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“No man is an island.” “There is no I in team.” Organizations have long been aware of the fact that the synergies generated by a team can result in great things being accomplished, greater than the individuals could hope to embark upon alone. The existence of online technology has enabled organizations to cobble together new teams in ways that could never have been dreamt of in the past, as individuals from all over the globe can interact using video conferencing, email, and other forms of social media. As noted by Ferrazzi (2014): “Companies can use the best and lowest-cost global talent and significantly reduce their real estate costs” (par.2). In other words, the best IT specialist in India can interface with a top-notch marketing specialist in the company’s United States headquarters.But creating an effective virtual team is not as easy as stirring up a stew according to a recipe and simply adding the top performers at the company to create the right mix. The right blend of character and talents is essential. In fact, the difficulties of creating an effective virtual team is one reason why such teams so often fail. According to a study of virtual teams summarized in the Harvard Business Review,...
3). Even if a team may be composed of the best of the best, strategies are needed to ensure that the team truly becomes a team and can function well.
For example, the fact that virtual teams lack the ability to exchange subtle interpersonal and nonverbal cues with one another may lead to communication barriers. This is especially true if the team is made up of individuals from very different national or regional cultures or have disparate professional frameworks of reference. Team members should ideally have strong communication skills and high levels of emotional intelligence (Ferrazzi 2014). But this does not mean that such skills cannot be taught through team-based and individual self-awareness exercises such as icebreaking activities and encouraging participants to take questionnaires so they understand their preferred interpersonal style and how it may differ from others. For virtual teams, knowledge of how to communicate in an online format, not simply face-to-face is an additional skill that must be learned.
Roles on the team should also be clearly defined to prevent leadership conflicts and disputes…
Virtual Teams Resolving the Dilemmas of Teamwork in Virtual Teams The continual adoption of virtual teams by enterprises globally are making the dilemmas of teamwork more challenging than ever, exacerbated by cultural, distance and time constraints. These dilemmas are made all the more challenging based on the pace of change accelerating, uncertainty over economic conditions and the continual turbulence in global economies. Further complicating virtual teams is the lack of transparency within
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
Virtual Team Coordination Communication is more difficult for a virtual team because relationships are more geographical distributed, more asynchronous, temporary, more multicultural, and more likely to extend outside the organization (Kokko, Mar 2007). Collocated teams are demographically located, members have usually worked together for a period of time and already know each other, which help to build relationships, and meetings are face-to-face interaction. Virtual teams may not have face-to-face interactions, which
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
It would have been much better to have had online tools including a real-time blackboard or electronic space to write down and share files in real-time without having to wait on e-mail for everyone to get the attachments. Also, the ability to collaborate in real time, the next step in the virtual team process, would have been much more effective with better electronic tools. This also parallels with the
Team Leadership Virtual Communication and Team Leadership In "So far, so good: Even physical distance can't stop your employees from going above and beyond" author Robert McGarvey considers the growing popularity of virtual teams and considers the factors necessary to making a virtual team successful. The article provides useful information on the potential benefits of virtual teams that could assist community groups or organizations in considering how they operate. The article also