Traditional Ground Based Teams And Virtual Teams

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.

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.

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

In contrast, the failure of virtual teams relies on several things wherein people play a major part in the context of virtual arena; for example, a consulting service company; NetAge reveals the fact that the percentage of having failure of virtual teams is around 90% of people (Nelson & Quick, 2013, p. 348). Vagueness in communication might lead to the failure of virtual teams; for instance, if the message is unclear and tough to comprehend then it would hamper the work procedure and

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

Managing remote employees is a growing challenge for many of today’s leaders. It is not just about managing employees at satellite offices; it is also managing telecommuters who work a certain number of days from their home offices. A manager needs to understand the complexities of managing a virtual team and communicating across the boundaries of time zones, organizations and cultures. Good communication practices as well as building personal relationships are both key to working with remote employees. As Pauleen (2003) states, “Effective communications is a key to successful virtual teams, and one of the keys to effective communications is how well team members are able to build and maintain their personal relationships.” (p. 229). Video conferencing works well and provides a company’s employees with a visual link that serves to backfill for the lack of face-to-face communications that employees would have if they were collocated.

from conventional bface-to-faceQ teams. While extreme cases of virtual teams can be imagined in which

Rules are meant to be broken! This phrase is embraced by innovative technology to stimulate creativity and ‘out of the box’ type thinking. This mentality can also serve as an Achilles’ heel for any team that fails to establish ground rules prior to commencement of a project. Virtual teams without behavioral norms are divisive and less productive than their peers. This paper will discuss ten behavioral norms that are essential components to the performance of virtual teams, along with, an action plan.

E-Collaboration is a phenomena branching off from collaboration and entails software which is used for supporting collaboration processes in groups (Riemer, Steinfield, & Vogel, 2009; Rosenzweig, 2009).E-Collaboration came about as a means to break down the traditional and structural processes

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

In this paper, I will discuss about effectiveness of virtual teams and challenges that have to face of people working in different locations and geographies. Moreover, identifying pros and cons of associating with virtual teams and co-located teams or traditional teams. And I will expound how I apply virtual team strategy in managing my product development.

A team comprised of international components presents an interesting challenge in regards to management. Various problems can potentially arise in regards to organizing the team, developing rules that govern the team and assigning tasks. One method in which to mitigate all of the above mentioned rules is by setting performance standards for the entire team to adhere (Alexander, 2000). One such standard involves the use of a balanced scorecard. A balanced scorecard allows each individual irrespective of their position within the team to have a core set of standards in which to abide by. These standards will also include the job function and the roles of each member with the job function. The scorecard provides an ideal medium in which to judge performance as well. By viewing the scorecard management can easily pinpoint areas of opportunity and improvement (Blair 2010).