Nike Virtual Team There Are a Number

Nike Virtual Team

There are a number of challenges that will be faced in putting this team together and making it work effectively. There are basic logistical challenges with respect to time zone issues, and functional issues (some members may have little contribute if their regions are not directly involved in the project). Additionally, there could be some language barriers as some members are not as good with English as others, and there may be differences in vocabulary, idiom and communication style that creep up as well. While all members should share the Nike corporate culture, there may be some differences with culture between the different group members, in particular with respect to how teams should function, to leadership and to other elements that will affect the team's work.

There are a number of ways that these challenges can be overcome. The first is that the team should be created with a structure that is clear in terms of the roles that each team member plays and what the leadership chain of command should be. The leadership should be someone with extensive experience working with international teams. The functioning of the team should also be designed with the Nike culture in mind, since that is the common culture between the different team members. According to the Tuckman Model of Group Development (Atherton, 2004), announcing leadership and roles from the outset will result in a reduction in "storming." The leader can then set the norms for the group according to the common culture, so that members of these disparate cultures do not find themselves facing adverse cultural circumstances. Some of these individuals will come from high power distance cultures (Hofstede, n.d.), and that should be taken into consideration -- a casual West Coast style might not work in an international team.

3. The process of developing a virtual team is similar to the process of developing a collocated team. Tuckman's basic steps remain, and the team will still be constructed with an objective in mind, and a set of skills present in the members. However, running the team will be significantly different. A virtual team can be much more difficult to run, especially a team like the Nike one that is comprised of members from all over the world. As Phillips (n.d.) points out, communication is much easier in a co-located team. The team cannot meet regularly, and some members may use the distance to avoid accountability. Therefore, communications for a virtual team need to be more regimented, and there needs to be tighter controls as well to ensure that all team members not only understand their roles but are performing as expected.

Despite the challenges, virtual teams do bring some benefits. The team has much more experience -- in Nike's case the local knowledge needed to produce in one country, sell in another, and run the project from the U.S. Better, more knowledgeable people can be used in such projects, overcoming a potential weakness in collocated teams wherein the members are merely the best available, as opposed to the best (Phillips, n.d.)