Virtual multicultural teams: real communication in the virtual world

The following situation sounds common enough for Romania, a country which has been chosen by many companies as their outsource location. The cheaper and more skilled labor force, plus the expansion of online technologies make it easy for Romanians to tele work with colleagues in other countries. But how easy is it to communicate with them? By Irina Budrina Let's start from the following situation:

A company based in the United States develops multimedia software with a team of 7 free-lance developers located in 3 different countries, including Romania. The team was formed through Internet chat groups or interpersonal relations and is completely virtual. All developers are under commercial contract with the main company. The company has no offices and developers have never met with each other. All employees tele-work from home and informally communicate through electronic means. Each developer has specific tasks and is in charge of one part of the software development. They plan the work together at the beginning of each project. They work on the same data file and post their contributions on a collaborative platform. The company’s job is to assemble the different pieces developed by the tele-workers.