Abstract

Covid-19 has disrupted business, imposing modern styles of communication and collaboration. Governmental measures requiring employees to telework promoted new working practices. To understand how various stakeholders experienced this, we explored the impacts of Covid-19 upon multicultural virtual teams. We assessed how crosscultural teams dealt with the pandemic, if the reactions were culturally dependent, the extent to which working practices were changed. We then explored the positive and negative aspects of these changes, the resilience factors, and any management lessons to be drawn from this time of crisis. Data collection was undertaken via semi-structured, in-depth interviews with eight managers who lead multicultural teams, or virtual teams within a multicultural environment, and the data were then subjected to thematic analysis and coding. Findings suggest that participants’ experiences of lockdown varied according to their cultural backgrounds, and that remote working often challenged group communication. However, several organizations and managers adapted well to the emerging environment, amending their communication styles to integrate remote teams, capitalizing upon the benefits of remote working, and purposely acquiring new skills to deal effectively with the challenges of lockdown.