Advantages And Disadvantages Of A Virtual Team

Virtual-based business have great benefits but can have downfalls as well. Even though it would seemingly cost less money, the headache in communication would weigh out the same. In a regular office, everyone is right there in the same building. Meetings held in person are more engaging and easier to understand. Even though there are many

The high tech age brings at a fast pace through different sources like TV, radio, internet, newspapers, magazines as well wanted or unwanted phone calls, instant message, social network messages, web searches, emails etc. One of the advantage of having 24/7 virtual office is businesses can capitalize on the evolving nature of the office by striking a balance that combines virtual and physical work and space which could ultimately increase productivity and lower costs without sacrificing company culture or individual motivation. One of the biggest issues facing the organization is employees facing loss of productivity, stressed, and burnout due to information and email overload. Information overload describes an excess of information

Virtual Team on the other hand is a group of people working across time, space, and organizational boundaries which communication links are strengthened by the internet. It should be noted that virtual teams can also mean individuals spread across different cultures and languages. (“Virtual Team - Origin, Definition and its Scope,” 2016). More so, this team of geographically dispersed professionals working together as a unit despite distance are committed to achieving a single objective, holding one another mutually accountable.

Being a part of a virtual group brought along many new and different experiences. Along with these unique experiences I realized the advantages and disadvantages of working in a virtual group. My virtual group team name was the Hummingbirds and our assignment was to create a poster/banner/flyer for a nonprofit organization, of our choosing, to submit into a simulated grant competition. Overall I would say that working in a virtual small group was different than working in my face-to-face small group. According to our book, virtual small group communication is communication among group members who are not together in the same physical location. The major thing that was different for me was not getting to see my actual group members. Since we were not able to be there physically, communication was scares. Text messages and emails were exchanged, but not as often as verbal words would have been if we were all together. Some things that were similar about my two groups was our creativity

Themes and patterns were extracted from interview transcripts through content analysis, and data were analyzed in relation to the main study questions. Findings indicated that virtual communities of practice could be successful, information sharing could be limited but was evolving, and information shared was generally perceived to be accurate but may not have been routinely updated. The results included positive and negative aspects of the virtual community of practice within an organization, through which the organizational leaders could gain a deeper understanding of the uses of virtual communication in the company. Increased efficiency, improved collaboration strategies, and a deeper understanding of the uses of virtual communities of practice within organizations have implications for positive social change. Recommendations for further research include specific guidelines and an action research project for virtual communities of

After completing checklist 1.2 assessing whether organizations practice the seven success factors, I now realize how complex the virtual environment is. Overall, I think the assessment was comprehensive and showed both the strengths and weaknesses of Transcat. Duarte & Snyder (2006), identifies a score of 4.0 -5.0 as excellent, score of 2.5 – 3.99 as moderate, and a score 2.49 or less as a low score. Transcat scored 3.0 overall. Transcat didn’t score a 4.0 or higher (excellent range) in any of the seven success factors, which indicates the organization

I work with many colleagues who work remote across the United States and I am constantly looking for ways to engage these employees on a regular basis. Through our discussion on virtual teams there were a few points that I think are useful when managing and engaging a virtual team. The first is making sure the team meets face-to-face in the beginning, this way team members view each other as people versus just someone they email. The second is taking advantage of video conferencing versus just using conference calls. This is something my company has the capability to do, but shys away from. This is one vehicle I think we need to become more comfortable using if we want to be successful as a remote teams. In addition, the video “conference call in real life” was a funny, yet realistic interpretation of exactly what happens during conference calls. It served as a reminder to be engaged and present in the now versus multitasking while on a call. Lastly, the role play we did on conference call I thought was particularly interesting. To be honest it was actually really hard to come to a decision as a team on the call without seeing the other team member’s visual cues. There were often awkward silences and people talking over each other as a result of not being able to read visual cues. It really showed how difficult it can be as a new team to try and accomplish things virtually.

Although the film presents a pessimistic view of this (claiming that this will make children lazier regarding information), this literacy with computers will eventually allow a digital connection with people from around the world. When these young students begin to enter the job market, they will have the skills to connect with potential employers digitally. These virtual meetings can work the same way as in-person meetings, covering all the necessary training aspects, task assignment, and in-company communication. Allowing the employees to work from home also lowers the severity of sick days because important and necessary work can be finished in spite of the employee’s condition. These tasks can even be monitored clearly and with record, so there is no loss of information by way of speech, which can occur if something is neglected to be written down or if it is forgotten. In this way, these virtual platforms are not only a good fit for future companies, but an even better fit than the current

In this paper I will be discussing some of the benefits and risks of allowing staff to work remotely. I will address the organizational behavior associated with both virtual and local leadership and staff. I will address what affect this would have on the organizational culture if implemented within SRP.

Mehmet A. Orhan continues the topic of decreased face to face conversation in the workplace. In his journal, Invisible, therefore isolated: Comparative effects of team virtuality with task virtuality on workplace isolation and work outcomes. Mehmet A. Orhan writes “The extent of face-to-face interaction has a strong impact on the social support received in the workplace. Especially for virtual workers, lack of face-to-face contact creates threatening conditions that cause isolation in the workplace and subsequently detrimental effects on the well-being of employees. Besides organizational disconnectedness, lack of informal socialization opportunities is found particularly problematic for virtual workers. While increased face-to-face interactions promote individuals’ sense of social belongingness, lack of social support is associated with feelings of loneliness and perceptions of isolation. Workplace social isolation can be defined as a lack of satisfying friendship relationships or a lack of access to social networks in workplace.” In other words Orhan is saying that when a work environment is social and employees are having face to face interactions, the more likely the employees will be satisfied with their jobs. The reverse is said about virtual workers, they are more likely to encounter loneliness and will most likely lack a sense of social belongingness.

Ebrahim, A., Shamsuddin, A. & Taha, Z. (2009). Virtual Teams: A Literature Review. Australian Journal of Basic and Applied Science, 3(3), 2653-2669.

Rather than just a mere curiosity, promoters of virtual teams assert there are many advantages to virtual teams. A few of the drivers leading to interest in virtual teams include attracting the best workers independent of location, no need to relocate existing workers, flexibility, reduction in travel time and expense, environments requiring inter-organizational cooperation, shift towards service work, global workdays

Not all companies go for running virtually. Like manufacturing. Companies which has location as important factor like real estate firm . Work where team interaction is more important, since virtual teams are not effective in managing conflicts. The companies who already has a developed infrastructure are less prone to go for a virtual environment. A company with scope of a city or 2-3 cities wont go for a virtual environment. Also business likes retail, travel agency , restaurants , advertising agencies where location and team dimension plays important role can 't run like Accenture.

The article highlights the advantages and disadvantages of the phenomenon of telecommuting at three different levels: the individual, organizational, and societal level. First, Harpaz explains that telecommuting does not have single definition because of “the sheer number of tasks that can now be carried out remotely-and the number of ways in which this can be achieved” (Harpaz, 2002, pp. 74-75). Although, telecommuting has no single definition according to Harpaz, one underlying understanding is that telecommuting in the today’s society is accelerated by the development of online technological devices (Harpaz, 2002). Next, Harpaz provides lists the advantages and disadvantages of telecommuting at the individual level and provides brief explanations for them. For example, autonomy/independence is an advantage that allows “the individual’s control over work [to] occur more freely and naturally” (Harpaz, 2002, p. 75). In conclusion, Harpaz asks rhetorical questions that should be used to identify the type of individuals and jobs that are suitable for electronic work (e-work). Specifically, he asks about individual personality variables for workers and managers of telecommuting jobs in order to determine to guarantee the success of telecommuting jobs.

This paper will explain the differences between traditional environments and team work environments. According to Exhibit 12.1 in our text book, in the traditional environment the managers determine and plan the work, and in a team environment the managers and team members jointly determine and plan the work.  Jobs are narrowly defined and cross-training is viewed as inefficient in a traditional environment. Team environments feel jobs require broad skills and knowledge and cross-training is the norm. Most information is considered “management property” while it is