Organizational Implications Of Virtual Teams

Is anyone out there? A Guide to Virtual Team Working and Leadership’.Training Reference, viewed October 2011

RQ: What strategies should be utilized in the implementation of a virtual computer laboratory at Bowie State University?

Network channels of communication, their benefits and implications are not considered. Teams are created purely by location, in order to meet the organisations future vision for 2020. However, different tasks benefit from different communication networks. For example some roles within TSL require isolation or home working and would be categorised as a ‘wheel ‘ network whilst others are based upon a processing system following a ‘Y’ network structure, see figure 1.5 above. No consideration has been made to the management of virtual teams where effective communication needs to be encouraged and managed. This is vitally important, especially if the group has not been through the five key stages of group development described in the model by Bruce W. Tuckman, which follows a group from formation and conflict in establishing boundaries, to performing and finally adjournment when the group disbands.

The benefits to the employees who work remotely are substantial. Rob Kelly (2009) shared some benefits that employees can enjoy while working on virtual teams; the business can hire for role specific skills, employees can stay physically healthier, lower overhead, flexible scheduling, no commute time, smaller carbon footprint, and more time with children. Companies who provide employees the option to work remotely enjoy greater employee retention, and increased employee motivation.

The virtual workplace has become increasingly prevalent for companies and industries due impart to the accelerated developments in technology. There are growing arguments that provide salient advantages and disadvantages for incorporating the virtual workplace into their organization. Learning organizations have found that there is evidence that shows the demand for virtual work arrangements are on the rise because of the impact of the World Wide Web technology. This rapidly changing environment has influenced growing

According to Virtual Teams: Pros, Cons & Best Practices (2011), there are many advantages of using virtual team strategy. Indeed, as

Remote workers or virtual teams are people who are employed from around the world; this allows companies to employ people with special skills that are able to work on projects (Mihhailova, 2009). Lancaster Advertising is a company from Lewisville Texas. This company is one of the many that are using remote workers instead of full-time employees. It is debatable that there are benefits to having remote workers instead of full time employees. However the case study also points out that more flexibility leads to the effect of people thinking, “Time is Money” and not being able to have time away from their work. With this in mind companies need to find a way to organise virtual teams

The use of virtual teams as a result of globalization of business is on the rise. However, several challenges have made virtual teams difficult to implement. Amongst such challenges are time differences between global locations, technological setbacks, data transmission and bandwidth, trust, number of meeting, and others. Coupled with real time discussions and actions, many global companies that addressed above challenges were successful in forming and implementing global virtual teams. Overall, the efficiencies measured in terms of quality and quantity increased as a result of the use of virtual teams within global organizations.

A virtual team is a group of employees who are working with each other but they are based in different countries or locations, the members of the virtual team are working with the aim of completing a common goal ADDIN EN.CITE Hinds200359(Hinds & Bailey, 2003)595917Hinds, Pamela J.Bailey, Diane E.Out of Sight, Out of Sync: Understanding Conflict in Distributed TeamsOrganization ScienceOrganization Science615-6321462003INFORMS10477039http://www.jstor.org/stable/4135124( HYPERLINK l "_ENREF_1" o "Hinds, 2003 #59" Hinds & Bailey, 2003). With virtual workers a company does not need to bother with where the employees live or where they work from the company will be mostly interested in ensuring that the employees delivers on their tasks and on time. Virtual teams allow the company to acquire talent from different locations of the world. Employees also benefit too in that their travel time is reduced and this reduces the disruption of an employee's life. Work never disrupted if there ever is a disaster at one location as the other workers in non-affected areas continue with the work at hand. Complexities can be added to the team due to the time differences, organizational boundaries and distance between the team members, this also increase the risk of the virtual becoming unsuccessful and thus not able to achieve its goals. With a widely spread out virtual team an organization can have the benefit of operating for 24 hours as the

The virtualization of the business world has lead to a globalization of work and knowledge, allowing companies to have associates with needed skill sets around the world. That ability empowers companies to compete for talent well outside of their geographic constraints, and has an important impact of workers lives as well. It is important to explore how virtualization has impacted learning and business, the sharing of knowledge, and how this medium has affected the world of business and the associated education.

advantage of network economics. A virtual company strategy uses networks to link to other firms so that a

The virtual office is based on the Virtual Private Network (VPN) technology. The law firm is interested in using this technology for extranet purpose and not to be used within the company. Thus allowing their employees to work either

The virtual office is the opportunity to evaluate possible outcomes in employee/client relationships. Companies can agree that frontline employees are the key to a growing business by establishing empowerment, having confidence in professional working skills, and on-going company support. These are attributes that can be gained by having employees that are direct hires into a company, and not outsourced units of a third

Managers can build effective strategies to mitigate the risks associated with virtual teams and build strong, well rounded productive teams. This paper outlines the strategies the manager can leverage to build strong virtual teams. The strategies mentioned in the paper are a summary of strategies mentioned in various HBR and other reputed publications (please refer the references section), further I have supplemented them with examples from my personal experience in working with virtual teams.

Development of Information Communication Technology (ICT) has added a new aspect to the learning process and made virtual-learning a feasible learning option. Virtual-learning presents an alternative for students and helps them find a balance between private life, career, and further education since it is dynamic and an enriching form of learning. It also offers both individual learning experiences and opportunities to collaborate.