If you’re in charge of a large business concern that has locations in a number of linguistic and national locations, or, if you have a smaller company which has grown to include other companies which have their own working practices, or you might work in a region where there are linguistic and cultural problems within the office or factory itself.

If you do find yourself in this situation then a series in intercultural training could be what you need to unify your staff and bring all the working practices which exist into one uniform process.

Cross cultural training refers to a group of different educational training and development courses which are aimed at engendering an awareness of the differences that exist in people who belong to different cultures and where commonality of method doesn’t yet exist.

Rather than look at each region as a separate entity, once your business has undergone cross cultural training your staff will feel like they are part of a virtual team building with the same objectives and aims working in a way which one and all can appreciate and contribute to.

These virtual teams can be put together to use their regional knowledge and particular expertise within a matrix organisation which will allow project leaders to assign research and development tasks, experimentation and marketing to each member within the team based exclusively upon their field of experience.

Once these virtual teams have been set up they may communicate with one another often to keep each disparate location fully appraised of the advances that they have been making while only meeting face to face occasionally, if ever.

The rewards from the virtual team increase as the use of communications technology booms. It would not be possible to organise with a telegraph system and a traditional mail service but with instant communication it is possible to set up a team where each member or subset of the entire group are located throughout the world. Because of the use of electronic communication people can work from anywhere at any time; be recruited based solely upon their abilities and specialism rather than having to consider location when making a decision; expenses which are associated with commuting and business travel can be almost eliminated if not significantly reduced.