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Virtual Teams
Introduction
With the arrival of the Digital Age, the possibility of teams collaborating over great distances as virtual teams has emerged. Through the use of technological means, team members collaborate and communicate via digital communications. Virtual teams can help to save costs associated with travel, relocation, and transportation. However, there is a gap in the literature regarding the effectiveness of collaboration technology on virtual teams success. Andriessen (2012) notes that both positive and negative effects have been linked to collaboration technology which could ultimately impact the efficiency and productivity of virtual teams and the corporations for which they are working.
Gilson, Maynard and Young (2015) show that virtual teams require more study so that organizations can successfully manage productivity, and Fan, Chen and Wang (2015) state that virtual teams may lead to creativity and idea generation performance issues based on the methods used to drive them: some teams will focus on creativity and others on following orders (p. 421). Fan et al. (2015) also point out that direction-giving instructions generate more ideas under the demanding feedback approach and that receiving instructions with more empathetic language will tend to lead to higher creativity performance under the encouraging feedback approach (p. 421)....
In other words, how virtual teams are managed and utilized will also impact their effectiveness on organizational outcomes.
Problem Statement
Organizations must identify the extent to which collaboration technology can support the efficiency and productivity of virtual teams so that they are neither over-reliant on these teams nor under-utilizing their potential.
Research Question
What is the impact of management on the effectiveness of virtual teams?
What is the effect of virtual teams on organizational productivity?
Hypothesis 1
The effectiveness of virtual teams will depend on team leaders, the way in which they are managed and the degree to which the time is united in terms of working together to achieve a clearly defined and realistic goal.
Hypothesis 2
Virtual teams can be an effective means of achieving productivity for an organization.
Methodology
A quantitative approach to obtaining data for this study can be achieved by using the survey method. An experimental design would necessitate a far larger process in which an independent variable and a dependent variable are tested, which is beyond the scope of this study. A survey of virtual team members, however, could provide quantitative data using the Likert scale, which could be analyzed statistically.
Population
The survey method…
Virtual Team Management What would be the best way to structure this large virtual team? Virtual teams are unique in that they possess the ability to transcend typical geographic boundaries. This innate characteristic allows the team to be both more productive and efficient in regards to their overall objectives. With 300 individuals however, the task of effective organization can be daunting. This is particularly true, as each member will only be working
When portals are designed to the specific requirements of Web 2.0 design objectives, companies with virtual teams are finding they can attain higher levels of shared task ownership as well. This is because there are significantly greater levels of trust overall throughout an organization based on the collective contributions of every member of a virtual and in-office team when they share their knowledge and information together (Mancini, 2010). Portals
An important limitation of the study was that team members and their experiences of team leadership were not included in the study. A team leader's perception of effective communication may, for example, not be experienced in the same way as a team member receiving the communication. On the other hand, the results of effective team work appear to imply that certain categories of communication are experienced as more effective than
Virtual Teams in Organization Research Questions The fundamental research question is to examine the deliberations, advantages, and disadvantages of virtual teams in organizations. Deliberations in this regard take into account a question on the manner in which members of virtual teams deem altering their activities and behaviors so as to operate efficaciously. The fundamental research question is followed by sub-research questions: 1. What are the most idea practices and implements employed in virtual
Team Norms," author Karten (2003) discussed the importance of social norms in improving performance in teams within a business organization. Technically, Karten defined it as a concept "that concern(s) how team members will interact, communicate, and conduct themselves as members of the team" (par. 1). Moreover, team norms are reinforced primarily in groups with specific characteristics, such as those who are known to have high perceived social cohesion and
Lipnack & Stamps (1999) conducted a study in which they examined the emergence of virtual teams as a new modality for working. The study was carried out on the premise that the emergence of the Information Age has contributed to the advent of a working culture where people must no longer be in the same location in order to work together. The Information Age is characterized by the development and