Managing communicative conflicts and relational challenges in virtual teams

Teachers’ competencies for working in an intercultural environment

BACKGROUND: Today, multiculturalism is present in all spheres of life. Teachers are at the forefront to first formally encounter children from different cultures, and as the first ones, children from different cultures will face it in their social life. Teachers are supposed to prepare students to meet and live with people from cultures different from their own. Hence, it is necessary to identify the competencies teachers need to work in an intercultural environment, given the globalising world where different cultures meet more often, coexist, and exchange values and ways of living. OBJECTIVE: This paper discusses the teachers’ competencies to work in an intercultural environment and presents the results from data collected within the RoMigSc project. These data are analysed to identify the competencies teachers need to work in a multicultural environment. METHODS: In the study, data from the RoMigSc survey were used, where information on the inclusion of migrant students was collected using the survey questionnaire method. All analyses in this paper are on a descriptive level with exploratory purpose. RESULTS: The results show that teachers don’t feel well prepared to support learning or teach human rights, emigration and immigration, shared values and discrimination. They also need more support in teaching in an intercultural and multicultural environment, especially out-of-school support. CONCLUSIONS: In general, teachers find their school and own practices inclusive for migrant and Roma students, but not in all aspects. None of the teachers has participated in a project to raise awareness of Roma issues.

Towards remote leadership in health care: Lessons learned from an integrative review

AIM

To gather and synthesize current empirical evidence on remote leadership and to provide knowledge that can be used to develop successful remote leadership in health care.

DESIGN

A integrative literature review with an integrated mixed methods design.

DATA SOURCES

The literature search was carried out between February and March 2019 in the CINAHL, Medline (Ovid), PsycInfo, Scopus, SocIndex, Web of Science and Business Source Elite (EBSCO) databases.

REVIEW METHODS

An integrative review was conducted to identify relevant studies published from 2010 to 2019. Of the 88 eligible studies, 21 studies met the inclusion criteria and were selected for the final review. The included studies were analysed using mixed methods synthesis, more specifically, data-based convergent synthesis.

RESULTS

The performed analysis identified three main themes: characteristics of successful remote leadership; enhancing the leader-member relationship; and challenges in remote leadership. The first theme included the following sub-themes: remote leader characteristics; trust; communication; and leading the team culture. The second theme covered the importance of organizing regular face-to-face meetings, clear communication policies and the connection between positive team spirit and good remote leader-member relationship, while the third theme emphasized leader- and member-related challenges for remote work.

CONCLUSIONS

As none of the identified studies had been conducted in a health care setting, future remote leadership research must also specifically consider the health care context. This will be pivotal to exploring how remote work can foster a safe workplace culture, empower health care workers, increase job satisfaction and improve patient outcomes.

IMPACT

Remote leadership has rarely been studied in the health care context. Trust, communication, team spirit and a leader's characteristics are central to remote leadership, a finding which is useful for re-evaluating and improving the current culture at health care organizations.

A debate about implementing immersive technology for higher education: Pre-study examining the usability of virtual reality for lectures

BACKGROUND: As the COVID-pandemic has shown, the need for innovative (digitalized) solutions is in high demand across almost every field of interest. The implementation of advanced technologies in higher education provides an intriguing opportunity to expand its scope by reaching new audiences as well as ensuring a high quality of learning outcome. OBJECTIVE: In this article we tried to examine if virtual reality can be a suitable option by placing lectures into a virtual setup. METHODS: First, we explored the theoretical background if and how virtual reality has been adapted for usage in higher education. We then asked five lecturers from the IMC University of Applied Sciences Krems to test a virtual environment (Mozilla Hubs) and evaluate the platform for their teaching purposes. RESULTS: Among one of the results was, that 80 percent would recommend using the platform for lectures to their colleagues. Due to the small sample size the findings need to be further evaluated. CONCLUSIONS: In the foreseeable future virtual reality will become a valuable teaching assistance in higher education. Findings show that the response rate when training with virtual reality applications is much higher than to common studying methods.

Virtuality and teams: Dealing with crises and catastrophes

BACKGROUND: This article bridges the gap between theory and practice and elaborates, for practitioners, how to convert the COVID-19 and other similar crises into opportunities for keeping their business on track for growth. It shows how movement to virtual modes of working, especially virtual teams, can help practitioners meet the current crisis effectively and also prepare for future crisis efficiently. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this article is to show how the concept of virtuality can help design practices which enable managers/practitioners in effectively managing necessary transitions to virtual work. METHODS: The article reviews and integrates essential literature on virtuality and virtual teams. It enumerates the benefits and challenges which accompany a sudden and necessary movement to virtual work in teams. Also used are the recently developed theoretical frameworks of teams as essential emergent states and its implications on virtual work. RESULTS: By distilling insights from past literature, the article advises managers on how to deal with the present and prepare for future disruptions. Usage of overarching frameworks rather than industry/work specific literature enables managers to move away from specific recommendations and focus on general characteristics for wider impact. CONCLUSIONS: The article demonstrates how organizations can meet disruptive challenges successfully and also prepare for future challenges sustainably using virtuality as a starting point.