Virtual Communication and Collaboration in Global Research and Development Teams

Abstract

It is Friday, 3 p.m., in Chennai. Six Indian engineers, one of them the local manager of the research and development team, are sitting in one of the office’s virtual meeting rooms. There are six chairs on one side of the table and three large screens on the other side with room for two people at each. A weekly status meeting is scheduled with two Danish managers from the Technology R&D department at headquarters. With a time difference of only four-and-a-half hours, it is fairly easy to set up real-time meetings. Moreover, the telepresence technology makes the Indian team members feel that the Danish managers on the screen are participating in a face-to-face meeting with them. Without much of an initial greeting and little small talk in between items on the agenda, the Danish managers start going through all joint projects. One after the other the Indian engineers inform briefly about the status of their specific sub-projects and the solutions they propose. Problems they have encountered during the last week are also touched upon. The Indians speak distinctly and at a much slower pace than when they talk with each other. One of the Danish managers asks an Indian engineer very directly: ‘Can we be sure that you will be able to meet the deadline in two weeks?’ Another Indian engineer receives this blunt feedback to his presentation: ‘This solution simply does not fit with the specifications!’ After having observed the hard-working Indian