Can Team Communication Alone Drive a Team to Success

Can Team Communication Alone Drive a Team to Success

Ernie Sanders

University of Phoenix

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Can Team Communication Alone Drive a Team to Success

Today's teams both in school and in business work across the globe in many locations performing different roles with all members trying to achieve common goals and objectives. To build a product, provide a service or complete a project, each member of the team must understand the common goal and roles of the global team and its members. Communication is one attribute of the many facets of the team that must be addressed as the team comes together. Strong team communication is a necessity because it enables clear interaction and establishes the criteria for a team to succeed.

Many factors impact a team's communication especially when the team is dispersed and not working face-to-face with each other. Maloney and Zellmer (2006) came to the following conclusion when looking at dispersed teams in a recent study, "Teams with dispersed membership face a number of challenges, including lack of trust, group process losses, failure to communicate and remember contextual information, and uncertainty about the meaning of silence" (p.

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English: Interactional Model of Communication

ភាសាខ្មែរ: ក្រុមផ្...

697). The development of trust and sharing become a necessity in order for the team to have self-verification thus creating a psychologically safe environment in order for the team to operate and communicate. Furthermore, the media and tools used to communicate amongst the members tend to be less desirable than working in the same building or city where there is more face-to-face interactions and the body language of each is visible. The non-human tools and media typically used by the global teams rob the team of quick chats, face-to-face meetings, body language, and relationships which typically build strong rapport and bonding of team...