Challenges and effectiveness of virtual teams in organizations

¶ … Virtual Teams

Because all organizations are comprised of people and people have been coming together in organizations of various types for millennia, teams have been a natural part of how humans get things done. While the purpose and nature of teams have varied over the years, one constant factor that characterized almost all teams was the need for personal, face-to-face exchanges to achieve the team's goals. In the Age of Information, though, things have changed in fundamental ways and so-called "virtual teams" are becoming increasingly commonplace in industries of all types. While virtual teams offer a number of advantages over traditional team formats, there are some important constraints and challenges involved in using this approach to teamwork that must be taken into account to maximize their effectiveness. To determine what these challenges are and how they can best be addressed in various organizational settings, this paper provides a review of the relevant peer-reviewed and scholarly literature concerning virtual teams to provide a working definition, what is involved in forming virtual teams, and their respective advantages and disadvantages. An analysis of the challenges involved in administering virtual teams is followed by a discussion of how these challenges can be resolved. A summary of the research and important findings are provided in the conclusion.

Review and Discussion

What is a Virtual Team?

Virtual teams are also known as distributed work groups, and share some commonalities with other types of teams. For example, Kerber and Buono (2004) note that, "Like any team, a virtual team works on interdependent tasks guided by a common purpose. But unlike traditional, collocated teams, a virtual team works across space, time, and organizational and geographic boundaries" (p. 4). Likewise, Roebuck, Brock and Moodie (2004) report that, "Virtual teams have become an integral part of many organizations because of all increase in corporate restructuring, competition, and globalization. A virtual team is one that conducts its work almost entirely through electronic technology. Virtual team members, who are typically dispersed both geographically and organizationally, rarely meet face-to-face while relying on technology for task-related communication" (p. 359).

Forming Virtual Teams

Forming virtual teams can be accomplished in the same manner that other types of teams are created provided they all have access to the telecommunications hardware and software needed to communicate with each other and have the training and expertise required to use these tools effectively. This means that it may not be possible to simply pick and choose virtual team members in a haphazard fashion, and forming effective virtual teams demands that team members not only know how to use computer-based applications efficiently, they must be amenable to participating in these types of teamwork settings in order to collaborate with other team members. Appointing a virtual team facilitator or leader who can help those members with less expertise in using the telecommunications tools can also be useful (Salmon, 2003). A virtual team facilitator or leader can also help the newly formed virtual team establish a mutual rapport that will contribute to their productivity. According to Roebuck et al., "People who are being prepared for participation in virtual teams need to be taught methods of increasing the likelihood of getting off on the right foot with each other" (Roebuck et al., 2004, p. 360). Performed properly, though, a virtual team formed from willing and capable members can achieve a great deal of collaboration despite being separated geographically. For instance, according to Eom and Lee (1999), "Virtual teams equipped with information technologies are invalidating the old 50-foot-rule -- 'If people are more than 50 feet apart they are not very likely to collaborate'" (p. 12). Besides team member selection, there are some other advantages and disadvantages involved in creating and administering virtual teams and these issues are discussed further below.

Challenges of Virtual Teams

While many challenges associated with virtual teams are similar to those of traditional teams, the challenges are exacerbated by time and geographic separation. Virtual team leaders generally experience some constraints in coordinating virtual team's efforts and aligning their performance with organizational goals, particularly in those cases where team members are unable to meet with each other on a face-to-face basis before beginning serious work (Kerber & Buono, 2004). According to these analysts, "Moreover, in the absence of face-to-face communication and interaction, virtual team members may have less understanding of each other, potentially contributing to misunderstandings and conflict" (Kerber & Buono, 2004, p. 5). This point is also made by Roebuck and her associates who emphasize, "Because communication is often seen as the most important factor in coordinating work among team members, effective communication is vital for virtual teams. However, in virtual teams, separated by geographical distance, the process of developing a shared understanding is more challenging" (p. 360).

Therefore, a fundamental challenge associated with virtual teams is overcoming the dearth of face-to-face interaction available. According to Roebuck et al., "When meeting in person, team members can depend upon voice levels, smiles, and raised eyebrows to determine whether they are being understood; however, virtual teams do not have these nonverbal cues and can fail without communication strategies to manage the lack of face-to-face communication or silence" (p. 360). Because research continues to confirm that human communication is predominately nonverbal, virtual team members do not enjoy the same level of communication available to their face-to-face counterparts (Roebuck et al., 2004). As noted above, although videoconferencing tools and Web cameras can take up some of the slack in this area, Roebuck and her colleagues emphasize that even the most sophisticated videoconferencing tools may not capture facial expressions when transmission problems occur, in those cases when team members are off-camera, and when someone uses the "mute" function (Roebuck et al., 2004). As a result, virtual team members must take this constraint into account during their collaborative efforts and remain cognizant that others may not be able to discern as much information from team interchanges as they are used to achieving (Roebuck et al., 2004).

Another communication challenge for virtual teams is establishing and maintaining personal relationships between individual team members. In this regard, Roebuck and her associates emphasize that, "Successful teams are founded on a relationship of trust, and relationships are easier to build face-to-face. Virtual teams are confronted with the challenge of establishing trusting working relationships through technological interaction alone" (p. 360). Consequently, it is important for virtual team leaders to help facilitate the establishment of productive relationships between team members from the outset.

A final challenge is taking advantage of the expertise and knowledge that each virtual member brings to the setting. In this regard, Roebuck and her associates point out that, "While a team is working on a project, usually the project is like a puzzle, and each team member is responsible to work on an assigned piece of the project. The team must develop a system for sharing information so that nothing relevant to solving the problem is lost" (p. 360). This level of collaboration can be challenging even with traditional teams, though, but Roebuck et al. emphasize that what may appear irrelevant to one team member may be the key to achieving the team's goals. Therefore, it is important for team members to become accustomed to sharing as much information with each other as possible so that a cohesive whole can be created from the disparate pieces. While this level of knowledge sharing may appear to be unnecessary, Roebuck et al. suggest that this is one of the most important elements in creating an effective virtual team. (Roebuck et al., 2004).

Addressing the Challenges of Virtual Team

While the challenges are significant, they can be resolved in part through the use of the tools and technology that characterize most virtual teams today. For example, most virtual teams depend on communication and information technologies, including organizational intranets, team conference calls, e-mail exchanges, video conferencing, and groupware applications to provide the collaborative forum for information sharing (Kerber & Buono, 2004). In addition, many virtual team members still meet on a face-to-face basis from time to help iron out any problems they may be experiencing and to help forge improved relationships and levels of trust ( (Kerber & Buono, 2004).

Other ways that can be used to help overcome the challenges associated with virtual teams include the following:

1. Teams need to establish ground rules to help the team members interact and determine what kind of behavior is expected. These ground rules will assist in preventing misunderstandings and disagreements.

2. Team members should determine some criteria for virtual dialogue, such as when to check e-mail and how often to respond to e-mail messages. The team should also set up how to exchange documents from meetings and when to hold mandatory meetings.

3. Standing behind the team and all of its members is vital to the trust relationship. Responses need to be given to all members of the team in the same amount of time. This builds integrity within the team by ensuring that no one believes that he or she is being left out or ignored by other team members. This also allows everyone to check and correspond with each other if any controversial items come up.

4. It is important to know other team members on a personal as well as professional level to understand their difficulties and work around their special needs.

5. Trust means that one has faith in people's competence; only then can one rely on the results of their work. To demonstrate competence takes time and in virtual teamwork it takes even more time to show one's competence. Proficiency is more difficult to verify at a distance.

6. People working in a virtual team must trust information and information channels. Partial, incorrect, misleading, and late sources of information are all sources of mistrust (Roebuck et al., 2004, p. 360).

Conclusion

The research showed that virtual teams are also known as distributed work groups and are distinguished from traditional teams by being separated by space and in many cases time as well. Although some virtual teams meet on a face-to-face basis from time to time, the research showed that the vast majority of their work is accomplished through telecommunications technologies. The research also showed that virtual teams are becoming increasingly commonplace and more has been learned about how to maximize their effectiveness by addressing the challenges that accrue to this type of teamwork format. Some of the most important challenges identified in the review of the literature involved communications and how best to achieve collaborative outcomes when team members do not have the ability to discern nonverbal clues. In the final analysis, virtual teams are becoming an important part of many organizations' approach to making the most of the human resources they have available for achieving their goals, and the supporting technology continues to improve.