Virtual and Face-To-Face Communication With the Advent

Virtual and Face-to-Face Communication

With the advent of the internet and other related technologies, many organizations have embarked to the formation of virtual teams to complement the traditional face-to-face groups .these teams comprise of geographically distributed knowledge workers who collaborate on a variety of organization al work place tasks .these people are virtually interconnected through computer mediated communication systems (CMCs) which support and enhance the communication related activities of members engaged in computer supported cooperative work, facilitated by technologies characterized by time, space and level of support whereby the team members communicate synchronously or as synchronously in the same location (physical) or remotely .

Synchronous meetings are usually spontaneous in the fact that ideas are exchanged with little or no structure at all, difficult to attribute or establish the reasoning behind internet relay chat (irc) or web based "chat rooms" structured since they rely mostly on the exchange of documents among participating teams, thus making it easier to attribute the idea to reason behind a particular decision, the technologies which make this kind of sharing possible include the electronic mail (email) electronic document management, bulletin board systems and internet usenet newsgroups (Brent Arslaner, 2012).

These computer mediated communication on the other hand calls for physical presence of the concerned parties and it has been and to some level of extent is the favorable mode of business meetings. from the psychological point-of-view face-to-face communication is influential in a manner that unlike virtual team members, teams in these scenario have an opportunity to engage in and observe verbal and non-verbal behavioral styles which are normally not captured in most computer mediated communications devices, the nuances associated with gestures the quality of the voice and volume in email discussions chat rooms or the like with face-to-face type of communication business meetings occur in real time as opposed to non-synchronized time, computer mediated communications can be interfered with by disruptions caused by technologies .

The integrity competence and skills (verbal skills) can be evaluated and judged effectively with face communication as compared to virtual communication. In any organizational business setting trust is an integral part in relationship building, this can be achieved more fruitfully through when face-to-face communication is in use in such meetings since repeatedly people interact and they come to know each other more well, on the other hand however virtual communication has a limited or people in teams or groups will take long to create that link or bond. The links created in the long run help teams or group members to develop strong social identities that will enable them have a clear understanding and sense of belonging in the organization where they work (Kathleen A. Begley, 2004).