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Questions: What Are The Nature And Extent Of The Problems Faced By The Managers? How Frequently They Face These Issues. What Are The Steps Taken By The Managers To Combat Such Situations? Answers: Introduction Over the last few decades, the global commercial framework has undergone considerable dynamics and modifications, which have contributed massively in shaping up the modern day methods of doing business. With time, the global business scenario has become more integrated and inclusive, by reducing the geographical and cultural barriers existing in these aspects. Phenomena like that of Globalization and Liberalization across different countries have also contributed in making inter-country trade and commerce much convenient. This in turn has encouraged more and more companies to increase their domain of operations and production across different geographical location, to explore and take advantages of geographically diversified economies and markets (Mendenhall et al. 2017). With the penetration in the global markets, the workforces within these companies are also changing significantly, with the companies having employees not only of different expertise and experiences but also of different cultural, geographical and ethnological origins. These companies, for the purpose of better and wider commercial prospects and for expanding their domain of operations, are becoming increasing dependent on this geographically and culturally varied workforce, which is contributing positively in terms of implementing strategic diversities (Erez et al. 2013). However, the presence of a global and diverse workforce often leads to problems within the teams, in terms of misunderstandings, lack of coordination and confusions, thereby making it a challenge for the managers to manage the global workforce in an efficient manner, such that their productivity and success are optimized. Keeping this into consideration, the paper proposes to discuss and highlight the primary challenges which are faced by the contemporary global business teams in their operational framework, which in turn becomes challenges to the corresponding managements, emphasizing on the problems which crop up while managing cross border business teams. Project Objective Keeping the above discussion in consideration, the primary objective of the concerned project is to analyze and interpret the different challenges and problems, which are faced by the managers of especially those multinational commercial institutions, which operate in different geographical domains and have geographically and culturally diversified cross-border teams of employees. For understanding the same, it is of utmost importance to study the characteristic features of such cross-border business teams, the problems which crop up in such a framework and the root causes behind such problems, which are also proposed to be studied by the concerned research project. Apart from highlighting the different challenges which the managers face, which in turn create hurdles in the path of achievement of the organizational goals, the paper also proposes to analyze the different styles of management which are usually undertaken in this aspect and how they can be improved to combat these hurdl es efficiently. Project Scope It can be seen from the above discussion that the contemporary global business scenario is becoming increasingly integrated and diverse, with companies hiring employees from different geographical locations, cultural backgrounds and professional expertise and the work teams becoming geographically varied within the companies themselves. In such a scenario, it becomes important for the managements to design their operational frameworks in such a way that maximum advantage can be obtained from such work set ups. This can however, only be done once the problems and challenges in the management of such global teams are identified and tackled with. Therefore, to maximize the profits and welfare of the contemporary global commercial framework, the challenges which are faced by the managers of the multi-national companies in this aspect has to be studies with immense importance, which in turn indicates towards the wide scope of the proposed research in the contemporary periods. Global Work Teams With global and geographical diverse workforce and global teams increasingly becoming a part of the modern business frameworks, many literary works have been done on the aspects of the profitability, nature, characteristics of such work teams and the challenges which can arise in the process of efficient management of such diversely located work teams. There exists various definitions and interpretations of the term global teams in the commercial scenario. As stated by Moran, Abramson and Moran (2014), in their working paper, the term can be assigned to the increasingly popular practice of the business organizations to form work teams across different time zones and geographical and cultural boundaries, which in spite of their linguistic and cultural differences work for the same organizational goals. In general, one individual or a group of managers, who, with his base in one country, is assigned the role of managing the geographically diverse teams, manages these varied teams. Benefits of such diverse work teams Different scholars put forward, several crucial advantages of the presence of geographically diverse teams, most of which talks about the prospects it adds to the company and in terms of increased profitability and sustainability. According to Pieterse, Van Knippenberg and Van Dierendonck (2013), the presence of culturally and geographically diverse teams in a commercial institution can help in tapping the regional talents as well as comparative advantages which may have positive implications on the organizations profitability, sustainability as well as global competitiveness. Klitmller and Lauring (2013), who add that the presence of such teams helps the companies in expanding their operational framework in different countries, thereby helping them to exploit the opportunities present in the previously unexplored markets, support their assertions. Daim et al. (2012) puts forward the aspect of the continuously technological innovations and improvisations, which makes it much convenient as well as cost effective for the commercial institutions to manage their global teams virtually with the help of the different electronic mediums, which make communication between these culturally and geographically diverse workforces fast and easy. All these assertions together, point towards the benefit as well as the need for incorporation of diverse work teams in the contemporary commercial scenario. Problems and challenges in maintaining global teams In spite of the presence of considerable prospects and benefits of the presence of global and diversified workforce within a company, there remains several issues of concern in the working of the same, which, as put forward by different scholars, if not addressed can be immensely detrimental to the commercial profitability and viability of these organizations. The primary issues of concern, as highlighted in the different literary works, are discussed as follows: Communication Breakdown- One of the primary challenges faced by the global teams and their managers, as argues by Daim et al. (2012) is the problem of communication breakdown, which often happens within the diversified teams within a company, mostly due to the absence of proper and effective channel of communications between the geographically diverse work teams. Other factors contributing to this problem are lack of trust, inter-personal issues and improper or shortsighted leaderships in the company, which hampers the carrying out multi-national projects of the companies Shaffer et al. (2012). Lack of team developing activities- Dyer and Dyer (2013) asserts that often the global teams are formed within the companies in ad hoc basis as per the needs of the situations. These teams, being temporary in nature, start with the assigned works soon after team formation, which gives them little or no time to build a proper plan for carrying out the task. The absence of the feeling of a proper team mentality hampers the commitment of the members, thereby affecting the goals of the organization. Confusions in decision-making activities- As rightly argues by Liu and Woywode (2013), one of the most crucial issues or challenges which the global teams face in their operational framework, is that of the confusions and problems in decision making regarding planning and executions of different strategies and operations. The geographical difference, different time zones and variations in the work cultures in different geographical locations make it a huge challenge for the cross-border teams to take operational decisions effectively and unanimously. The presence of very little common office hours also contributes to the lack of communication which hampers these activities substantially. Differences in work culture- The presence of different and often conflicting corporate cultures among the cross border teams of a company, is seen as one of the primary challenges in the aspect of efficient team management, by Mowday, Porter and Steers (2013). According to the authors, these varied corporate cultures make it difficult for the managers to make the employees understand their job roles and the common target of maximization of profit of organization, towards which they are supposed to be committed. Coordination failure- Another problem of operation of global teams, which is related to the previous challenges, is the highly relevant problem of coordination issues in the day to day activities in the team. As Alvesson and Sveningsson (2015), suggest often the problem arises with the employees operating in one country and their bosses operating in other. In such scenarios the support from the supervisors or managers often come in an untimely manner, thereby leading to coordination failure, which hampers the projects of the company, especially in which prompt decisions are needed to be taken. Evaluation of team performance- Cappelli and Keller (2013) rightly puts forward in their article, the problem of proper evaluation of the performance of the global teams by the managers as one of the most concerning issues in this aspect. According to the authors, the remote working locations and virtual communication channels contribute in creating barriers for the managers in the aspect of evaluation of the teams performance. Often these evaluations are erroneous and it almost becomes impossible for the managers to keep track of the regular operations of the team. This in turn hampers in the target setting and goal-achieving framework of the employees, thereby affecting the companies adversely. Lack of vision- The assertions of the previous authors are augmented by Crisp and Jarvenpaa (2013), who argues that the lack of coordination and evaluation often prevents the managers and the leaders to implant the vision of the company among the team members, which makes them feel de-motivated. This clubbed with improper information flow contributes in the problems, which the managers face while managing such teams. From the above review of the existing literatures in this aspect, it can be seen that the problems and challenges, which the managers of multi-national companies and diverse global teams can face, have been extensively discussed and interpreted by scholars from all parts of the world. However, empirical and real life evidences rarely support these assertions. Also very little has been said or done for designing wholesome strategies to rule out such problems or to at least address such issues. For this purpose the point of views of the managers and other people involved in the operation of the global teams need to be emphasized on and incorporated in the problem solving process. Research Methodology To make the research robust and informative, the paper proposes to adopt a mixed method research, incorporating both quantitative as well as qualitative aspects: Quantitative Research The project proposes to carry out interviews with at least 30 managers of such globally diversified teams, who have the base in the country itself. For the collection of the primary data, it proposes to design quantitative questionnaires emphasizing on the following points: Number of teams and team mates the managers handle Geographical locations of the teams Types of diversity in the teams Types of problems faced by the managers Frequency of occurrence of such problems Cost of managing such problems The data collected are proposed to be interpreted and analyzed using statistical software SPSS (Neuman 2013). Qualitative Research Quantitative research methods only focus on the cardinal details of a problem, thereby missing out the ordinal and abstract specific information, which might be extremely relevant (Liamputtong 2013). Considering this aspect, the project proposes to perform in depth interviews with at least five managers of reputed companies handling such teams. It also proposes to conduct focused group discussion with such global teams, emphasizing on extensive discussion about the challenges as well as the ways in which these problems can be solved. Research Limitations The primary limitation of the concerned research is that, though it tries to incorporate the views of all the types of players involved in operation of global teams, it cannot take into account the same for multiple geographical locations, due to time and cost constraints. The research thereby loses the chances to study the differences in corporate cultures and work behaviors and the scope to study how the same affects the working of the different global teams thereby creating challenges for the managers. Time Schedule Research Milestones Particulars Duration Starting Finish Research Ideation 3 Days 18-01-2018 20-01-2018 Review of Literature 3 Days 21-01-2018 23-01-2018 Research Design 5 Days 23-01-2018 27-01-2018 Data Collection 5 Days 29-01-2018 02-02-2018 Data Interpretation 3 Days 03-02-2018 06-02-2018 Publication of the Data 3 Days 07-02-2018 09-02-2018 Conclusion In the contemporary business world, the implications of the global and geographically diverse work teams are becoming increasingly prominent, with more and more companies going global and exploring different geographical markets as well as newer domains of operations. In such situations, the presence of global teams not only become beneficial for the companies but has become a necessity to prosper and stay ahead of the competitors. However, managing such teams are not easy as the managers need to face different problems and challenges which create hurdles in the path of smooth operational framework of the companies and in attaining their long term goals. The proposed research tries to shed light on the major challenges, which the managers of global work teams face, and also tries to discuss the strategies which can be taken to properly address and reduce such problems. References Alvesson, M. and Sveningsson, S., 2015.Changing organizational culture: Cultural change work in progress. Routledge. Cappelli, P. and Keller, J.R., 2013. Classifying work in the new economy.Academy of Management Review,38(4), pp.575-596. Crisp, C.B. and Jarvenpaa, S.L., 2013. Swift trust in global virtual teams.Journal of Personnel Psychology. Daim, T.U., Ha, A., Reutiman, S., Hughes, B., Pathak, U., Bynum, W. and Bhatla, A., 2012. 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