Virtual communication in multicultural work environment

In the last decades, new ways of communicating at work have been introduced as internationalization, as well as the increased amount of virtual communication and virtual team work, have entered the picture. This thesis examines communication in workplaces where virtual communication and culture differences collide. The objective of the thesis is to examine how communication is currently carried out in work places, and what communication related challenges employees face. Furthermore, the study aims at finding factors which potentially lead to misunderstandings, as well as finding solutions on how misunderstandings could be prevented in the above described working environment. Using the collected data, the study explores factors which have helped the employees to successfully and effectively communicate in this modern work environment. To limit the scope of data, it was chosen to focus in culture differences between Russia and Finland. Ten persons were interviewed with semi-structured interviews during May 2016 in Helsinki area. The interviewed persons were born and raised either in Finland or Russia, and at work they virtually communicated with persons from the other culture. All the interviews were recorded and later transcribed. The theoretical part of the thesis focuses on communication and culture differences which are described using the Hofstede model. Theory about virtual team work is also introduced. The results showed that most usual challenges in communication were related to technical challenges, language barriers and culture differences. Key points for good workplace communication were to have the right persons communicating with one another, getting the point across in conversations, and making sure the messages were understood. To make workplace communication effective, it was suggested that teams discussed about their communication habits to create a common ground for communication, and that awareness about culture related differences were brought up to the knowledge of team members. In conclusion, it was noticed that some misunderstandings could be tackled before they even took place, by enhancing mutual understanding between team members. Beneficial for the overall communication was when the teams had an atmosphere in which asking questions was allowed and encouraged