Managing Virtual Teams

During the last decade, organizations have been working more with technology making it their master. Technology is not only about new equipment; it is mostly about new ideas and techniques used. Virtual team is a new approach used today. Virtual groups or teams have been used from parent to keep contact with teacher to corporations to create new international business relationships. How far can virtual team be more efficient than face to face relationships? Society incorporates this method to different activities not only at work, so virtual team seems more beneficial these days. If we are going to incorporate virtual teams to our system, we have to know its advantages and disadvantages, and how it can affect our organization.

Virtual team can be defined as a group of individuals who are from different locations geographically but depend on communication technology to communicate, share work run projects as a group. These individuals run these errands in a space called the virtual environment which is created by the IT departments and maintained through various software technologies. Virtual teams or as at times referred to as remote teams have nowadays become very important aspects of most businesses. The individuals use video conferencing and mass emailing to run the errands as a group. Fiber optic technology has completely changed the aspect of virtual team, the individuals may not be familiar with each other but through this technology, they can

Part of being a manager for a company is managing teams. These teams can be created for many different reasons and can have various goals put upon them. Companies want managers that are capable of constructing teams that can effectively meet goals and set standards. The four types of work teams most commonly found in organizations are: problem-solving, self-managed, cross-functional, and virtual. In completing the simulation for this course, I will use cross-functional work teams as a foundation for my investigation of effective team management.

These groups rely on technology to communicate with one another and to accomplish the tasks allocated by the organization. One benefit of a virtual team is that they use technology and this can help increase efficiency and productivity of the members. The virtual teams also assist in the development of intellectual capital. The composition of the virtual groups helps improve quality as well as the outcome. The other benefit is the efficiency of communication. Some of the challenges include the distance between the members. The significant distance may dilute leadership, weaken human relations as well as amplify dysfunction. Virtual teams are hard to manage especially when it comes to goal setting, task distribution, coordination and member motivation. Virtual organizations rely on trust that the other members will fulfill their roles since it is not possible to monitor them closely (Hoppe, 2011). The virtual teams may face some internet challenges such as slow internet or disconnection. This problem can be handled through the use of alternative methods of communication such as mobile phones. While making a virtual team, the team members should address all challenges which may hinder communication by coming up with all possible substitutes of means of communication. These organizations rely heavily on the internet for video conferencing and sending emails. However, when the internet fails, they

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.

A virtual group is a gathering of people who work crosswise over time, space and authoritative limits with connections reinforced by networks of correspondence innovation.

The essence of this article is noting the fact that virtual teams are only going to be effective when technology is involved. When virtual teams first started, there wasn’t much effective meeting technology available, but now there

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

As a 69-year-old company, Lowe’s has a well-established organizational culture that long pre-dates the concept of virtual teams. As such, the company still has embedded in its culture certain concepts that impede its ability to be truly effective in the virtual team collaboration space. One such concept is the idea that decisions are made in meetings and not by individuals or through ad-hoc consensus. This notion generates obstacles to fast and effective decision-making, since it requires the coming together of global workers in a single meeting. That by itself creates logistical challenges due to time differences. Lowe’s can benefit from encouraging and supporting decision-making practices that utilize the knowledge and experience of

Hertel, Guido, Susanne Geister, and Udo Konradt. 2005. “Managing virtual teams: A review of current empirical research.” Human Resource Management Review 15 (1): 69-95. doi: 10.1016/j.hrmr.2005.01.002.

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

Hastings, R. (December 3, 2008). Set Ground Rules for Virtual Team Communications. SHRM Online. Retrieved August 8, 2011 from http://www.shrm.org .

Formed to carry out a particular task, members will be people with common interests, usually from the same background and attitude.

When all of your employees are working from home and possibly live in different states/countries and time zones, it is easy for everyone to forget that they are part of a team.

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.