How Technology Has Shaped The World Of Business We Know Today Essay

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

According to Gibson (2012), Virtual Teams are defined as, “a team that relies on interactive technology to work together when separated by physical distance.” (p. 244) Ironically, I manage a virtual team and I wholeheartedly agree with best practices managing virtual teams. I have team members who support the same business unit, physically sit in an office but in various locations from Michigan to Florida. Most of my team I inherited but have done a decent job of following the best practices discussed by Gibson.

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.

In this article Brandt, England, and Ward define what virtual teams are, they state “virtual teams are individuals working together who have never met each other in person and probably will not meet face-to-face during the assigned project (Brandt, England, Ward 2011).” The next part of the article is used to define what virtual teams consist of. Virtual teams mainly consist of members from different locations working together on a specific project. Although some members of the team may

Virtual and mobile teams (also known as distributed teams) are individual members or groups of a team working independently without a common work location, to meet collective organization goals. Virtual and mobile teams can be spread out as far as across town, to all the way around the world. Virtual and mobile teams allow businesses and teams can work effectively work apart, and achieve the benefits of being in different key locations. Some benefits of virtual and mobile teams are the ability to bridge organizational and geographical boundaries and offer organizations the ability

A virtual team is the network of diverse individuals in multiple locations working in this evolving economy. Challenges the team faces include isolation feeling, lack of trust, unclear goals, direction and priorities, and lack of engagement all due to no face-to-face contact. Therefore, Associates may leave the company through attrition. In the Marketplace simulation our team will make effort to have face-to-face meetings. We will focus on input from each team member and ensure everyone feels they are contributing to the team.

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

Every person in the world perceives life in a different way. From these various viewpoints, we, as humans, create stereotypes, myths, and legends. Our eyes see things distinctively and our minds shape concepts uniquely. From this disconnect from others, we enable misconception and foster misunderstanding. One beautiful thing about perception is that from it, we can develop our own interests. Thus, out of my personal curiosity, I have chosen to study Organizational Leadership – which, in turn, led me to this course. As I continue to further my studies, I look ahead to my required check sheet and already have my options drawn about all the courses I need to take. “Virtual Teams and Organizations” attracted my attention – mainly for the myths and preconceptions that I have regarding online teams. Originally more negative, my outlook has changed to a more positive one about working with others virtually.

In our current age of technology, societies have been given the opportunity and capability of connecting across distances in ways that were impossible not too long ago. With computer applications such as skype, people can connect from opposite sides of the world. This has created a unique advancement in the way that businesses are run. Handling business with others who are far away is now easier than ever. Curtis (2011) says virtual teams have become so common due to their "potential for flexibility, responsiveness, as well as for cost and production efficiency" (p. 97). Virtual teams are an effective way to bring employees of companies together within the comfort of their own office or home. .

There are several differences and alike between traditional ground-based teams and virtual teams when individuals begin to work together as a team. In a common setting such as a classroom or a specific department in a company, teams are assigned and begin to work together by discussing the details of a project and assign tasks to each member. In this case, students or colleagues begin to work much quicker than in a virtual setting because the exchange of communication is much faster. In contrast, virtual teams have to first determine what method of communication would be appropriate for all members of the team. Next, they have to wait for all members to respond and then they can execute the best method of communication for the virtual team. According to Berry (2011), “Virtual team members can be located across the office, but almost as easily across the country or across the world, and may rarely or perhaps never meet face to face. As team members become more reliant on computer-mediated communication technologies, the more virtual they become. However, today most traditional teams use technological devices to continue work outside the classroom or office. Therefore, traditional teams model a virtual team, and if members take advantage of the resources, it can strengthen the team.

This review summarizes empirical research on the management of virtual teams, i.e., distributed work teams

Teams are considered the catalyst and solution to the challenge of attaining very complex, highly integrated goals and objectives across an enterprise. The emphasis on teams is so significant today that it is common to find their use across broad geographic distances, ensuring an organization has access to the best talent globally regardless of location. This is the concept of virtual teams, and their continual and rapid adoption is reordering the management and leadership landscape in many organizations today (Ayoko, Konrad, Boyle, 2012). The existence of virtual teams is also completely changing the nature of team conflict as well (Purvanova, Bono, 2009). The intent of this analysis is to evaluate the best practices leaders can use to bring change into their organizations successfully, while also using management and leadership strategies to prevent and minimize conflict. The techniques that have proven successful in minimizing conflict are also discussed.

Global business, increased supplier involvement, network communications and pressure on travel costs have led to increased use of virtual project teams. In many cases the teams have little previous experience working together and no shared awareness of project assumptions, feasibilities, and risks. Traditional centralized and detailed planning is not an effective option for these projects. While some experts have proposed qualitative or "soft" recommendations for these teams, project managers need a pragmatic way to plan and launch projects with virtual teams. This paper describes the challenges of virtual teams such as cultural and linguistic differences, lack of communication, distance from the customer and why traditional approaches do not succeed.

A virtual team are a group of people who work interdependently towards a shared purpose across space, time and organization boundary using technology (Edwards & Wilson, 2004). The team members need not to originate from the same organization; it can be collaboration between several organizations.

To qualify to be a virtual team, either some or all team members would not be physically in the same location. This doesn’t necessarily mean that they are not in the same country or city, more about whether they meet each other physically on a daily basis. Even though they don’t have to be, most of virtual teams are across countries.