Michael Robinson has been appointed Senior Director of New Product Development at a multinational manufacturing company restructuring some R&D, IT, testing, and manufacturing functions by moving them overseas. The company lacks experience with global virtual teams. It is establishing facilities in Germany, China, India, and the US, with a chief project manager located in the US overseeing the virtual team. As a cross-cultural consultant, the assistant must provide a report comparing the cultures of China, Germany, India, and the US using Hofstede's cultural dimensions, and make recommendations for managing cross-cultural differences within the virtual team.

1. Managing A Virtual Team
Michael Robinson has been newly appointed as the Senior Director of New Product
Development in a New York-based multinational manufacturing company. He is informed
by his CEO that the company is restructuring to rationalize some of its R&D, IT
infrastructure support, product testing and manufacturing functions by migrating them to
other countries. Although there are several factors responsible for this decision, three main
reasons provided by the management are possibility of 24/7 development cycle as a result
of time zone difference, greater availability of talent outside of the U.S., and also lower costs
associated with hiring employees elsewhere.The company has some previous experience in
international business, but it has been mainly engaged in only sourcing of materials and
components and exporting finished equipment to some countries in Europe and Latin
America. The company does not have any experience in working in global teams for new
product development work. The company has decided to locate the offshore R&D facility in
Manheim (Germany); carry out product testing in both Nanjing (China) and Syracuse (USA);
have an IT development and support facility in Bengaluru (India), and the final
manufacturing near Shanghai (China). While each new location will employ local
employees, several existing managers and expert engineers will also relocate from the
United States to those four locations for a period of 1-2 years. The chief project manager for
all four countries (USA, Germany, China and India) will be located in the U.S. and will
report to Michael Robinson.To be successful, the company will utilize a model in which they
will follow the corporate values based on the U.S. culture but will also need to mold their
business practices in accordance with the local cultural models in each foreign location.
Therefore, they are considering assessing the cultural variability across the countries
involved.Based on what the CEO has learned from his/her industry peers, he/she does
understand that the running of the global virtual team is not going to be easy. The company
has no prior experience in this virtual mode of high level product innovation, development
or manufacturing work. Therefore, Michael was chosen to investigate the idea and prepare
a detailed project report which will guide the formation of the virtual teams and their
successful operation. Final project deliverablesMichael Robinson has chosen your team as
cross-cultural consultants to investigate and present a report providing a comparative
cultural assessment of the three countries (China, Germany and India) with the United
States. · The project report should address the following outlines: o Provide a
detailed comparison of national cultures of China, Germany, India, and the United States in
light of the five dimensions of national culture by Hofstede listed below. You should have

2. five tables, one for each dimension, showing comparison among the four countries. Discuss
the most important cultural attributes for each dimension that may help your client’s
understanding of cultural differences for all locations. Compare them with the United States.
Discuss positive and negative cultural attributes in the context of the global teamwork. The
dimensions are: Power Distance Index (PDI)Individualism versus Collectivism
(IDV)Masculinity versus Femininity (MAS)Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI)Long Term
Orientation versus Short Term Normative Orientation (LTO)In the light of the above,
provide proper explanations to the following questions: What are the rationale and drivers
for the recent growth of global virtual teams? What justifications can be given for the
company’s decision to migrate some product development, testing, IT infrastructure, and
manufacturing work to another country?What are the most likely major opportunities and
challenges for this global virtual team?Since the other teams will be based in Germany,
China and India, what cross-cultural differences are likely to impact on good performance of
this global virtual team? How would they cause any positive or negative impact for the
company’s overall business mission? What recommendations should be made for fully
understanding and bridging these cultural differences?Provide an example of a
multinational firm that has expanded into those countries and how it dealt with cross-
cultural communication issues.How would mutual “trust” be a significantly potential issue
among members of the global virtual team? How to positively address any trust related
issues?Based on your findings and responses above, develop a communication protocol for
all members of the global virtual team.Provide guidelines for general best practices for
sustaining a high performance global virtual team.Click here to request for this assignment
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