Virtual Teams and Knowledge Communication: Drawing on Semiotics for Making Knowledge about Virtual Teams and Collaboration Visible

How does culture affect virtual teams and the knowledge communication processes in which they engage? As virtual spaces are increasingly used to support teams and establish collaboration in cross-cultural projects, the notion of cross-cultural communication can be understood as shifting from contextual perspective to a semiotic perspective. That is to say, although the team members are using the same vocabulary they might attach different meanings to and have different knowledge about them thus highlighting the importance of approaching virtual teams and collaboration from a semiotic perspective. To look at how knowledge about virtual work is established in a multinational context, the authors interviewed members of a team that connects Finland and India. Results reveal five objects shared between the team members with varying knowledge about them. By making these differences in knowledge visible through semiotics the authors are calling for a more nuanced understanding of cross-cultural collaboration that draws on and extends the existing body of knowledge on virtual teams and collaboration.