Foundations For Doctoral Study Business

Due to the change many organizations realize the need for offices in various geographical locations. Therefore, the concern is how to ensure that employees located off-site are constantly connected to their counterparts. Virtual teams were developed to answer the call to ensure the ability to stay tied to the main office of any organization. As one can see a learning organization at times it may encounter difficulty in ensuring that virtual teams are learning according to the guidelines as set forth by the learning organization (Boone, 2015). A simple way to fix these issues are to ensure that communication is consistent, through the use of technology and employees are given the chance to build relationships with their virtual team members, team empowerment is necessary for virtual teams to be involved in the decision making process. Because of the diverse backgrounds of the virtual teams conflicts will arise and a leader must determine ways of handling these conflicts. Also, barriers involve the geographical, time, cultural/language, communication can be handled at each individual level and proper enhancements as needed will aid in ensuring that the team remains viable and productive. For example, cultural differences can be handled by ensuring that employees are trained to comprehend what is or not acceptable to each

In today’s modern company virtual teams are interacting in different ways tan with traditional physical teams. Bock lists three ways virtual teams are getting their assigned activities accomplished, and what the company must provide for them to be successful.

Virtual Organization- Thomas and Turner (2016) describes the term virtual in this sense with roots in the computer industry. According to Thomas and Turner (2016) virtual organization is used to describe a network of independent firms that join together, often temporarily, to produce a service or product. Virtual organization is often associated with such terms as virtual office, virtual teams, and virtual leadership. The ultimate goal of the virtual organization is to provide innovative, high-quality products or services instantaneously in response to customer demands (Thomas and Turner, 2016).

Leaders must form trust with their employees in order to be effective. Trust comes from consistency in actions aligning what you do with what you say and it comes from being honest with employees. With trust comes greater stability and when these factors are put together the leader has created an environment where the morale of the unit is likely to flourish (Anderson, 2013). For a leader to cultivate trust takes time, but it can be done relatively quickly through bonding exercises. However, the leader should be aware that fostering trust cannot be done if early actions engender mistrust. Trust is a factor that, if absent, leads to a working environment that is toxic, because nobody wants to work for somebody that they do not trust.

First, it is very challenging to build trust within virtual teams. It is very hard for you to trust people who you do not know well or those whom you have not observed working over time. Secondly, in virtual teams, it is difficult to obtain group-process gains (positive synergy) that many times accompany face-to-face communication. Process losses (negative synergy) are more likely. It is difficult to create team synergy and to overcome the absence of informal, interactive learning. Thirdly, there is a feeling of isolation and detachment associated with the virtual teamwork. There is no physical interaction which is associated with verbal and non-verbal ques and thus, there is absence of social interaction with supervisors and coworkers. Virtual team members may be less productive and satisfied than their counterparts working face-to-face due to feeling of isolation and detachment. Fourthly, it is tricky to balance technical and interpersonal skills among the virtual members. There is a challenge for a virtual teal leader to recruit, select and retain team members who have a good balance of technical and

348). Virtual team members have to be more self- motivated and disciplined in their assigned work and they must be proficient in using variety of tech tools in order to accomplish their task (Settle-Murphy, 2009). Likewise, Virtual team members have to have the ability to manage their time effectively and those who can understand that how much time they need to get their task done are usually far more productive which in turns contribute to the success of virtual team. Moreover, communication effectiveness and stimulating work are the two vital features of actuating the success or failure of virtual teams; for instance, team members should know what to communicate, how and when and the whole communication process should be concise and lucid to avoid any misinterpretation (Nelson & Quick, 2013, p. 348).

Due to the recent increased utilization of information communication technology in organizations, there has been a rising trend of the adoption of virtual teams. These teams have helped organizations conduct their businesses in a very effective way. In furtherance of that, these teams have also helped in enhancing the speed at which communication is carried out. For instance, team members in different countries or continents can actually contribute ideas for a project in real time via electronic means (Hendrickson, 1998). However, these groups have faced some criticisms which have made them to be underutilized. Some of the issues raised against these teams include lack of involvement and inclusiveness, lack of trust, lack of employees with technical and interpersonal skills and lack of cohesion among others. Past research has revealed that virtual teams have proved to be effective,

The team that I would like to discuss going virtual would be the Academic Advising team at Baker College. The newly designed virtual team would be answering all student questions by email, phone or chat. Academic Advisors work from home; the position would be completely remote. An economic advantage of this virtual team for Baker College would be the decrease in office supplies (paper, ink, office space and shredding services).

As a virtual team we are facing additional difficulties. According to Dyer, Dyer & Dyer special difficulties presented by virtual teams

Leadership is all about delegating and motivating members your team to achieve the goals of the organization. Communication, planning, and the ability to provide support for the team to function is a key ingredient for effective leadership.

A different habit of a thriving team is trust within all team members. “The lack of trust among team members constrained their individual and collective voices, restricting the sharing of knowledge, experience, and opinion…” by Linda Loehr.

President and CEO of the Charles Schwab Corporation states that when you have your team established then you have to foster trust among the team members so that you can collaboratively move the organization forward. He says it’s crucial to have confidence in each other and promote openness, transparency and vulnerability (Role player, 2009).

Effective leaders are self-actualized individual’s, aware of their own personal strengths and weaknesses, with the skills necessary to encourage the best performance out in their others members. Their ability to identify the strengths within their team, while encouraging a cohesive, creative and encouraging work environment.

Effective leaders are all around us. Effective leaders lead by example, walk the walk and talk the talk, and are able to provide their team with the tools they need to be effective and successful. They support their team in making decisions, but not make the decisions for them. Leaders can also provide feedback and coaching when necessary. Most leaders rely on their team around them to reach the goals they set out, both for the leader and for the team. Working with great leaders is a dream come true for most people. Effective leaders make work better and more exciting. One of the most important aspects of being a great leader is caring for those individuals that

One of the fastest-growing, high-tech office trends today is ‘virtual teams’. These teams cross time, space, and cultural boundaries and do so effectively with the use of technology.