According to a recent survey by Global Integration, when managers were asked what their three biggest challenges are in today’s complex workplaces – such as international companies, matrix organisations, and those which offer remote and virtual working - 70% responded that organizational complexity itself was the biggest challenge.
Just over half of respondents (53%) feel the pressure of distance and lack of face to face contact in remote virtual teams, whilst 40% nominated cultural differences as one of their three biggest challenges.
Matrix structures (those where people have more than one work group/line manager to work within) and excess meetings/ calls each affected just over a third of respondents.
Technology such as emails, by contrast, affected just 18%, and time zones presented even less of a challenge.
My own take on this is surprise at the technology element in many ways, because when the technology doesn't work, life's miserable. I guess the flip side of this is that most of the time it does work or is relatively easy in a corporate context to resolve.
FYI Global Integration offers consultancy and training in people management within complex, matrix, global and virtual organisations.
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