COMMUNICATION DYNAMICS IN TEAMS

Communication Dynamics in Teams

Communication Dynamics in Teams

This paper presents the results of some observations noticed during a session with a sales team in a local organization.

The most typical organic processes involve some form of verbal and non-verbal communication among team members and their supportive networks. Dynamic conditions are dissected, understood, and resolved through dialogue and information sharing via any of a multitude of communication modes: interpersonal or mass delivery; written, audio, or video formats; and face-to-face or indirect system. In order for this communication to be possible, teams must build conduits for information delivery—shared understanding of concepts, affiliation bonds among members, expertise directories, telecommunications devices, or other technological systems. For example, organic processes would be useful during an unanticipated hardware breakdown, when events unfold unpredictably and structured task programming would not adjust, but a lack of prior established communication protocols would make the coordination process very difficult, if not impossible (Watson, 2006).

It is often suggested that global teams require even more frequent interaction and information exchange, due to the relatively lean communication media used—e-mail, telephone, and even videophone systems often fail to transmit important contextual details, especially when bridging culture divides in addition to geographic and temporal distance. Additionally, it should be noted that teams cycle through stages of development such as Tuckman's widely recognized forming, storming, norming, and performing stages (Mumby, 2005). Teams will not necessarily engage in the same coordination strategies at different points of the cycle. Some evidence suggests, for instance, that once engaged in productive activity, higher performing teams communicate less than lower performing teams during the performing stage. This demonstrates that coordination is not simply about the amount of communication, but the effectiveness of the message and the comprehension of those at the receiving end of the process. In other words, coordination through communication is effective to the extent that the communication is needed and is task oriented (McGrath, 2004).

Overall, members of global teams tend to coordinate the less routine aspects of their tasks through communication systems. Such interaction may consume more time and effort than more mechanistic, task-oriented processes, sometimes diverting attention from other critical tasks. For example, a study of global IT project managers found that teams can be very successful when working globally but that this success requires considerable additional time and effort to coordinate things (e.g., working longer hours, frequent traveling, and overdetailed specifications and documents) when working across team boundaries (Espinosa, 2004). Beyond simply adding more coordination difficulties individually, an increased number of boundaries may combine to form deeper “fault lines” that hamper team members' ability to get work done. Generally speaking, team boundaries associated with global teams make it difficult for members to communicate effectively, leading to misunderstandings and reduced mutual knowledge or common ground, and opportunities for informal communication. By their nature, however, such organic processes are needed to coordinate nonroutine demands. As such, global teams should anticipate both the need for communication conduits and build the time and other resources needed into their operational ...