Question 1
Collaboration plays a critical role in completing innovative ideas like the development of the COVID-19 vaccine. Collaboration creates a world in which individuals and teams feel motivated and inspired to complete complex projects. The process is not limited to one company’s resources since they can share what each of the collaborating partners has. Collaboration allows companies to create a shared vision, develop positive relationships, and share information to achieve the vision within the desired timeline and budget. While many companies engage in collaboration every day, one recent that has overcome cultural barriers to achieve a common vision and goal is between Pfizer and Biotech, two biotech companies that came together in March 2020 to co-develop potential COVID-19 vaccine.
The COVID-19 vaccine development is a complex process that required extensive research and development to create an immediate solution to the ongoing pandemic. Companies must work harder than usual to create an effective vaccine for the new strain of coronavirus. Time and resource constraint created the need for collaboration between Pfizer and BioNtech and enjoyed the benefits of coming together in such a multifaceted project. In March 2020, a decision was made to jointly develop BioNTech’s mRNA-based vaccine candidate BNT162 that would prevent infection with the new strain of coronavirus. Pfizer and BioNtech collaborated intending to share knowledge and resources to develop an effective COVID-19 vaccine. Collaboration occurs if organizations are unable to achieve their objectives with available resources or bring together technology or expertise to achieve a common vision (Pfizer). Pfizer and BioNtech needed to come together and work towards developing the vaccine by bringing together research and development technology and know-how. They would speed up the global development of BNT162 through a resource-sharing plan.
Collaborative partnerships have various advantages over working on major projects alone. Collaborators enjoy a greater resource base than individual companies to increase effectiveness and efficiency. For example, sharing Pfizer and BioNtech labs and research and development resources speeded up the vaccine development process. Pfizer had the plan to develop the vaccine, but the management understood the need for massive resources to realize it. The two companies agreed to a letter of intent to co-develop and distribute a potential COVID-19 vaccine (Pfizer). Through a Transfer and Collaboration Agreement, the two companies would share resources to complete the project.
Besides resource sharing, the collaborating companies share risks. Vaccine development projects are prone to unique risks since they involve efforts to save lives. Pfizer and BioNtech would share any risks involved in vaccine development, including potential adverse effects from the vaccine usage globally. Furthermore, organizations collaborated to release the product to the market since the consequences of failing to develop the vaccine are too high for one firm to bear alone. Pfizer and BioNtech collaborated to complete the resource-intensive research and development COVID-19 vaccine project (Pfizer).
Collaboration between the two companies could increase efficiency and support the vaccine development, testing, and release into the market within a shorter time than if one firm worked alone to develop the solution to the global pandemic. The collaborating partners stated that the project aimed at rapidly developing the vaccine ensure adequate global supply (Rais). Although a single company could have developed the vaccine, it would take years to meet the global demand. Besides, successful collaboration is characterized by coordination and seamlessness since it enables people to work together to complete tasks or achieve the shared goal. The management working on the project adjusts and interlinks activities to complete them seamlessness and timely. Consequently, the team members would complete necessary steps within a shorter time than would take if they replicated efforts.
Collaboration provides a basis for learning for the partners since participants learn from each other when working together. For example, Pfizer’s employees learned various skills from BioNtech and vice versa. Besides. Collaboration involves a moral imperative since it was aimed at addressing a global public health problem. COVID-19 is one of the most serious social and economic challenges the world contends with today. Thus, developing a vaccine has moral implications since it will save lives and return societies to normalcy (Graham 945). Furthermore, if one country operates alone in the research and development process, a vaccine could delay or completely fail, leaving people to die from infections.
Collaboration between Pfizer and BioNtech is one of the most notable in the modern period since it aimed to speed up developing a COVID-19 vaccine to save lives globally. The result of the collaboration between Pfizer and BioNtech is a collaborative advantage. The two companies succeeded in developing a COVID-19 vaccine to save lives globally. The team developed and tested a vaccine quickly and began distributing it globally to prevent infections
Question 2
Collaboration is not limited to single cultures of countries since some span across national borders. The project to develop a COVID-19 vaccine involved Pfizer, an American company, and BioNtech, a German company, with employees from diverse backgrounds and cultures. The differences affect teams and individuals working with others from diverse backgrounds and cultures due to communication and language problems and work ethics differences. Besides, employees from different countries or cultures place unique demands on the management due to their differences. Conflicts are common since they are likely to disagree on pertinent issues, such as the morality of specific vaccine development actions. Regardless of the ultimate success in the collaboration between Pfizer and BioNtech, working in a multicultural setting presented challenges that the management should address to prevent negative consequences for the project.
Pfizer and BioNtech collaborated on a major project, bringing together employees from the United States and Germany to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. Consequently, one of the management’s challenges is managing cultural diversity in such major collaborative endeavors. Employees from diverse cultures experience challenges working together to achieve a shared objective due to direct versus indirect communication, language barriers, and diverse attitudes towards management styles. For example, employees from the American company might conflict with those from Germany regarding the decision-making approaches.
Communication challenges are common in multicultural teams. Direct versus indirect communication affect cross-cultural work situations because while western cultures communicate differently, some non-western cultures require understanding a hidden message in the communication (Brett et al.). While the two collaborating companies in the COVID-19 vaccine were western, the project was global, creating the possibility of drawing from other countries globally (Pfizer and BioNTech). The differences in communication styles can cause delays in the project due to the time needed to address emerging conflicts.
The language of international business is English, but non-native accents can cause challenges in understanding. Language differences also affect perceptions of status or competence due to differences, such as fluency and translation issues. The project to develop the COVID-19 vaccine drew members from the US, Germany, and other nations with expertise in the process. Such diversity causes communication issues when some experts are unable to express themselves using the common language. Interpersonal conflicts could arise from such differences that consume time and delay project completion (Kerzner 37). Therefore, language barriers are one of the issues that the management team needed to address.
Organizational structures affect management and teamwork in major projects spanning across countries and cultures. Differing attitudes towards hierarchy and authority cause challenges in cross-cultural environments, especially among team members from cultures that treat leaders as per their status (Brett et al.). Flat management structures challenge managers and employees who hold authority in their usual workplaces. Besides, working with individuals with different statuses can be problematic in an environment where everyone is treated equally.
Conflicting norms for decision-making could cause challenges in major collaborations, such as Pfizer and BioNtech. While the US-leaders make quick decisions, others prefer evaluating available data and alternatives before deciding a course of action (Brett et al.). Information sharing is another area that collaborating individuals and teams could disagree with since some leaders prefer to wait until they are sure about things before sharing information.
Previous efforts reveal that conflicts emanating from cultural differences are manageable, especially if the management anticipates and creates steps to address them. Pfizer and BioNtech project management team required effective strategies to overcome cultural barriers and problems that could interfere with vaccine development. They should realize ineffective steps, such as single-culture-based approaches in multicultural environments, can be counterproductive. The management could use some of the four strategies to deal with the above challenges: adaptation, structural intervention, managerial intervention, and exit. The most effective interventions in the Pfizer and BioNtech project are adaptation, acknowledging that cultural gap exists and creating strategies to work around them, and managerial intervention, setting work norms early, beginning from the top to the bottom to address conflicts effectively and immediately they occur.
Pfizer and BioNtech collaboration are among the most important projects in the modern period since American and German biotech companies came together to solve the global COVID-19 pandemic challenge. Given that the relationship span across the country and cultural boundaries, the project management needed to understand the barriers inherent in managing cross-cultural teams. Lessons from the successful collaboration between the two companies provide lessons for other cross-cultural teams to use strategies, such as adaptation and management interventions to prevent conflicts that might affect project success.
Works Cited
BioNTech-Announce-Further-Details-on-Collaboration-to-Accelerate-Global-COVID-19-Vaccine-Development.html
Brett, Jeanne, Kristin Behfar and Mary Kern. Managing Multicultural Teams, chapter 13
Graham, Barney S. “Rapid COVID-19 vaccine development.” Science 368.6494 (2020): 945-946.
Kerzner, Harold. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons, 2017
Pfizer and BioNTech. Pfizer and BioNTech Announce Further Details on Collaboration to Accelerate Global COVID-19 Vaccine Development, April 9, 2020. Accessed March 18, 2021 at: https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2020/04/09/2014250/0/en/Pfizer-and-BioNTech-Announce-Further-Details-on-Collaboration-to-Accelerate-Global-COVID-19-Vaccine-Development.html
Pfizer. Pfizer and Biontech To Co-Develop Potential Covid-19 Vaccine, March 17, 2020. Accessed March 18, 2021 at: https://dashboard.goldenwritingcenter.com/order/13543
Rais, Ahlam. Germany: Potential Cure for Coronavirus: Biontech, Pfizer Reveal Further Details on Collaboration to Develop Covid-19 Vaccine, April 15, 2020. Accessed March 18, 2021 at: https://www.process-worldwide.com/biontech-pfizer-reveal-further-details-on-collaboration-to-develop-covid-19-vaccine-a-924270/
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