hall’s time and friendship dimensions, showing people’s different opinions on friendship and time management. Moreover, it describes the problems caused by language barriers and temporal distance among community members. Lastly, having cultural awareness, embracing different people’s ideas and habits, as well as promoting frequent communication through video-conferencing, are the three essential solutions for nurturing team trust, developing effective collaboration within global online learning communities.
Reflections on Learning Pod
The members of my learning pod are all very friendly and supportive. They gave me lots of ideas on my research work that positively impact my thinking. Veronica gave me suggestions on both the structure and the grammar of my article. She also pointed out the parts that requires more elaboration. Cathryn suggested me to write the research paper by posting questions and looking for solutions. I believe that I had a valuable and meaningful experience in this learning pod.
References:
Adeoye, Blessing F. “Learning Styles and Cultural Differences in Online Learning Environments in the Twenty-First Century.” Advanced Online Education and Training Technologies. IGI Global, 2019. 63-74. Web. 21 Aug. 2019. doi:10.4018/978-1-5225-7010-3.ch004
Charles, Sam. “The Dimensions of National Culture.” Hofstede and Hall’s Cultural Differences, Sam Charles.
Noll, John, et al. “Global software development and collaboration: barriers and solutions.” ACM Inroads, 3 September. 2010, pp. 66-78.
Olson, Judith, and Gary Olson. “Culture Surprises in Remote Software Development Teams.” Queue – Distributed Development, December/January, 2003-2004, pp. 52-59.
Erik Yu 