2022
Erika Tulla
CHALLENGES IN VIRTUAL PROJECT TEAMS
– Project team members’ experiences
2022 | 46 pages, 22 pages in appendices
Erika Tulla
CHALLENGES IN VIRTUAL PROJECT TEAMS
- Project team members’ experiences
This thesis was done for PerkinElmer Wallac with the aim of improving understanding of the challenges of virtual project work. PerkinElmer is an international company that is spread out all over the world. In addition, the COVID-19 has forced even local teams to work remotely during the worst time of the pandemic. For these reasons, it is important to understand how virtual work can be supported and improved.
The aim of this thesis was to explore the experiences of project members in relation to the challenges of virtual collaboration, which are known to affect project performance. The research questions were: “How employees experience the co-operation with other team members?” and
“What are the experiences regarding clarity of project goals and team structure?”. Four projects from PerkinElmer's Reproductive Health business segment were selected for the study. The study was carried out as a questionnaire for all the project team members working in these projects, excluding project managers. The questionnaire consisted of 42 questions/claims, with 5 response options on a Likert scale.
The results show that employees have positive experiences working with other team members.
All aspects of the survey suggest that people perceive the project team as one cohesive team:
they enjoy working with the team and trust other team members. In terms of motivation, all (100%) the respondents are willing to do their best to complete their tasks, and majority (90%) feel that their contribution is relevant for the project. The survey suggests that the clarity of roles and transparency of work could be improved. On an organizational level, English language training could be provided to employees to support global project work.
However, it should be noted that the results can’t be generalized to all PerkinElmer employees working in projects. The results only represent the experiences of individuals at a certain time point. Therefore, it is important to constantly take into account how people experience project work and to try to find ways to support them, thus ensuring the progress of projects and the well- being of employees.
KEYWORDS:
Project management, project team, virtual work
2022 | 46 sivua, 22 liitesivua
Erika Tulla
VIRTUAALISTEN PROJEKTIEN HAASTEET
- Projektin jäsenten kokemukset
Opinnäytetyö tehtiin toimeksiantona PerkinElmer Wallacille, tavoitteena virtuaalisen projektityöskentelyn haasteiden ymmärryksen parantaminen. PerkinElmer on kansainvälinen yritys, jolla on toimintaa ympäri maailman. Lisäksi, COVID-19 on pakottanut myös paikalliset tiimit etätyöskentelyyn pandemian pahimpina aikoina. Näiden syiden vuoksi on tärkeää ymmärtää, miten virtuaalityöskentelyä voi tukea ja kehittää.
Tämän opinnäytetyön tavoitteena oli tutkia projektin jäsenten kokemuksia liittyen virtuaalityöskentelyn haasteisiin, joiden tiedetään vaikuttavan projektin suorituskykyyn.
Tutkimuskysymykset olivat: ”Miten työntekijät kokevat yhteistyön muiden tiiminjäsenten kanssa?”
ja ”Millaisia kokemuksia ihmisillä on koskien projektin tavoitteiden ja tiimin rakenteen selkeyttä?”.
Tutkimukseen valittiin neljä projektia PerkinElmerin Reproductive Health liiketoiminta- segmentistä. Tutkimus toteutettiin kyselytutkimuksena, johon vastasivat valituissa projekteissa työskentelevät henkilöt, poislukien projektipäälliköt. Kyselytutkimus sisälsi 42 kysymystä/väitettä, joissa oli 5 vastausvaihtoehtoa Likert-asteikolla.
Tulosten perusteella työntekijöillä on positiivisia kokemuksia liittyen yhteistyöhön muiden tiimin jäsenten kanssa. Kaikki tutkitut näkökulmat viittaavat siihen, että ihmiset kokevat projektitiimin olevan yksi yhtenäinen tiimi: he nauttivat tiimin kanssa työskentelystä ja luottavat muihin tiimin jäseniin. Motivaatioon liittyen kaikki (100 %) vastaajat ovat halukkaita tekemään parhaansa tehtäviensä suorittamiseksi, ja suurin osa (90 %) kokee, että heidän panoksensa on merkityksellistä projektin kannalta. Tutkimuksen mukaan roolien selkeyttä ja työskentelyn läpinäkyvyydettä voisi parantaa. Lisäksi organisaatio voisi järjestää englanninkielen koulutusta henkilöstölleen tukeakseen kansainvälistä projektityöskentelyä.
On kuitenkin huomioitava, että tuloksia ei voi yleistää koskemaan kaikkia PerkinElmerin työntekijöitä, jotka työskentelevät projekteissa. Tulokset edustavat vain yksittäisten henkilöiden kokemuksia tiettynä ajanhetkenä. Sen vuoksi on tärkeää jatkuvasti huomioida, miten ihmiset kokevat projektityön sekä pyrkiä löytämään keinoja tukea heitä, ja siten taata projektien eteneminen ja työntekijöiden hyvinvointi.
ASIASANAT:
Projektihallinta, projektitiimi, virtuaalityöskentely
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS (OR) SYMBOLS 6
1 INTRODUCTION 6
2 VIRTUAL PROJECT WORK CHALLENGES 9
2.1 Virtual team & virtual work benefits 9
2.2 Cultural differences and cultural intelligence 10
2.3 Motivation 13
2.4 Interpersonal trust 14
2.5 Role clarity and accountability 16
2.6 Activity awareness & social presence 16
2.7 International communication 18
3 METHODS 21
3.1 Research problem, research questions and hypothesis 22
3.2 Population and sampling method 22
3.3 Data acquisition 25
4 RESULTS 28
4.1 Response rate and basic information 28
4.2 How employees experience the co-operation with other team members? 32
4.2.1 Intercultural communication 32
4.2.2 Interpersonal trust 35
4.2.3 Cultural differences and cultural intelligence 35
4.2.4 Social presence 36
4.3 What are the experiences regarding clarity of project goals and team structure? 38
4.3.1 Role clarity and accountability 38
4.3.2 Activity awareness & motivation 38
5 CONCLUSIONS 41
5.1 How employees experience the co-operation with other team members? 41 5.2 What are the experiences regarding clarity of project goals and team structure? 43
5.3 Recommendations for further actions 43
Appendix 1. Research structure Appendix 2. Questionnaire form Appendix 3. Survey answers
FIGURES
Figure 1. Factors that affect project performance. 7
Figure 2. Components of cultural intelligence (adapted from Thomas & Inkson 2009, 26
and Hofstede et al. 2010, 419 ─ 420). 11
Figure 3. Communication model (adapted from Fatehi 2008, 180 ─ 183). 18 Figure 4. Research process flowchart (Adapted from Tähtinen et al. 2020, 19). 21
Figure 5. PerkinElmer site. 28
Figure 6. Function. 29
Figure 7. Age. 29
Figure 8. Project work experience in years. 30
Figure 9. Number of team members. 30
Figure 10a & b. Multisite projects (a) and face to face interaction (b). 31 Figure 11a & b Office location and time zone compared to project manager. 31
Figure 12. General feeling regarding project work. 32
Figure 13. Frequency of different communication methods. 33 Figure 14. Experience regarding different communication methods. 34 Figure 15. Experiences regarding communication in English. 34
Figure 16. Interpersonal trust. 35
Figure 17. Working with different cultures (1). 36
Figure 18. Working with different cultures (2). 36
Figure 19. Social presence (1). 37
Figure 20. Social presence (2). 37
Figure 21. Role clarity and accountability. 38
Figure 22. Activity awareness (1). 39
Figure 23. Activity awareness (2). 39
Figure 24. Motivation (1). 40
Figure 25. Motivation (2). 40
TABLES
Table 1. Sampling: selected sub-populations (projects). 24
Table 2. Questionnaire form structure. 26
Table 3. Likert scale (Adapted from McLeod. 2008). 27
COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019
HR Human Resources
IVD In vitro diagnostics
PMO Project Management Office
R&D Research and Development
VWE Virtual work environment
WBS Work breakdown structure
1 INTRODUCTION
International business means business activities that are carried out between at least two nations. Correspondingly, management within the international business, is called international management. (Fatehi 2008, 24.) PerkinElmer conducts international business, as it is a global corporation, with 13,000 employees worldwide (PerkinElmer Inc. 2020a).
“We believe that our mission to create a better world would not be possible without the diverse experiences that are brought forth from all our employees. PerkinElmer embraces the unique perspective and the most innovative ideas that are born from having different cultures and backgrounds.” (PerkinElmer Inc. 2020b.)
As PerkinElmer is geographically spread out all over the word, and the mission is to share knowledge and utilize the power of diverse teams, the virtual work environment is the place where all of this happens. Turner (2016, 309) points out that most of the risks in international projects are actually people risks, even though the focus is often only on technical risks. Fact is, cultural and environmental diversity in intercultural business creates more complexity and uncertainty (Fatehi 2008, 26) and that’s why it is important to understand the risks and find ways to mitigate them as far as possible. Since March 2020, COVID-19 has forced even more teams to adapt to virtual working environments (VWE). Even though those team might not have intercultural challenges, virtual work challenges are affecting the project work. Based on a leadership research, DeChurch and Larson (2020) suggested an implication that team leaders must develop processes that help team members to overcome challenges caused by virtual work (e.g. remote communication and team diversity). They mentioned that transparent communication can improve trust building and cohesion in the virtual teams.
Changes in work environment force changes to happen in management style as well, to be able to support people as well as possible (Rose 2016, 18). To be able to develop processes and practices that support virtual work, leaders must be aware of the existing challenges and how employees experience the challenges. The purpose of this thesis is to improve the understanding of intercultural and virtual project challenges in PerkinElmer. This subject is studied via literature review and by examining project team members’ perceptions of project work topics that are known to affect project team
members’ feeling of social presence and motivation, and through that, project performance (Figure 1). Justification for selecting these topics is described below.
SOCIAL PRESENCE TRUST
MOTIVATION
ROLE CLARITY CULTURAL
KNOWLEDGE CULTURAL MOTIVATION
LANGUAGE SKILLS
ACTIVITY AWARENESS
VIRTUAL TOOLS
PROJECT PERFORMANCE
Figure 1. Factors that affect project performance.
Henderson et al (2018) have studied how cultural intelligence affects global project team members’ performance and satisfaction. Results from that study conclude that cultural intelligence has a positive impact on role clarity and communication, and thus, positive impact on global project team members’ performance and satisfaction (Henderson et al. 2018, 965). Cultural differences and cultural intelligence are discussed in chapter 2.2. Project performance can be improved by improving group dynamics. This means that project managers need to be able to form a project team from a group of people. The difference between group and team is that in a team, its members are committed to achieve same goals and feel accountable for the team outcome. Groups, on the other hand, are just a set of people with different objectives. (DiTullio 2010, 2 ─ 3.) Group dynamics is affected by a feeling of social presence and interpersonal trust,
(Interpersonal trust). Organizational performance, in this case project performance, depends on how motivated its members are to do their best towards the common goals.
Motivating staff is never an easy task but it is even more challenging in multinational companies and teams where team members have different cultural frameworks. This requires more effort from the project team leader, than in domestic teams. (Fatehi 2008, 216 ─ 218.) Motivation is further discussed in chapter 2.3. Based on a previous study, role clarity has an important role in global project team members’ satisfaction and performance (Henderson et al. 2016, 1728 – 1729). The same study also highlights that project team members need to be aware of what is expected from them and what their contribution is in the project. Role clarity is further discussed in chapter 2.5. Based on a study conducted by Haines (2021, 9), activity awareness in a project team increased the feeling of social presence and also team members’ commitment to project goals and to the team. Activity awareness is further discussed in chapter 2.6.
This thesis begins with a brief review of social presence and motivation in virtual teams.
This is followed by chapters covering factors based on previous studies that are presumed to affect team members’ perception of social presence and team members’
motivation to work. In chapter 3, study methods are presented. The thesis is concluded with survey results and conclusions.
As previously mentioned, it is important to understand how project managers can support teams in overcoming virtual work challenges. By understanding this, it is possible to improve the management style to be more suitable for virtual work needs, and thus improve project performance and employee satisfaction. This thesis can be utilized in project manager training and in developing the project management procedures and processes in PerkinElmer. This thesis has been done for PerkinElmer Wallac, and the request was to focus on how the intercultural and virtual work can be supported by project managers. It is important to note that it is not only the project manager’s responsibility, even though those aspects are highlighted in this thesis.
2 VIRTUAL PROJECT WORK CHALLENGES
Due to globalization, traditional boundaries between business organizations, countries, economies, industries and people, are less solid than before. Globalization affects everyone in the society, and employees at all organizational levels. It brings together people from different cultural backgrounds and creates new challenges in the interaction.
(Thomas & Inkson 2009, 11 ─ 14.)
2.1 Virtual team & virtual work benefits
Virtual teams are geographically, organizationally and/or timely separated teams that utilize information and communication technologies (ICTs) to cross the boundaries, to be able to achieve a common goal (Galvin et al. 2006, 300). Virtual teams are also called cyberteams, dispersed teams, distributed teams and online teams (DuFrene & Lehman 2016, introduction). Definition of virtual work environment can vary. In some virtual teams, the team members have never met their co-workers, and sometimes the team only have face to face meeting occasionally (Rose 2016, 13). The level of virtual work is not the same in all cases; it can vary from full time virtual work to occasionally happening virtual work (Rose 2016, 15). Virtual worker is a person who works in a virtual environment.
In today’s globalized world it is common that projects are undertaken by more than one site, meaning that the project teams are more diverse than in co-located project teams.
It is typical that the multisite projects have issues related to communication, culture and team management. (Turner 2016, 305.) Rose (2016, 49) points out that there is a gap between virtual tools and the people working in the virtual work environment: human interaction is decreasing and the usage of technology is increasing all the time.
Technology enables the virtual work environment. However, virtual work is not only about technology, it is also about how virtual workers experience it. (Rose 2016, 49.)
Even though the focus of this thesis is on the challenges in virtual work, it must be briefly addressed why virtual work is important despite all the challenges that are related to it.
Virtual teams are necessary for companies that have operations in different countries
practices due to travel restrictions and lockdowns. According to Rose (2016, 14), despite COVID-19, the number of virtual workers will continue increasing as it provides flexibility, cost-saving and decreases virtual workers commute time. Cost savings come from avoiding the travel costs needed for face-to-face meetings, and from using time for productive work, instead of using it for travelling from one place to another. Virtual work allows people to participate even when not able to commute which enables organization to gather teams with the needed expertise, despite the personal or geographical constraints. Virtual work can also improve the employee’s ability to balance the work with the personal life. Environmental benefits are achieved when less travel is needed because of the increased amount of virtual work. (DuFrene & Lehman 2016, 3 – 4.) Krawczyk-Brylka (2016) studied virtual intercultural collaboration challenges to identify participant’s perceptions of virtual team collaboration. Part of the research was to identify what are the advantages of virtual co-operation. Following advantages were mentioned:
makes it easier to find the needed expertise from the global market, opportunity to practice English skills, opportunity to get familiar with different cultures, makes it easier to contact clients all over the world and time difference allows projects to proceed 24 hours a day (Krawczyk-Brylka. 2016, 76 – 77).
2.2 Cultural differences and cultural intelligence
Multinational business organizations are dependent on intercultural communication and co-operation (Hofstede et al. 2010, 402). To be able to succeed in global collaboration, cultural differences must be understood and considered, by improving the cultural intelligence. This chapter focuses on cultural intelligence, and why and how it can be improved. In this chapter culture means national culture, if not stated otherwise.
Culture is a collective phenomenon, shaped in a community of people who have shared experiences and history. Culture is something all the individuals learn when interacting with other people in that cultural group. It contains unwritten rules for human interaction, and also for ordinary things like eating, and forms assumptions on other people’s behaviour. However, it must be noted that all people from same culture are not identical, because each person has their own personality that they either learned and/or inherited.
(Hofstede et al. 2010, 6) It is crucial to be mindful on this to avoid stereotyping people based on their cultural background. In fact, Krawczyk-Brylka (2016, 80) highlights that some of the previous research results indicated that in international teams, there is a risk
for stereotyping and forming subgroups. Unintended cultural conflicts tend to happen in intercultural co-operation, even though nobody wants them and everyone suffers from them. Intercultural communication skills can prevent or at least decrease the occurrence of these conflicts. (Hofstede et al. 2010, 383 ─ 384.)
Cultural intelligence means that in addition to understanding a culture, a person is willing to learn more about different cultures and adapt their behaviour to be more appropriate for interacting with people from different cultures (Thomas & Inkson 2009, 35). Figure 2 presents the components of cultural intelligence.
Figure 2. Components of cultural intelligence (adapted from Thomas & Inkson 2009, 26 and Hofstede et al. 2010, 419 ─ 420).
Knowledge means the understanding of different cultures and the cross-cultural interaction. In fact, very first step in improving cultural intelligence is to gain understanding of cultural differences between countries and how the differences affect behaviour. (Thomas & Inkson 2009, 22 ─ 25.) But, before cultural intelligence can be improved, a person must be aware of the fact that people have differences due to the fact that they have grown up in different environments (Hofstede et al. 2010, 419 ─ 420).
Awareness can also be called mindfulness, and it means a person’s ability to observe and interpret cross-cultural situations. (Thomas & Inkson 2009, 22 ─ 25.) Mindfulness can also be described as cultural sensitivity, meaning persons capability to notice, accept, understand and manage cultural differences (Krawczyk-Brylka. 2016, 73). The third part of cultural intelligence are skills: a culturally intelligent person has skills to select propriate behaviour for different multicultural situations (Thomas & Inkson 2009, 25).
Knowledge
Mindfulness / awareness Skills
All three components of cultural intelligence are linked to each other. Building cultural intelligence consists of consecutive experiences that shape the cultural intelligence (Thomas & Inkson 2009, 27). Developing a cultural difference can be supported by formal training but primarily, cultural intelligence is developed by working in a culturally diverse environment or with people from different cultures. Improving cultural intelligence is continuous learning, and it can’t be done without working with different cultures that provide opportunities to learn from social interaction. Through mindfulness, new experiences generate new knowledge which can be further developed into skills.
(Thomas & Inkson 2009, 233 ─ 234.)
As mentioned before, cultural knowledge and skills can be improved by mindfulness and awareness. If team members don’t consciously pay attention to cultural differences, they are not able to adjust their behaviour accordingly, and intercultural team work challenges may be underestimated (Krawczyk-Brylka. 2016, 76). A person must also be motivated to be able to develop a high level of cultural intelligence. (Thomas & Inkson 2009, 233 ─ 239.) Hendersson et al. (2018) studied the effect of cultural intelligence to the project team member’s performance and satisfaction. They found out that global project team member’s cultural intelligence motivation is significant because it has a positive effect on role clarity and communication norms (Hendersson et al. 2018).
Until now, the focus has been on national culture. National culture cannot be changed according to any plans, and international managers needs to learn how to deal with it.
One way to adjust the business, is to consider the strengths and weaknesses of different cultures, when planning international strategies. In addition to the national culture, it must be acknowledged that different organizations have also different organizational cultures that are based on learned practices. Development of organizational culture is mostly unconscious, but it can be modified with enough money, time and management attention.
(Hofstede 2012, 397.) Through company acquisitions, there can be several national cultures and organizational cultures within one company. It is a quick way to expand but there is always a high risk of cultural conflicts. (Hofstede et al. 2010, 408.) International companies must be able to develop common practices and by that, a shared organizational culture, because this enables the multinational teams to function (Hofstede 2012, 397).
2.3 Motivation
Motivation can be defined as a process where person does something to satisfy certain needs (Fatehi 2008, 237). Person is committed to a certain task that she/he sees likely to satisfy their needs (Mead 2005, 120). It is important to pay attention on project team member’s motivation, because it is known to affect e.g. productivity, creativity and work quality. To be able to accomplish project goals (organizational needs), leaders must also ensure that the project team member’s personal goals are satisfied. (Fatehi 2008, 237 ─ 238.) It must be noted that all personal needs are not related to organizational needs, in fact they can even be contradictory with the company goals. For managers, it is important to identify personal needs that are related to the company needs and find a way to design an incentive system that leads to fulfilling both personal and organizational goals. (Mead 2005, 120.) Through motivating people, it is also possible to ensure employee well-being and loyalty to the company. Lack of motivation can lead to poor work performance, mental health issues and issues with co-workers. Therefore, it can affect the whole project team and fulfillment of organizational goals, but also to the person’s overall satisfaction with life. (Fatehi 2008, 237 ─ 238.)
Leaders need to have ability to motivate people to do the needed work, and at the same time also make them feel that it is a good idea. In theory, it can be relatively easy in a situation where all team members have same goals and ideas, and work in a familiar national context. It gets more difficult when people have different cultural backgrounds.
(Lewis 2006, 141 ─ 142.) This is due to the fact that culture plays an important role in shaping a person’s perception of acceptable ways of satisfying their needs and also the importance of different needs (Fatehi 2008, 238). In fact, motivation factors vary a lot between different nationalities, and international managers needs to be aware of this.
They need to be aware of the differences and find suitable ways to motivate team members from different cultures. Lewis has described different cultures, including different motivation factors, in his book regarding intercultural leadership (2006, 179 ─ 584). It is important that international leaders understand their responsibility in getting familiar with different cultures. This is highly related to cultural intelligence that is further discussed in chapter 2.2. Failing in motivating team members can lead to dissatisfaction, resistance and frustration, and therefore have a negative impact on the team work and project performance. (Lewis 2006, 141 ─ 142.)
2.4 Interpersonal trust
Trust is always needed in co-operative projects (Lahno & Matzat 2016, 32). This chapter focuses on why interpersonal trust between team members is important especially in virtual work environments, and what challenges virtual work brings to trust building. This chapter will not address system trust, meaning how people trust in abstract systems, like the Internet.
What is trust?
There is no common definition for trust. This thesis uses Rose’s (2016, 58) definition: “A connection and commitment individuals have to their organization, coworkers, or managers. If they feel connected and committed, it will be interpreted as the individual having a stronger sense of trust.”. This definition is supplemented with the following description of trust: “…trust is manifested in team’s ability and willingness to squarely address differences of opinion, values, and attitudes and deal with them accordingly.”
(Pinto & Kharbanda 1995, 229).
In trust, there is always a risk that the other person acts in a way that is not beneficial for the trusting person. This means that a trusting person decides to take that risk. (Lahno
& Matzat 2016, 32.) When talking about international teams, it is important to understand that concept of trust varies between different cultures. Countries can be divided into high- , medium- and low-trust categories. In high-trust nations (e.g. Nordics and Germans), people have a high trust on others by default, if not proven otherwise. Totally opposite are low-trust nations (e.g. Chinese and French) that trust only those who they know really well. (Lewis 2006, 145 ─ 148.) These cultural differences play an important role in trust building in international teams.
Importance of trust
Often people are connected to the organization through commitment, and commitment includes trust. One aspect is that there must be trust between the organization (managers) and the employee to enable the employee to be a virtual worker. In that case the trust is related to the fact of a person being productive even when working virtually.
Despite the work environment, virtual or not, people have a need to build relationships to co-workers, managers and leaders. People need to be able to trust that everyone will complete their tasks, and be able to ask hard questions and expect honest answers. This
need for trust applies also to trust between people and the organization, and it is often focused on communication. (Rose 2016, 56–60.)
It is common for virtual teams to contain people from different cultures. To be able to build trust between the team members, they need to have a basic knowledge and awareness of the other team members culture (Zuofa & Ochieng 2018). Intercultural challenges are further discussed in chapter 2.2 (Cultural motivation & cultural knowledge).
Virtual team members are not able to see what the other team members are doing.
Therefore, the trust in virtual teams is even more important than in co-located teams (Galvin et al. 2006, 306). As virtual team members have less opportunities for social interaction, clear work processes and rules will decrease uncertainty and build trust (Galvin et al. 2006, 313). Of course, this requires that all team members are aware of the rules and follow them (Galvin et al. 2006, 314). Transparency is one way to build and maintain trust (Zuofa & Ochieng 2018). Activity awareness is further discussed in chapter 2.6 (Activity awareness).
Trust building
Team members have presumptions regarding the trustworthiness of the others. Those presumptions are usually based on previous experiences related to the other person, like previous co-operation situations or conflicts that have been resolved. It can also be based on what the other person communicates about the willingness to co-operate.
(Lahno & Matzat 2016, 50.) Presumptions can also come from the cultural background, as described previously in this chapter.
Trust is harder to create in virtual teams (Lewis 2006, 150). It takes time and requires interaction and relationships between people, to build trust. Less or no face-to-face interaction, possibly strange co-workers and lack of nonverbal communication, are factors that can restrict or even prevent the trust building in virtual work environments (Rose 2016, 57 – 66). If possible, a combination of face-to-face meetings and virtual work is one way to support building relationships and trust (Zuofa & Ochieng 2018). The need for face-to-face interactions and social bonding varies between different nations.
Close contact and personal relationships are important for some nations, such as Latins and Asians. At the same time, it is not that important for others, such as Finns and
to lead to confusion and misunderstandings that eventually cause loss of trust.
Communication is further discussed in chapter 2.7. (Lewis 2006, 148 ─ 151.) According to Lewis (2006, 144 ─ 145), the basic trust-building strategies are:
• Clear and transparent goals
• Clear and efficiently communicated instructions and processes
• Transparency and information sharing policy
• Manager that supports the team and considers team recommendations
• Useful tools
2.5 Role clarity and accountability
Role clarity means that each team member knows his/her tasks in the team, and how they are linked to the task of other team roles. (Bray & Brawley 2002.) Role clarity is known to improve social presence, job satisfaction, commitment and team performance (Lynn & Kalay, 2015).
Clear and unambiguous roles, and work assignments are known to improve project performance. A project manager can support this by clearly defining team roles and responsibilities and by communicating them effectively. One way to do this, is to create a project team organizational chart and keeping it updated during the whole project.
Accountability means that team members take responsibility of their own work and recognize that their work also affects also the work of other team members. Activity awareness (see chapter 2.6) supports accountability because it improves everyone’s visibility of the big picture and dependences between different tasks. Lack of accountability often leads to inefficient work, misunderstandings and conflicts. (DiTullio 2010, 29 ─ 83.)
2.6 Activity awareness & social presence
Team work contains several tasks and sub-tasks that are often dependant on each other, meaning that the tasks needs to be completed in certain order. This requires coordination to ensure that team members know what they need to do and when. Otherwise, it can mean that resources are used ineffectively (coordination loss) and there is a conflict between the order of the task completion. In face-to-face work (e.g. open offices), it is
relatively easy to get information of what other team members are doing, without actively discussing it. Also, direct observations regarding other people’s work provide information that can be used to evaluate how well other team members contribute to team goals.
Therefore, awareness of other team members activities is one tool to mitigate coordination losses, but it is not possible in virtual teams without developing ways to share information via virtual tools (e.g. presence indicators and status information features). (Haines 2021.) As mentioned in chapter 2.4, clear goals, efficient communication and transparency are also factors that help building trust within the team.
Social presence can be defined through a sense of isolation. Isolation is all about how people feel about being connected to others or being isolated from others. It can’t be defined only as being physically detached because a person can feel connected to others also through virtual tools. It is difficult to measure a sense of isolation because it is each person’s individual experience. Communication can be efficient and the task can be completed in time, but the sense of isolation can still be high. (Rose 2016, 73 – 74) Team performance can be affected by social motivation factors that cause individuals to perform worse than they would be able to perform. A team member can either feel that their contribution is not important for the team performance or they don’t think that the team goal is important enough, and therefore does not contribute with their full potential.
(Haines 2021.)
A study survey conducted by Haines (2021) concluded that activity awareness is associated with higher feeling of social presence and willingness to work, which again led to positive effect on team loyalty. In addition, it was observed that activity awareness practices improved task coordination and therefore the effectiveness of the team. It also improved the team presence and encouraged team members to contribute more to the team goals. Social motivation loss was decreased when team members were aware of what other team members were doing, and felt that they were able to rely on that information. (Haines 2021.)
In this thesis, social presence is studied through investigating team members’
experiences regarding communication via virtual tools. As already mentioned, project member satisfaction and willingness to work within the same team can be impacted by feeling of social presence. Therefore, investigation of those topics is indirectly linked to social presence.
2.7 International communication
There is always a reason for communication: a person (sender) wants to share information or knowledge with another person (receiver). To be able to do that, the sender must encode the intended message into words, signs or symbols. The sender’s field of experience (e.g. culture, values, attitude, experiences) affects how the intended message is encoded. The sender uses communication media like a phone, computer or face-to-face interaction, to transmit the encoded message to the receiver. To be able to communicate, sender must receive the message through the communication media, and then decode the message. Decoding means receiver’s interpretation of the message. It is again, affected by the receiver’s field of experience. In communication, there is always some noise that affects the communication: receiver’s interpretation of the message is not exactly the same as the sender’s intention. Noise can be caused by differences in fields of experience: e.g. cultural differences (differing values, norms and beliefs) and different languages between the communication participants. If people have very similar field of experience, the information shared between them is usually not distorted much.
In international communication, this is not the case: communication participants can have remarkably different fields of experience which can lead to significant misunderstandings. (Fatehi 2008, 180 ─ 183.)
Figure 3. Communication model (adapted from Fatehi 2008, 180 ─ 183).
Language is tool for communication and different nations use it differently. There are differences in speed of speaking, usage of humor and style of arguing. (Lewis 2006, 63
─ 66.) Language, words and jargon is part of culture (Hofstede et al. 2010, 8). Even though, it does not mean that same language would imply the same culture. In intercultural teams, members have different native languages which is resolved by using trade languages, like English (Hofstede et al. 2010, 388 ─ 389). In fact, English is becoming the standard language of business all over Europe and large parts of Asia (Thomas & Inkson 2009, 21). Communicating in a foreign language, puts limits on expressing oneself. Native English speakers don’t always realize that they have many responsibilities when communicating with non-native English speakers. (Hofstede et al.
2010, 390.) Communicating with different speech styles and with national characteristics lead to misunderstandings related to both the message itself but also the speakers intent.
Because communication is a two-way street, it must be recognized that different cultures have also different listening habits. For example, Swedes and Finns are good listeners, whereas French and Spanish are bad listeners. (Lewis 2006, 66 ─ 71.) The person speaking needs to know the audience to be able to formulate the message in such a way that improves the possibilities of success in communication. Further information related to surviving the communication gap between different nationalities can be found in Lewis (2006, 66 ─ 79).
In addition to verbal components, communication contains also non-verbal components, like usage of hands, fingers, head and eyes (Fatehi 2008, 185). It is also important to recognize that in addition to the physical aspects of body language (e.g. hand and eye movements), it contains also the tone of voice (Turner 2016, 305). Non-verbal gestures have different meanings in different cultures which can cause serious misunderstandings in international projects (Fatehi 2008, 180). But that is not the only challenge in international project teams because some virtual communication methods also lack non- verbal gestures, like facial expressions and tone of voice (DuFrene & Lehman 2016, 5).
For example, email and other written messages do not include any of the non-verbal gestures. Especially with team members that have never met face to face, there can be huge difficulties to understand what the sender is trying to say. Therefore, it is highly recommended to organize at least one face to face meeting like a project kick off for the whole team. This can decrease the communication issues caused by only communicating virtually. (Turner 2016, 305.)
Some people have an illusion that communication technologies like email, mobile phones and social software, bring people together in a way that is not affected by cultural differences. This is not true. Communication technologies are a tool for intercultural learning and co-operation, but it will not remove the need for cultural intelligence.
(Hofstede et al. 2010, 391 ─ 392.) Based on a study that contained interviews, Zuofa and Ochieng (2018) concluded that misunderstandings in virtual team communication can more easily lead to a conflict. Lack of interpersonal skills combined with cultural boundaries (further discussed in chapter 2.2) are most likely causing misunderstandings and failure in communication in international projects (Thomas & Inkson 2009, 14).
Virtual teams are dependent on virtual communication tools. Technical issues caused by slow-speed Internet, especially during video calls and teleconferences, are common issues in virtual communication. Slow-speed Internet can for example cause poor sound quality that makes it more difficult to understand the message. If the participants also have a different accent or insufficient English skills, it can be especially difficult to communicate efficiently. (Krawczyk-Brylka. 2016, 78.) Team members might also reside in different time zones, which makes it more difficult or even impossible to communicate in real time. Study by Galvin et al (2006, 312) revealed that co-located teams use more often phone calls than virtual teams. One explanation for this can be time zone differences and expenses related to long-distance calls (Galvin et al. 2006, 312).
3 METHODS
Research material and research methods were selected based on the research questions (Tähtinen et al. 2020, 18). Therefore, the research was started by defining the research problem and research questions (Chapter 3.1). Research material was selected based on the research questions to find relevant information of the subject and previous studies. It is important to get acquainted with the existing information to be able to develop appropriate research (Tähtinen et al. 2020, 19). Research methods were selected and more sub-questions for the research questions were written after the literature review. Research process is visualized in Figure 4.
Figure 4. Research process flowchart (Adapted from Tähtinen et al. 2020, 19).
Defining research questions Literature review
Research planning Data acquisition
Data handling and analysis
Reporting
3.1 Research problem, research questions and hypothesis
Research problem: How PerkinElmer employees experience virtual project work?
Research questions:
1) How employees experience the co-operation with other team members?
a. What is the general feeling about working in projects?
b. What are the experiences regarding usage virtual tools in communication?
c. How employees feel about using English as a primary communication language?
d. Do employees trust the other team members and the project manager?
e. How employees feel about working with different cultures?
f. What is the general feeling about working in projects?
g. Do people feel that the project team is one team (social presence, trust)
2) What are the experiences regarding clarity of project goals and team structure?
a. Do employees feel that they have clear roles and responsibilities? (role clarity)
b. Do employees what other team members are doing? (activity awareness) c. Do employees feel motivated to contribute to team efforts and complete
their own tasks? (motivation, satisfaction, accountability)
There is no hypothesis for this research. Aim is to gather employees’ experiences regarding project work and based on that, utilize literature review to find ways to improve project work experiences. Correlation between research questions, study questions and literature review is presented in Appendix 1.
3.2 Population and sampling method
Population means the group that is selected for the study, for example a group of people, that the study results represent. If the research is not conducted on whole population, sampling is needed to randomly select the participants. Selection of population and sampling method affects the results of the research. In an ideal situation, the selected samples represent the composition of the population that is studied because then the
results represent the studied population. There are several statistical sampling methods that can be utilized in this, like: simple random sampling, systematic sampling, stratified sampling and clustered sampling. (Tähtinen et al. 2020, 16-22.) Previously listed sampling methods are probability sampling techniques where it is possible to calculate a probability for a portion of the population to be selected. With these methods it is possible to be relatively confident that the selected samples represent the whole population. (Rooney & Evans 2014, 126.)
In simple random sampling, all individuals of the population have equal probability of being selected, and the individuals are chosen entirely based on chance (Tähtinen et al.
2020, 22). In systematic sampling, for example every second individual is selected, which requires a list of the whole population. In this case, it must be checked that the list is not sorted so that it would affect the sampling. In stratified sampling, the population is divided into homogeneous subgroups based on some particular characteristic, which requires more detailed knowledge of the population. Samples are then selected proportionally from each subgroup. Stratified sampling is useful if the defined characteristic affects the studied thing because this way it is possible to ensure that the sample reflects the composition of the population. In case the list of the whole population is not available or otherwise not applicable for the study, it is possible to select certain clusters (e.g.
companies or agencies), and include all the individuals in the selected cluster, in the sample. This is called cluster sampling. (Rooney & Evans 2014, 127-129.)
In the study of this thesis, the population is all the PerkinElmer employees in Reproductive health business segment that participate in project work in which the Turku site is involved. This population was divided into smaller groups (clusters) based on the active projects, meaning that each project forms a cluster. This way the clusters cover the entire population. To ensure that the samples represent the population as well as possible, the following project and the project team characteristics were considered when selecting projects (clusters) for the research study:
• PerkinElmer projects can be roughly divided into following categories: reagent projects, instrument projects, software projects and system projects. System projects contain all of the previously mentioned parts (reagents, instruments, software).
• Project team members come from different functions (e.g. R&D, production,
To ensure that different project types and different functions are represented, the following projects (Table 1) were selected for the survey:
Table 1. Sampling: selected sub-populations (projects).
Scope PerkinElmer site Team members per site*
Team members total*
Project 1 System Site 1 33 33
Project 2 Software
Site 1 22
27
Site 2 4
Site 3 1
Project 3 System Site 1 13
Site 4 12 25
Project 4 Software &
Instrument
Site 1 18
27
Site 5 7
Site 6 2
Total: 112
*excluding project manager and external parties (e.g. consultants)
Clustered sampling was chosen to be the most suitable sampling method for this research. However, it must be acknowledged that the answers will not directly give information on the selected projects. This is due the fact that some team members might work simultaneously in more than one project. Because of that, people are instructed to answer the survey from one project point of view: ”If you are working in several projects, choose one of them and answer the questions from that project’s point of view. Think about the same project when answering the questions in the coming sections.” (Appendix 2). The reason behind the clustered sampling approach is to ensure selected samples represent people with different expertise (project scope), different functions and different PerkinElmer sites. The results reflect the experiences of the people selected to participate in this survey. The results cannot be directly generalized to represent the whole population but it can give some indication about the overall perceptions regarding project work.
Results will be utilized to improve Turku PMO practices, and therefore the Turku site (Site 1) is involved in all of the selected projects. Project 1 is selected as a reference project, because it is carried out within only one PerkinElmer site. Due to COVID-19, this project also contains virtual work but it is not a multicultural project team. Due to the fact that some people work in several projects, the sample number is actually 94 (=N), instead of 112 (Table 1), when overlapping samples are considered (everyone will answer only once). Response rate (%) will be calculated based in the received answers (=n): n / N*100. Goal is to reach response rate of ≥ 32% to ensure that there are answers from ≥ 30 people.
3.3 Data acquisition
Quantitative research is interested in the correlation of dependent and independent variables. Data can be acquired by interviews, questionnaire forms and observation. The questionnaire form is selected for this research because it is suitable for studies where you are interested in opinions, values, attitudes and experiences. Frequency distribution and scales of measurement can be utilized to handle numeric data achieved from a questionnaire to answer research questions. Questionnaires will be arranged through the internet, which is easy and quick. The disadvantage with questionnaires is low response rate, but it can be compensated by increasing the sample size. Also, different people can understand the questions differently and they may not be used to expressing themselves in a written format. These factors can cause problems in using the questionnaire as a research method. Therefore it is extremely important to pay attention to questionnaire planning and piloting. There are five criteria for a good questionnaire:
1) Visually clear
2) Unambiguous questions and answering options
3) Neutral questions (not leading towards certain answer) 4) Valid questions (they measure the correct thing) 5) Answers can be handled easily
In addition to the listed things, it is important to remember to keep the questionnaire short enough so that it won’t take hours to answer the questions. It should be possible to
researcher is able to get answers to the research question(s). (Tähtinen et al. 2020, 17- 30.)
Questionnaire planning
Questionnaire form is divided into three main sections:
1) Introduction, including answering instructions 2) Questions
3) Closing words
Questions -section contain several subsections because the questions are divided into categories, as suggested by Tähtinen et al (2020, 28). The questionnaire form structure can be found in Table 2 and the whole questionnaire, including all the questions, can be found in Appendix 2.
Table 2. Questionnaire form structure.
Section Description
1
Introduction
• Purpose of the research
• Why your answer is important
• Anonymity of the answers
• Answering instructions Tähtinen et al (2020, 30-31)
2
• Basic information
• Project information
• Communication
• Trust
• Project tasks
• Different cultures
• Project work experience 3 Closing words
Because the research is studying opinions and experiences, answering range is utilized by using the five point Likert scale (Table 3). In addition to the five different options, one additional option is used to allow people to choose “not applicable” if they don’t have an opinion on that particular question (Tähtinen et al. 2020, 29).
Table 3. Likert scale (Adapted from McLeod. 2008).
Agreement Frequency Occurrence
1 Strongly Disagree Never Never
2 Disagree Rarely Once a month 3 Undecided Sometimes Once a week 4 Agree Often Several times a
week 5 Strongly Agree Always Everyday
Questionnaire piloting
Questionnaire piloting is advisable because it allows the researcher to modify the questionnaire based on the results. For example, the order of the questions can be changed and phrasing and instruction can be modified to improve the validity and reliability of the research. (Tähtinen et al. 2020, 29-30.) In this thesis, the piloting was done only to ensure technical functionality and the clarity of the questions. Question content was checked by R&D PMO Leader, and technical functionality of the survey was ensured by PerkinElmer HR specialist. Broader piloting was not performed.
Questionnaire execution
The questionnaire was sent out for the selected participants via email, on Friday 9 July 2021. The dead line for the response was set to Wednesday 15 September 2021.
Reminder was sent via email on 23 August and 13 September 2021.
4 RESULTS
4.1 Response rate and basic information
This chapter will summarize the basic information and the project information (questions 1-9 in the survey, Appendix 2). Basic information will provide background for the answers that will be summarized in the coming chapters.
As described in chapter 3.2, response rate activity goal was ≥ 32%, and survey was sent out to 94 recipients (= N). 41 replies were received, and everyone answered all of the questions asked in the survey. This means that the response rate was 43.6%, and the response rate target was achieved. As seen in Figure 5, most of the answers came from employees working at site 1 (63.4%) and site 4 (22.0%). Answers were received also from site 5 and site 2, but not at all from site 3 and site 6. This is well in line with the sample selected to participate in this survey (see 3.2 Population and sampling method).
The questionnaire was sent to 94 individuals: 67 of them are located at site 1 (71.3%) and 13 at site 4 (13.8%).
Figure 5. PerkinElmer site.
The majority of the answers (78.1%) are from individuals working in R&D (Figure 6). This is also in line with the fact that majority of the questionnaire target group, is from R&D.
Site 1, 63.4%
Site 4, 22.0%
Site 5, 7.3%
Site 2, 4.9%
Other, 2.4%
PerkinElmer site
Site 1 Site 4
Site 5 Site 2
Other
Figure 6. Function.
The age of the responders is presented in Figure 7. Half of the responders are between age 35 and 50 years (51.2%) but ages 25 to 34 (19.5%) and 51 to 60 (19.5%) are also well represented. The majority of the responders (73.2%) had over 10 years of project work experience (Figure 8).
Figure 7. Age.
R&D, 78.1%
Design transfer, 4.9%
Business, 7.3%
Registration, 2.4%
Customer
support, 2.4% Other, 4.9%
Function
R&D
Design transfer Business Registration Customer support Other
0.0%
19.5%
51.2%
19.5%
9.8%
0.0%
10.0%
20.0%
30.0%
40.0%
50.0%
60.0%
<25 years 25 - 34 years 35 - 50 years 51-60 years >60 years
Age
Figure 8. Project work experience in years.
Different sizes of projects were selected for this research, and this is visible in the answers presented in Figure 9. All sizes of projects are represented and there are no projects with over 100 members. 19.5% of the responders didn’t know the number of project team members in their project.
Figure 9. Number of team members.
65.9% of the responders worked in a project that has members in several countries, and 78.1% had never met all the team members face to face (Figure 10a&b). However, the
17.1%
9.8%
73.2%
0.0%
10.0%
20.0%
30.0%
40.0%
50.0%
60.0%
70.0%
80.0%
<5 years 5-10 years >10 years
Project work experience (years)
26.8%
29.3%
22.0%
2.4%
19.5%
0.0%
5.0%
10.0%
15.0%
20.0%
25.0%
30.0%
35.0%
1-10 members 11-25 members 26-50 members 51-100 members I don't know
Number of team members
majority of the responders have the same location (70.7%) and time zone (78.1%) with their project manager (Figure 11a&b).
Figure 10a & b. Multisite projects (a) and face to face interaction (b).
Figure 11a & b Office location and time zone compared to project manager.
No, 34.2%
Yes, 65.9%
Members in several countries
Yes, 19.5%
No, 78.1%
I don't know, 2.4%
Meeting face to face with all team members
Yes, 70.7%
No, 29.3%
Same office location with project manager
Yes, 78.1%
No, 22.0%
Same time zone as
project manager
4.2 How employees experience the co-operation with other team members?
This chapter presents the survey questions and results that were asked and collected to find answers to research question 1: “How employees experience the co-operation with other team members?”. The chapter is divided into several sub-chapters, based on the topic that the questions and results concern.
Research sub-question 1a: What is the general feeling about working in projects?
Survey claim (42) was: “I enjoy the project work”. The majority (78.1%) agreed or strongly agreed, and one person strongly disagreed (Figure 12).
Figure 12. General feeling regarding project work.
4.2.1 Intercultural communication
Research sub-question 1b: What are the experiences regarding usage of virtual tools in communication?
Survey questions were:
10. How often do you communicate with your project team through phone?
11. How often do you communicate with your project team through email?
12. How often do you communicate with your project team through instant messages e.g. Skype, Teams, Slack?
13. How often do you communicate with your project team face to face?
19.5% 53.7% 24.4%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
42. I enjoy the project work
Strongly disagree Disagree Undecided Agree Strongly agree
Based on the answers, 46% use instant messages every day and 41% use them several times a week. Email is also a common communication tool: 27% use it every day and half of the responders (51%) uses it several times a week. 59% uses phone at least once a week, and the rest of the responders (41%) once a month or never. Face to face communication is rather rare: 46% of the responders never communicate with the team members face to face. Only 32% communicate face to face once a week or more often.
(Figure 13)
Figure 13. Frequency of different communication methods.
Survey questions and results are presented in Figure 14. Both questions asked the same thing in a little bit different way. Based on the answers, over 87% of the responders feel that the virtual teams enable them to reach out and connect with the rest of the team often or always. No-one selected the ‘never’ or ‘rarely’ answer.
24.4%
17.1%
22.0%
9.8%
51.2%
26.8%
41.5%
46.3%
46.3%
22.0%
0.0%
10.0%
20.0%
30.0%
40.0%
50.0%
60.0%
Never Once a month Once a week Several times a week
Everyday
Phone
Instant messages (e.g. Skype, Slack) Face to face
Figure 14. Experience regarding different communication methods.
Research sub-question 1c: How employees feel about using English as a primary communication language?
Survey questions (14, 16, 18) and results are presented in Figure 15. All three questions asked the same things in a little bit different way. In average, 89% of the responders agreed or strongly agreed that they are able to communicate in English. There were also people who strongly disagreed or disagreed.
Figure 15. Experiences regarding communication in English.
43.9%
48.8%
43.9%
48.8%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
15. I feel that the virtual tools enable me to connect with the rest of the team
17. I’m able to reach out to my team members with the virtual tools we use
Never Rarely Sometimes Often Always
22.0%
19.5%
22.0%
70.7%
65.9%
68.3%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
14. I’m able to efficiently communicate in English 16. I feel comfortable using English as a primary
communication language
18. I’m able to efficiently express myself in English
Strongly disagree Disagree Undecided Agree Strongly agree
4.2.2 Interpersonal trust
Research sub-question 1d: Do employees trust the other team members and the project manager?
Survey questions (19-22) and results are presented in Figure 16. Based on the answers, 90 % feel that other team members trust them (agree or strongly agree), and 93% say that they trust the other team members (‘agree’ or ‘strongly agree’). 85 % feel that the project manager trusts them, but one person also feels completely opposite (‘disagree’).
83% say that they trust their project manager, but again, there is one person that strongly disagrees with the claim “I trust my project manager”.
Figure 16. Interpersonal trust.
4.2.3 Cultural differences and cultural intelligence
Research sub-question 1e: How employees feel about working with different cultures?
Survey questions (35-40) and results are presented in Figure 17 and Figure 18. Due to a technical mistake in the survey, question 40 was asked two times (question 40 and 41 were identical). In the results, an average was calculated from those answers and presented in Figure 18, under question 40. In general, all responders seem to have a positive attitude towards working with people from different cultures. Further details can be found from Figure 17 and Figure 18.
41.5%
46.3%
51.2%
61.0%
41.5%
39.0%
41.5%
29.3%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
19. I trust my project manager 20. I feel that my project manager trusts me 21. I trust the other project team members 22. I think that other project team members trust me
Strongly disagree Disagree Undecided Agree Strongly agree
Figure 17. Working with different cultures (1).
Figure 18. Working with different cultures (2).
4.2.4 Social presence
Research sub-question 1f: Do people feel that the project team is one team?
Survey questions (43-46) and results are presented in Figure 19 and Figure 20. Based on the answers, 93% enjoy being part of the team and 85% would like to work with the same team in the future, as well (Figure 19).
51.2%
46.3%
39.0%
46.3%
29.3%
43.9%
56.1%
48.8%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
35. I enjoy working with people from different cultures
36. I’m interested to learn more about different cultures
37. I think that it is important to understand other cultures
38. I’m aware that I need to adjust my behaviour when working with culturally different people
Strongly disagree Disagree Undecided Agree Strongly agree
68.3%
70.7%
22.0%
11.0%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
39. I can change my behaviour to suit different cultural situations and people 40. I try to understand people from another culture
by imagining how something looks from their perspective
Never Rarely Sometimes Often Always
