Virtual Team Essays (Examples)

Virtual Teams

esolving 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 and between virtual teams. Virtual team leaders have to contend with all of these dilemmas and challenges in order for guide their organizations towards the attainment of their goals and objectives.

Overcoming the Dilemma of Virtual Teams Through Leadership

The continual adoption of virtual teams continues to completely re-order the culture, nature and trust levels across organizations (LaBrosse, 2008). This dynamics Is happening in companies with just 200 employees and a subset being virtual vs. large corporations with…

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 5-10 hours on a volunteer basis. As such the best structure, I believe, would be one that provides specialization of labor. I would first structure the team within similar time zones to ensure efficient communication between the groups. Since each member, on average, will only volunteer for roughly 10 hours, timing is essential. In addition, within the specific time zones, I would create functional teams with specific goals and objectives. This format serves three purposes. For one, the…

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 make relationship building difficult, cultural differences can break down understanding in communications, the lack of shared experience have negative effects on sense of trust between members, and time zones can create problems with setting up meetings.

Research found that virtual teams are significantly less socially aware than collocated teams (ranson, Feb 2011). In collocated teams, members have visual cues with face-to-face interactions that communicate without spoken words. Virtual team members do have visual cues. Interactions are based on what…

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 are not the catalyst of trust forming in virtual teams; transformational leadership is because it sets a standard of authenticity, transparency and by a leaders' example, sacrifice for the attainment of a greater goal (Balthazard, Waldman, Warren, 2009). Online tools including social networks, portals, and the e-mail accounts that fuel much of the content interchange all need to be galvanized with a shared vision of how to create virtual teams that trust each other and freely share their expertise and intelligence…

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 virtual team lifecycle process. The growing reliance on collaborative platforms that can manage real-time communication and collaboration continues to grow as companies recruit globally for their virtual teams to get the best talent available (Townsend, DeMarie, Hendrickson, 1998)

In conclusion, the experiences of being part of a virtual team showed me just how critical it is to have a common set of expectations and a clear approach to communicating what needs to be done. Just relying on electronics-based tools doesn't make…

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 others. A limitation of the qualitative research methodology is the fact that opinions are by nature arbitrary. This is particularly so since only the leadership sector of the work situation was interviewed.

In applying the methodology, it will perhaps be interesting to make a combined study of both team leaders and team members. The perception of team leader and their communication strategies could then be compared with the experiences of team members. The use of technology and two-way communication strategies…

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 performance within the team or group (Patterson, 2005:482). It is in these conditions that team norms are introduced, promoted, and instilled in team members.

The development and establishment of team norms are not just dependent on group characteristics, but also on the value system established within the team. This system puts value to specific beliefs determined within the team, and each member's perceived value for each belief would then determine the development of this belief to a shared belief or norm.…

virtual team leading practices adaptable a MNC 10 years . Defend selection a political, economic, technological stance

Virtual team leading practices

The virtual team is generically understood as a team in which the members do not come together in a specific location, but they interact within the virtual community, with the aid of technological advancements.

Virtual teams are becoming more and more common within the modern day community as a result of increasing popularity of service operations as opposed to manufacturing, as well as due to the advent of technology which supports telecommuting and telecommunications -- the primary means in which virtual teams can function. The virtual team is managed through a wide array of practices, some adapted from the traditional operations of management, whereas others especially created to fit the needs of virtual teams. At this level, a question is being posed relative to the means in which the…

collaboration technology can assist virtual teams in today's business world. As Andriessen (2012) shows, there are positive and negative effects to using collaboration technology -- what needs to be better described is how these effects are produced and why.

Because of the still relative newness of virtual teams and collaborative technology (Gilson, Maynard, Young, 2015), it is essential to organizational success in the Digital Age that these concepts be understood as fully as they possibly can be. That requires assessing the nature of the relationship and how collaborative tech impacts virtual teams. As Fan, Chen and Wang (2014) note, collaborative tech has different effects depending on "creativity and idea generation performance" in the sense that "direction-giving instructions generate more ideas under the demanding feedback approach" while "receiving instructions with more empathetic language" results in "higher creativity performance under the encouraging feedback approach" (p. 421). This shows that collaborative technology and…

To violate or doubt the intentions of team members is to invite isolationism, and eventually the balkanization and break up of the group if it goes on too long (Sager, 2008). This is a delicate balance for any manager to keep, as they are expected to get significant results from their team weekly yet if a virtual team member is not producing the approaches to getting greater productivity vary significantly from strategies used within an office. Above all, the need to maintain trust while also being a more supportive, transitional leader vs. An autocratic and demanding one is critically important (Wakefield, Leidner, Garrison, 2008). Only by adopting this type of management style can a virtual team member hope to be successful. The upside of course is that members of virtual teams have remarkable skills for the most part and often put in many more hours than those who work in…

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. hile 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…

web-based system managing a virtual team, deliver a business-critical project" Identify analyse principle considerations system, including techniques operating .Evaluate traditional agile methods system, terms optimim delivery project outcomes.

Web-based virtual team management

The new labor force and the virtual team

Humans have been developing labor relations for millennia now, but these relations have never been as developed and complex as they are today. The basis of the modern day labor system was set in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, with the commencement and development of the Industrial evolution. During those days, the population moved from the villages to the tows as the factories were opened and in need of labor force. The early employees were nevertheless exploited, put to work long hours, to live and work in unsafe and unsanitary conditions and paid miserable wages. Women and children fitted in this category as well.

Gradually however, the labor force evolved.…

Identifying Best Practices for Supporting Virtual Teams
About half of all multinational corporations already use virtual teams in some capacity, and current trends indicate that they will become increasingly commonplace in the future (Minton-Eversole, 2012). Although definitions vary, virtual teams are typically regarded as being comprised of a group of individuals that are located in different geographic locations who communicate primarily through collaborative electronic communications platforms (Minton-Eversole, 2012). Given their growing importance, identifying best practices for supporting virtual teams has assumed new importance and relevance today. To this end, this paper examines five issues that IT departments are likely to face in supporting virtual teams and an architectural diagram depicted how virtual teams collaborate and access common documents, software, development and testing facilities. In addition, a description of five advantages and disadvantages of using virtual teams for global enterprises is followed by a description concerning how various challenges can be…

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 teams?
2. Which competencies and skills support effective work in virtual teams?
3. What is the role of communication and reliance within virtual teams and how can it be facilitated?
Research Hypotheses
A research hypothesis is a distinctive statement of expectation that delineates in material terms what is anticipated to take place in the study. The research hypothesis is pivotal to the research efforts, whether the research approach is quantitative, qualitative, and explanatory or exploratory.
Taking into…

“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…

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 oebuck 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, oebuck et al. suggest that this is one of the most important elements in creating an effective virtual team. (oebuck 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…

Articles Compared

The author of this brief report has been tasked with comparing and contrasting two articles that are about the same subject. The general topic that is in question would be virtual teams. The drill-down sub-topic that will be the focus of this report will be the traits, norms, values and patterns of people and how this leads to alignment or discord in virtual teams. One of the two articles in question was published in Spring of 2004 and was authored by Brown, Scott-Poole and Rodgers. Hereafter, this article will be called the Brown article. The other article was published in 2013 and was written by Krumm, Terwiel and Hertel. The same set of questions will be answered for both articles and the answers or details that are revealed will be processed and synthesized. While there is a lot of agreement when it comes to the efficacy and workability…

The U.S., Army Logistics Network has defined specific pricing and costing levels by rank, and strives to push accountability and responsibility as far down the chain of command as possible. As nearly every officer who acts as a buyer within the purchasing and procurement teams has been trained on the fundamentals of accrual-based costing, cost-based accounting, supplier management and supply chain planning, each is given a set of metrics to measure their performance individually and as a team against. As a result, decision making is pushed to the lowest levels of virtual teams with accountability being assigned to the officer responsible for a given supplier. Decision making that involves the entire group is much more collaborative in nature, relying on Internet-based technologies for sharing documents, presentations, and other materials to assist in the development of alternatives. The U.S. Army Logistics Network is heavily reliant on collaborative forms of technology based…

There is plenty of debate about the best ways to operate a team effectively in an increasingly global and technology-driven world. One of the clear options that has emerged and perhaps has become necessary is the use of virtual teams as a means to boost or at least maintain team productivity (Trautrims, Defee & Farris, 2016). The business problem to be addressed is staffing and retaining a department that is diverse and effective (Bartelt & Dennis, 2014). The specific business problem is keeping the best and avoiding people that do not help a team excel.

The answer to the problem just espoused is the embracing and use of virtual teams. The upshot of virtual teams in a modern technological and business context is that businesses are able to deliver clear benefits to the employees in the form of less or no travel and work flexibility options while at the same…

Virtual Teams: The New Way to Work, by Lipnack & Stamps (1999)

Did the author include a reference to the research study using a format consistent with the APA Publication Manual?

But the work isn't a report on a research project; therefore, the reference doesn't apply here. Still, in accordance with the guidelines for composing narrative study abstracts, the abstract must explain that what follows is an analysis. It ought to present specific facts that aid readers in evaluating its applicability and validity. The abstract ought to follow the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) (Oermann, 2014).

Did the author mention the problem addressed within the study?

No. There is no explicit mention of the study problem. Rather, the authors have simply hinted at the issue by dealing with the broader, generic problems associated with virtual working. They have addressed the evolution of multiple working techniques into…

Introduction

The advent of technology has brought with itself various diverse changes. Advances in technology have effectively eliminated geographical barriers to communication and collaboration. As a matter of fact, the said changes have brought to the fore new possibilities for global organizations as far as teamwork is concerned. Thus it is now possible for people to undertake on common projects in a teamwork setting even if they are not in the same geographical location. This is what is what could contextually be referred to as virtual teams. It is important to note, from the onset, that there is no assigned definition for virtual teams. This is to say that several definitions have been offered over time in an attempt to define virtual teams. In essence, however, virtual teams could be seen as clusters of organizational employees who do not work in the same physical environment but nonetheless interact as well…

VIRTUAL TEAMS 4

Virtual Teams
The use of virtual teams has grown more and more with each recent passing year. Even so, there has been some companies that have pushed back on the use of virtual employees in the name of maximizing output and productivity. There is a great amount of debate as to whether localized or remote teams are more feasible or workable. Regardless, there is a lot of theory behind how to do virtual teams the right way. This is precisely what Hertel and the other two authors are describing in their review of the current empirical research. They describe a series of phases and steps that are integral to the process. While the parallels are not complete and definitive, assembling and disassembling a team is much like the product life cycle and project management steps.
Article Summary
As is mentioned in the introduction of this report, there…

Virtual Teams? Reference used will be: DuFrene, D. D., & Lehman, C. M. (2016). Managing virtual teams. Business Expert Press.

Although virtual teams can become an integral part of an organization, the lack of evidence-based practice has led to the inability of most organizations to successfully implement virtual teams.

There is a need to discover evidence-based practice to allow for increased implementation of virtual teams; research in the topic of virtual teams must cover areas like management and strategies to increase the amount of knowledge available for organization to create and sustain their own virtual teams.

Potential Reference to be used is: Shillabeer, A., Buss, T. F., & Rousseau, D. M. (2015). Evidence-Based Public Management: Practices, Issues and Prospects. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis.

Central research question (qualitative) or research question(s) (quantitative)

What evidence-based practice exists that can help organizations successfully implement virtual teams? (Qualitative)

Of the data that exists, what…

Virtual Teams vs. Face-to-Face Teams
Introduction
With the arrival of the Digital Era, businesses have begun to turn more and more to virtual teams. Virtual teams consist of employees who work together on a project but may not ever meet one another face to face as they are situated in other parts of the world and connected only by the Internet. They can have virtual meetings, share information via direct messages or their workplace portal, and interact essentially like a face to face team—the big difference is that they are never in the same place together and thus are not as impacted by the workplace culture as face to face teams are. That alone presents significant issues when determining how to lead a virtual team. This paper will discuss the similarities and differences of virtual teams and face to face teams, identify the development stages of teams, describe the factors…

Hook: When poet, artist, and punk rock star Patti Smith moved into the Chelsea Hotel with her beau and fellow artist Robert Mapplethorpe in 1970, she recognized the power of networking for increasing productivity and propelling individual and group success: "The Chelsea hotel network made anything possible. Everything changed," (Olaisen & Revang, 2017, p. 1441). The example of Patti Smith shows how networking is a critical component of success in any business sector, whether the arts, sciences, or commercial enterprise.

Anchor: As many as 79% of knowledge workers report working "always or frequently in dispersed teams," but 82% of virtual teams believe they "fall short of their goals," (Ferrazzi, 2014, p. 1). Bartelt & Dennis (2014) also found that teams were actually "unable to successfully determine whether they were performing effectively, in terms of team performance," (p. 533).

General Problem: The general problem is that organizations know virtual teams are…

Management: Benefits of Virtual Teams

Proposal for a Shift to Virtual Teams

Situation: A group of workers seeking to achieve a certain task, for instance; to set up a new phone routine for the organization, come together to plan, and thereafter implement the plan, through official face-to-face encounters. In cases where the task at hand is complex, and hence requires more communication, such encounters are usually more frequent and take up long durations of time. Such meetings could be limited by a wide range of factors such as time and geographical barriers. On this front, the team leader or project manager's ability to procure useful talent beyond organizational and geographical boundaries is also limited.

Proposed Solution: Face-to-face meetings and encounters could easily be replaced by virtual meetings. In such a case, team members would not have to physically work together - under one roof. With the help of wireless systems…

Hook

Global virtual teams have been described as being valuable but “fraught with problems,” (Gordon, 2017, p. 1). Many of the issues confounding virtual teams are not technological issues such as network security but rather, are related to social and psychological factors. The failure of virtual teams to achieve stated goals may be due to any number of challenges, ranging from the lack of face-to-face interaction that provides the nonverbal communication context (Quisenberry, 2018) to the different means by which each member of the team uses or interacts with the technology and with team members (German, 2017). Global virtual teams are instrumental, necessitating further research into how to formally improve their operations via improvements to leadership models or to the actual technological instruments used to facilitate communication.

Anchor

Recent literature has been abundant on virtual teams and how to make them more effective. Quisenberry (2018) demonstrates the importance of emotional…

Purpose Statement
The present study seeks to assess and evaluate emotional intelligence in virtual teams and how it impacts team performance. The target population will comprise of employees of companies with operations in the United States, Europe, and Africa, and who have virtual teams working in collaboration to accomplish various organizational goals and objectives. This population is appropriate for a study of this nature because by virtue of being dispersed, “physical contact in virtual teams is reduced or lacking altogether which means that collaboration is enabled by IT-solutions such as computer based communication” which essentially implies “opportunities as well as challenges for today’s global e-leaders” (Lillian, 2014). The present study will be inclusive of employees who have had the opportunity to accomplish tasks, pursue organizational objectives, and drive the organizational agenda in a virtual environment with colleagues dispersed across various geographical locations. The implication for positive social change includes the…

Virtual teams that gain the highest levels of performance first get
their many processes in place first, and then move through the iterative
stages of defining their information, collaboration and shared process
ownership needs first, and then layer in specific technologies to automate
these processes. Only by taking a very process-centric approach to defining
technology needs will virtual teams be successful in their use of
collaboration, synchronization, and project management applications. The
processes need to form the foundation by which applications and
technologies get integrated into the workflows of virtual teams. Technology
for its own sake is never a solution, yet must be an enabler of processes
if the investments in technology are ever going to pay off.
Summary
Ultimately the virtual team member must perceive that their job has been
created to allow them to excel, removing roadblocks and other distractions
out of their way so they can excel.…

Emotional Intelligence and Virtual Teams
There are many articles discussing emotional intelligence in teams, and a couple that are specific to virtual teams. Key to understanding the role that emotional intelligence plays on virtual teams is knowing the differences between virtual teams and normal work teams, and knowing how emotional intelligence might affect a normal team, then being able to extrapolate how the differences might affect things.
Jordan and Troth (2004) discuss the role that emotional intelligence plays in problem solving. They found that emotional intelligence is positively indicated with team performance and problem solving. Their study was in-person, so they were able to observe participants directly, and they were able to accurately compare subjects because everybody was given the same problem to solve. The study is valuable because it clearly establishes the link between emotional intelligence and team performance.
Feyerhem and Rice (2002) broke down the different components of…

4
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…

Emotional intelligence and high Virtual team performance
Background
The contemporary business environment is competitive just as much as I is creative in nature. The globalization and its influences have pushed the business environment to greater heights as compared to the prevailing levels two decades ago. Information technology has led to a market environment that is both advanced and dynamic at the same time. The trends that may be a preference of many in a given year may seem useless and rendered inapplicable in the next year. This means that any business that has to keep in touch with the customers and remain relevant in the ever changing environment has to ensure it keep reinventing itself in line with the changing environment (Mattsson L., 2003). Major international businesses that have remained stagnated have been cut down in terms of profitability, and others closed down all together.
There are significant examples of…

team have to address the challenges and leverage the opportunities associated with operating as this particular type of virtual team

Multinational virtual teams allow organizations to benefit from the cultural knowledge conveyed to the base organization from interacting with employees from local businesses without some of the costs of transferring members of the organization abroad. Organizational members can be mobile "any place, any time, anywhy" in a virtual team without leaving behind family, friends, and familiarity (Collings, Doherty, Luethy, & Osborn 2011, p.364). However, this is also one of the challenges of a virtual team. Because the members are not actively forced to make a cultural adjustment because they are not expatriates, they can ignore the need to make cultural accommodations or appreciate cultural nuances and differences (between low-context cultures like the U.S. And high-context cultures like Thailand). Just as with a formal transfer to a foreign nation, preparation is…

Business

Change and Opportunities

Change management is an aspect that is vital for the success of a company. In contemporary world, with constant advancements and progressions in technology, change is an aspect that cannot be avoided by PM. Change management and restructuring, in addition to reorganization are all processes and practices denoted by the fact that they assess and weigh the fundamental structures with the key determination of changing such practices by way of directed and resounding interventions (Koper and ichter, 2014).

Change is inevitable. This is because with better and more progressive technologies, if a company does not choose to change and embrace it, then at the end it will become obsolete. In addition, as time passes on, the preferences of the consumers to whom the product and services the company serves continue to change and therefore for the organization to not only sustain its current consumer base and…

Collaborative Work Environments

The scenario is that you have been assigned to lead a new organizational initiative to implement a system to help foster collaboration for those who are located at each of your four sites within the same town. You are the team lead and you must develop the proposal for presentation to your supervisor. To help get you started, I have proposed the project objective.

Project Objective: To develop a team proposal to implement a system that will strengthen the organizational culture and enhance cross site collaboration. A key attribute of such a system will be to enhance the transfer and sharing of knowledge.

To help foster collaboration between the four sites in the same town, a cross-functional team should be created with leaders from different divisions who are adept in their roles in their specific departments and can effectively represent their business function. By having members with…

If a leader is accountable, honest and transparent, these values often get reflected throughout the teams they manage. Conversely if leaders of virtual teams are not as clear, fail to inform team members of critical dates and opportunities for communication or recognition, mistrust festers and can actually grow quickly over time. In a sense the best leaders of virtual teams strive for accountability, honesty and the opportunity to get key team members recognition to keep morale high. Managing morale of a virtual team is heavily dependent on a managers' ability to create the necessary social dynamics, instilling trust as a core value of their teams by being accountable and honest. The single greatest factor that dictates the effectiveness of social dynamics for virtual teams is the leader's attitude and beliefs concerning accountability, honesty, transparency and trust (Morris, 33) . In virtual teams the leader's attitudes are the compass that points…

Teams

Analysis of Self-Managed Work Teams

The autonomy of work teams has increasingly become a necessity in many enterprises who rely on a depth of expertise, experience and wealth of knowledge that their knowledge-rich employees provide (Roper, Phillips, 2007). Given how complex, diverse and deep specific areas of expertise are in the core functional areas of any business, it isn't possible for a single manager or leader to have an expert-level command of all expertise. This makes the formation and successful functioning of a team even more critical, as a leader must create a culture of trust, openness and shared communication and collaboration. This is accentuated and made clear in the empirical studies of exceptional leadership of virtual teams across diverse cultural and geographic locations (Muthusamy, Wheeler, Simmons, 2005). The intent of this analysis is to critically evaluate the role of compensation programs for teams, the pros and cons of…

Team-based organization, there is often conflict with respect to the best way to motivate within the organization. Managers must decide between team-based motivation and individual motivation, and they must decide what type of motivation works best. In some cases, financial rewards are a good method, while others appeal to a sense of intrinsic motivation. This paper will study the issue of motivation in team-based organization.

esearch on team-based organizations

Pearsall, Christian and Ellis (2010) studied the use of hybrid rewards in teams. The authors hypothesized that hybrid rewards would be more effective than either individual rewards or shared rewards. They felt that this would be the case because of increased information allocation and reduced social loafing An approach that focused strictly on individual rewards would suffer because there would be no incentive to raise the level of the team, while team-based rewards only would lead to higher levels of social…

Team Processes

Organizational success depends on an understanding of decision-making, creativity, teamwork, and organizational structure. Chapters 7, 8, and 13 in the text address these concepts fully. These concepts also fill the pages of Websites and readings devoted to helping future managers understand their role, and how they can thrive in any organization. Decision-making is crucial for strong leadership. There are several paradigms and theories that can be applied to the decision-making process. These paradigms and theories help people understand how their cognitive and emotional processes impact their decisions. Understanding the paradigms and theories of decision-making also help people avoid making mistakes, while also learning from past mistakes in order to make better choices for the future.

The rational choice paradigm of decision-making is one of the foremost paradigms that can be applied to the enterprise level. The rational choice paradigm of decision-making is essentially rooted in the utilitarian philosophies…

Virtual project teams have become increasingly important, and they deliver many benefits to organization. However, there are difficulties associated with virtual project teams that managers need to be aware of. These revolve around communication issues, including trust, information flow, communication styles and sociological issues such as personal culture and the political nature of communication. It is recommended that managers develop a keen understanding of the differences between virtual team communication and conventional business communication. In addition, managers need to be clearer with respect to responsibilities, time frames, types of information that should flow and other aspects of team management. In general, virtual team management needs to be more regimented than conventional team management in order to be effective and deliver to the organization the benefits that virtual project teams promise.

Background

The information superhighway has allowed for the emergence of virtual project teams as a viable means of bringing together…

Virtual Collaboration Techniques

The differences between virtual organizations and the traditional brick and mortar ones

The Antecedents for a successful virtual collaboration

The advantages of virtual collaboration

Disadvantages of virtual collaboration

Virtual collaboration is indicated by Chen, Volt and Lin (77) to involve the processes of collaboration between team members who are involved in working towards the achievement of a common goal, in a classroom or a workplace setting. Virtual collaboration, they noted also refers to the employment of digital technologies that are engaged to enable individuals and organizations in the planning, designing, development, management, research on various products and services in a collaborative fashion using innovative e-commerce and general IT applications.

The concept of virtual collaboration is extensively used in organizations that have virtual teams and especially in the arena of product development in companies that are geographically dispersed (Baxendale and Mellor 96). Another application of virtual; collaboration is…

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…

Team evaluation: MGI

Fundamentally, my team worked so effectively because of our common goals and determination to succeed. A critical component of creating our effective team was the drawing-up of a team charter. The charter listed team member strengths, duties, processes, ground rules, and above all a timetable of deliverables. Having a series of deadlines for small projects, rather than focusing on the single, final deadlines of the project forced us to keep in constant contact over email and have a consistent and ongoing dialogue about the preoccupations of the case study.

One of the challenges of being a member of a virtual team is that the distanced format can lack accountability, and people do not get a clear sense of the personalities of other team members. However, in the case of our team, we clearly bonded as a unit. The fact that Nicholas Payne was so prompt in getting…

Teams provide inducement to work in a set up. Functioning as a group ensures effective and proficient performance of the jobs. This facilitates harmonization with different team members and also results in dissemination of the ideas and knowledge among them. (Teams and Teamwork) The convention of functioning in groups is more and more common in different types of organization. The members from different department are taken together to form teams with a view to encouraging cooperation among them in solving the problems and harmonizing new programs and new processes and also to be employed in the secular planning efforts. With a view to unite all the key personnel so as to increasing the productivity, increasing the associative-ness and enhancement of quality and proficiency the forming of interdisciplinary and diverse functional teams are constituted. Simply placing the people in teams however, do not ensure the effectiveness of the team. It is…

There are several characteristic that are evident with the software system use in virtual collaboration technology. The first characteristic is that most of these tools are web based and are downloadable; they also have the ability to offer a text chat feature in real time, thereby allowing for the synchronous communication among various users.

The platforms also has VoIP functionality, thereby giving them the ability to transmit sound over the laid down internet infrastructure. The virtual collaboration platform has the ability to allow screen sharing. This therefore allows the individual users to allow their partners to have a look at what they are working on their screens in an instant. The platform must have a presentation facility that allows for the presentation of Power point slides to the audience. The system also has Whiteboard-Live annotation tools which provides the users with a whiteboard type experience and look with the added…

Virtual Project Teams

Managing Virtual Project Teams

The purpose of this project is to present definitive and formal analysis of virtual project teams and their successful management. Additionally, this project will provide evidentiary information from peer review and scholarly research as well as synthesis and conclusions regarding the subject matter.

Successfully initiation and executing a virtual team is increasingly gaining attention in the workplace. From opportunities to integrate multidisciplinary and international teams to the chance to leverage the best possible resources within an organization on a particular project, virtual teams can be transformative and significantly alter the concept of project planning and execution. However, because the concept of virtual teams, virtual team building and the effective and efficient management of virtual teams is in its nascent stage, little guidance is currently available to assist with successful implementation and management of these teams (Chinowsky & Rojas, 2003).

Some of today's companies…

Team Conflict Development and Team Dynamics

Organizational tasks are becoming increasingly complex and more involved; teams have become valuable for easier and more effective accomplishment of tasks (Chekwa & Thomas, 2013). Teamwork has turned out to be a crucial driver of organizational productivity in the contemporary workplace (Breugst et al., 2012; Martinez-Moreno et al., 2015; Lee et al., 2015); this to a large extent explains why employers are ever more looking for individuals with outstanding teamwork abilities. Nonetheless, owing to differences in needs, objectives, opinions, interests, priorities, values, and beliefs between different members of a team, conflicts are bound to emerge often (Brown et al., 2011). Lack of proper handling of the conflicts, individual and team productivity can be significantly hampered (Fusch & Fusch, 2015). This paper provides of review of literature relating to conflict management in teams. The review particularly pays attention to team development and dynamics, team conflict…

It is important to ensure that the team for any specific task comprises members who are knowledgeable and posses the required skills needed to carry out the task. Teams should also try to work across organizational boundaries/levels and break down internal barriers and deal with people and issues directly and avoid hidden agendas from both within the group and from external sources.

Prior to selecting team members, the purpose and the reasons for creating the HPWT should be clear to the entire management members deciding on the team creation. Teams without a definite goal and aim, will drift and fail, since no goal and objective is set or a final objective identified. Getting together individuals possessing special skills, talents or expertise in order to build a team is critical. Important skills for a team include: "technical expertise," "problem solving," "decision making," and "interpersonal skills." (Thompson, Aranda, Robbins, & Swenson, 2000)…

Strengthening Others for Team Excellence

For a team to be successful in their activities, they need a strong leader who will bring the team together by ensuring the team members trust each other and look forward to achieving the goal of the team. According to Northouse (2012), the team leader is important and should exhibit traits such as intelligence, confidence, integrity, and determination. Kouzes and Posner (2012) also suggest similar qualities stating that the leader should be honest, inspiring, competent, and forward-looking. These scholars present different views of groups and teams dynamic, which form the subject matter of this paper.

Group dynamics and cohesiveness

According to Northouse (2012), a group's cohesiveness is promoted by the leader's qualities. The leader should be intelligent, as seen in their communication and problem-solving skills, excellent as seen in their synergy with the team and determined. Kouzes and Posner (2012) define competence as the most…

The single greatest detriment and liability to communication in the company I work for right now is trust. No one trusts members of cross-functional teams because they take ideas and often present them as their own in larger staff meetings or cross-functional discussions with other departments. This has happened regularly in engineering and in marketing. As a result, communication is starting to come to a standstill in terms of brainstorming. The exception is the business development team, which everyone wants to work with, as they regularly win awards for performance, are positive, look out for each other, and are very inclusive in terms of working with virtual teams. In effect, the business development team needs to be a model for the rest of the company.

To alleviate the lack of trust in the company outside of business development, I would also concentrate on creating more effective task interdependence to force…

Globalization and Management

All people are global citizens now. But what does this mean? What is this process of globalization that has quite literally swept over our globe? And what will be the effects of globalization during our lifetime on the ways in which business will be done and especially in how information will be managed? Not only does each person have to consider the implications of such questions on an individual bases (as workers, and consumers as well as citizens) but each business must determine for itself how best to incorporate itself into this global environment while considering the needs and potential of its own company as well as the values that it wishes to project. This dissertation examines some of the current and potential future effects of globalizations, exploring in particular the ways in which businesses are now more integrated with each other than before as they take…

Team Excellence

EMPOWERING, NURTURING

Strengthening Others for Team Excellence

Overview of Concepts

The first concept is transformational leadership, which is rooted on the ability to inspire and motivate (Northouse, 2013; Abu-Tineh et al., 2009). First introduced by Max Weber in 1948 and broadened by Sir McGregor urns in the 70s, it connects charisma and leadership. It is woven around the four key concepts or styles, or the four I's, namely, idealized influence, inspirational motivation, individual consideration, and intellectual stimulation. Idealized influence shapes a follower into a leader by making him live a leader's action each day. This is applied to all types of groups. Inspirational motivation commits a follower or member to the group's shared vision. This inspires followers to work harder and better in achieving or fulfilling that shared vision. A certain level or amount of charisma is required of the leader in order to create this influence. Individualized…

Virtual Teams Throughout the Globe

My assessment of the best practice suggestions regarding privacy at work made in the January 2013 issue of Cosmopolitan magazine is favorable. It is quite clear that social media has had a significant impact on the way that people interact with their co-workers, and on relationships between employees and employers. The key is to utilize that impact in a way that is advantageous to workers. pecifically, the author of this article makes a good point when she indicates that it is best to get to know one's employer on a somewhat personal level, as long as it is done in moderation (Anderson, 2013, p. 76). The point is for one's employer to think favorably of his or her employee, not to become best friends with him or her.

uch sagacity is applicable to virtual teams just as well as to those that operate in a…

Teams/Groups Considerations

According to Green et al. (2015), globalization has resulted to increased dealings amidst individuals coming from different backgrounds. Individuals no longer exist and work in a blinkered surrounding; they are now considered as part of a global economy in competition within an international framework. For this cause, both profit and non-profit organizations ought to become more diversified so as to stay competitive. Capitalization and maximization of workplace diversity is an essential management concern.

In general, diversity can be described as the identification, comprehension, and acceptance of other individuals' personal disparities regardless of their race, sex, ethnicity, age, class, religion, and physical ability, among others. Everybody is unique in their own way, but also share certain biological and environmental traits (Dike, 2013).

Challenges of a Diverse Workforce

Green et al. (2015) mention that there are various challenges associated with a diverse workforce. The leaders and directors of an organization…

Team Process Selection:

Setting SMAT goals and avoiding social loafing

For the purpose of this paper, I agreed to volunteer on a local committee designed to reduce childhood obesity in our immediate area. As is the case with many communities, the increasing BMI of children due to unhealthy food consumption and a lack of places to exercise are of great concern, especially to parents of elementary and middle school-age children. The committee was designed to create a less obesegenic environment through a variety of initiatives for this age group.

The committee works closely with the local elementary and middle schools, providing suggestions and support to make it easier for children to walk to school. ecent efforts have included putting in new bike racks on school grounds and hiring an additional crossing guard, to make walking to school less hazardous. The school has also eliminated bake sales as a source of…

Virtual Meetings

Planning a face-to-face or Virtual Meeting

Situation

Suppose your firm will be holding a meeting of 7 people from all over the U.S.A. They will either set up a virtual meeting, where everyone stays home, or create a live event that brings everyone together. Compare and contrast virtual meetings with live events. Assume costs are not an issue.

Comparison of In-Person and Virtual Meetings

Comparison based on convenience

Virtual meetings has expanded the communication options

Virtual meetings are convenient and have unique advantages

Comparison based on effectiveness

Face-to-face is by far the most effective form of communication

Given the circumstance, face-to-face is the better option

Overview

If cost is not an option then face-to-face communication is by far the most effective form of meetings. Face-to-face communication and virtual meetings are two entirely different types of communication. While each one has its advantages, when and how they should or…

Teams: Discussion

Several months ago, I was amongst those elected into a team set up to look into ways of enhancing interdepartmental cooperation. The team comprised of 7 individuals -- each representing a department. The key mandate of the team was to come up with strategies of enhancing cooperation between departments so as to enhance overall organizational efficiency. With regard to the various types of teams Landy and Conte (2013) identify, this particular team could be described as a project team. A project team in the words of Landy and Conte (2013, p. 521) is that kind of a "team that is created to solve a particular problem or set of problems and is disbanded after the project is completed or the problem is solved."

In this particular team, I was the Human esource Department representative. Amongst other things, I was charged with soliciting views from member of my department…

Virtual Training

The world today is different from what it was back in history. Today it has become a global village and the interaction of people, companies and services provided is not restricted to a single nation. The market has become competitive with competitors from all over the world. Virtual training is yet another component of the benefits of globalization. Virtual training can be delivered online, through email, remote desktop or even on phone with or without videoconferencing. Hence when one communicates with individuals or a group and trains them, they are working face-to-face and when one communicates and trains through these various noted means where they do not sit face-to-face, it is called virtual training. Therefore virtual training is a training delivered from a distance rather than in person face-to-face.

THE TEND OF VITUAL TAINING

In virtual training one can train and coach individuals or groups. A virtual group…

Additionally, the leader of the virtual team communicated in a far more effective manner than did the leader of the team at the nuclear site. Perhaps the leader of the virtual team realized that the only way to achieve the team's objective was through a consistent, regular and ongoing communication style that would enhance the team's effectiveness. Therefore, the leader diligently addressed the issue in an ongoing manner.

The nuclear site team's leader, knowing that a face-to-face meeting could take place within a matter of mere moments was most likely much less diligent in communicating the needs, goals and objectives of the group.

The ComCorp study states that "a number of disintegrating forces continually pull teams apart, including time zone differences, local pressures, cultural differences, and a general lack of face-to-face contact and interaction" (Kerber). No such circumstances exist for the nuclear plant or other local leadership teams.

Kerber's study…

Collaboration Software Evaluation and Analysis

As virtual teams become pervasive in many enterprises globally, the need for stable, secure and scalable collaboration platforms becomes more and more important to organizations achieving complex strategic goals and objectives. Virtual teams can often coordinate and collaborate using personal productivity applications, yet on more complex tasks requiring orchestration of complex workflows and sharing dozens of documents at the same time, Microsoft Outlook and e-mail break down and don't deliver the level of functionality necessary. Given the rapid rise in virtual teams in conjunction with the lack of support in many personal productivity software applications for intensive collaboration an entirely new area of enterprise software has emerged. Customer elationship Management (CM) systems with social networking functionality (Social CM), enterprise content management, knowledge management, groupware, portals and Web Services have all emerged as proven solutions to the continual challenge of communication and collaboration in virtual teams…