Virtual Teams Advantages And Disadvantages

| Employees in geographically dispersed locations can work together in virtual teams using video, e-mail, and the Internet.

Globalisation has led to many changes in the international marketing and global advertising industry. Many international companies have projects spanning a variety of nationalities, involving great geographical distances and a range of time zones. In this scenario, companies are forced to make virtual teams - which are comprised of members who are located in more than one physical location (Peters and Manz, 2007). This virtual team trait has fostered extensive use of a variety of forms of computer-mediated communication that enable geographically dispersed members to coordinate their individual effort and inputs (Attaran, 2002). In addition, commitment to a virtual team goal may be further complicated by the single or coherent line of

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 teams are also referred to as far-flung teams, which are teams that are tasked towards meeting a particular goal yet they are located in very different geographical location and are not able to meet on regular basis to carry out the task. This distance between the members of the group is a big challenge that has to be overcome in order for the group to reach their goal.

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

The success or failure of virtual team collaboration in organizations is often reflected in the philosophies and support of its executives. For example, when company executives demonstrate collaborative behaviors and create collaborative environments where social interactions thrive, virtual team collaboration also thrives. Executives achieve this by establishing, encouraging, and maintaining strong social interactions throughout the organization. These practices are often tailored to the unique culture of the organization and are effective because of its unique signature or fit to the organization. By investing in signature relationship practices, executives can encourage collaboration across the organization (Gratton & Erickson, 2007).

With constant and rapid innovation in the IT domain, many global organizations are moving to virtual team structures in order to improve productivity and maintain synchronicity within their global structure. Many companies have had success in forming global virtual teams, though some have failed. As technology improves, there is a question of increasing effectiveness of virtual teams. It is currently accepted that virtual teams are typically less productive than traditional face to face teams. Global organizations span many time zones, and so temporal variances can play a large factor for teams whose members reside in time zones with substantial time differences. Bandwidth of communication can also be a hindrance for global organizations as well. Teams that need to share data remotely face problems when dealing with large

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.

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,

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

Using collaborative virtual workspaces will generally benefit an organisation by allowing the most skilled groups to work on projects no matter where they are. This also means that expensive travel costs can be cut, since groups can work together at any time of the day and don’t need to physically meet up with one another. It also has the effect that group members can work at times that suit them best as they will have access to the information when they need it (ed. Young, 2010).

This illustrates that effective leadership is required for the success of virtual teams. To maintain strong client connections and growth of the business into new markets, Delphine and DLA piper funded an important training program to develop methodological skills & expertise in lawyers to encourage virtual team cooperation. In order to keep powerful customer relationships in firms and increase income, virtual communication and providing training and education are vital factors when promoting virtual teams (Kuzuhara 2015). Leadership helps to make standards, solve problems and to build strong relationships in virtual teams to achieve company objectives in attaining revenue and employees’ s security. According to Fisher (2011), a virtual team 's success mainly relies on the efficiency of the leadership.

The reduction of costs in ICT, and a number of useful and helpful IT collaboration tools have helped to streamline this process. However, as with dealing with a team on-site issues of social capital, rewards, recognitions and fulfillment of social and personal needs are also an important part of contributing to a well-rounded and productive team. Therefore, these issues also need to be factored in and it is much harder to deal with these social nuances from a remote location. However, trying to take steps to actively encourage feelings of involvement and participation are very worthwhile. This can include investing in on-site visits, keeping employees up to date with blogs and ensuring adequate rewards and recognition are also important.

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 final approach to ICT utilization in knowledge management outlined by Hislop (2013) may be found in the application of collaboration tools to facilitate knowledge transfer. “Here ICTs, via a wide range of virtual/web-based platforms, forums, and conduits such as email, instant messaging, discussion boards, intranets, chatrooms, blogs et., create conditions where rich interpersonal interactions can take place […]” (Hislop, 2013, p.210.). My organization habitually utilizes email, instant messaging and web technology to create a virtual space for training function personnel to meet. As we are located in