Culture Matters: Decision-Making in Global Virtual Teams

Dr. Norhayati Zakaria is an Associate Professor at Faculty of Business and Management at University of Wollongong in Dubai. Dr. Zakaria earned her Ph.D. in Information Science and Technology and MPhil. of Information Transfer, both at Syracuse University and MSc. Management at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy. Her research expertise combines several interdisciplinary fields, including cross-cultural management, international business, and computer-mediated communication technology. For more than a decade, Dr. Zakaria has established international research collaborations with global scholars from the United States, Japan, and Canada. As a principal investigator, she has obtained international research grants from the Asian Office of Aerospace Research & Development (AOARD). From 2006 till now, she serves as a Senior Research Faculty Associate at the Center for Research on Collaboratories and Technology Enhanced Learning Communities (COTELCO) under American University where she led projects using global virtual teams. All her research works are built on qualitative research method in which she believes provide illuminating results with deep insights and rich descriptions of culturally-attuned phenomenon at workplace face-to-face or virtually. Since she has been trained in the Western educational system, actively engaged in international research collaborations, and has experiences in teaching at the Middle Eastern region, she has developed eminent cross-cultural competencies with vast global experiences.