CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE AMONG EMPLOYEES WORKING IN GLOBAL VIRTUAL TEAMS (GVT) DURING PANDEMIC – TEAM EFFECTIVENESS AND CHALLENGES FACED

Abstract

The study is built on the previous literature on Cultural Intelligence and on global virtual team (GVT). It mainly focuses on how the current pandemic situation has brought an impact on the virtual team effectiveness and its challenges. It also helps us understand that cultural intelligence is the key to attain an effective virtual team. The researchers also suggest the future of work is dynamic and may have multiple options, to either work from home (virtually) or from office (physical).  To test these assertions, data was collected using a semi- structured questionnaire (n= 63) from multinational IT/ITES employees who are associated with GVT members in India. Data was collected using snowballing technique and analysed using Jamovi software. The factors considered for Cultural Intelligence are cognitive, metacognitive, motivational and behavioural cultural intelligence. The variables used in Virtual team effectiveness are role clarity, coordination, building trust, collaboration/cohesion, performance and communication. The study aims to understand the relationship between the factors of Cultural Intelligence and the variables of Virtual team effectiveness. It also suggests the organisation on how to overcome the challenges faced by the virtual teams. Study reveals that cultural intelligence helps in fostering trustworthy relationship among employees and having better coordination among the members of the team. Furthermore, analysis showed that cultural intelligence is influence by the variable communication accommodation among the GVT members. This study contributes to the growing literature on global virtual teams in association with the cultural intelligence and offers us a practical output on how to betterment the effectiveness and performance of the team and its members.

Keywords: Cultural Intelligence, global virtual team, Covid-19 pandemic, virtual team challenges, team effectiveness.