Leading_a_Virtual_Team

“Leading a Virtual Team” Background of the study: Virtual teams are teams of people who primarily interact electronically and who may meet face-to-face occasionally. Examples of virtual teams include a team of people working at different geographic sites and a project team whose members telecommute. What is a virtual team' There are several different definitions of virtual teams, but what these definitions have in common is that, in addition to being a team, virtual team members are physically separated (by time and / or space) and that virtual team members primarily interact electronically. This researcher defines virtual teams as teams of people who primarily interact electronically and who may meet face-to-face occasionally. {text:bookmark-start} Reasons {text:bookmark-end} for Virtual Teams Reasons for virtual teams center around the differences in time and space for team members. Team members may not be physically collocated. It may not be practical to travel to meet face-to-face. Team members may work different shifts Specifically, teams may be distributed because of the new realities facing organizations such as: organization-wide projects or initiatives alliances with different organizations, some of which may be in other countries mergers and acquisitions emerging markets in different geographic locations the desire of many people and government organizations for telecommuting the continuing need for business travel and information and communications technologies available to support this travel a need to reduce costs a need to reduce time-to-market or cycle time in general (the increasing velocity in business) {text:bookmark-start} Types of Groups {text:bookmark-end} Four basic types of groups of people exist: Task groups Friendship groups Command groups Interest groups These groups also can exist as virtual groups. For example, an example of a virtual command group would be a national sales team distributed throughout the United States. An example of a virtual task group could be a small software development group of people telecommuting to their office. A virtual interest group could be a group of investors sharing strategies and outcomes. A friendship group might be represented by a virtual community. Certainly other examples exist and some groups overlap as well. Note: This researcher uses the term "virtual team" in this web site as a "virtual task group" or a "virtual command group" where team members are focused on a specific set of goals.. {text:bookmark-start} Strategies {text:bookmark-end} for Virtual Teams The following tips come from research into virtual teamwork. Hold an initial face-to-face startup Have periodic face-to-face meetings, especially to resolve conflict and maintain team cohesiveness Establish a clear code of conduct or set of norms and protocols for behavior Recognize and reward performance Use visuals in communications Recognize that most communications will be non-verbal -- use caution in tone and language {text:bookmark-start} Benefits {text:bookmark-end} of Virtual Teams Several benefits of virtual teams include the following: People can work from anywhere at anytime. People can be recruited for their competencies, not just physical location. Many physical handicaps are not a problem. Expenses associated with travel, lodging, parking, and leasing or owning a building may be reduced and sometimes eliminated. There is no commute time II. Problem Statement: -How can the team leader effectively manage a virtual team which includes sundry members' III. Objectives for problem solution: We must be able to come up with a set of possible solutions that can {text:list-item} {text:list-item} {text:list-item} {text:list-item} IV. Point of View: From a virtual team leader: Effective communication in electronic environments can be vexing to virtual teams. We know intuitively that we need proper communication to achieve high quality and efficient outcomes, but we are not always sure how to best achieve effective communication or even what effective communication is for the task at hand. As a research team we are interested in the ability of team members to communicate effectively using computer mediated communication technologies. We conducted some studies looking at the effects of leadership and communication media on the incidence of supportive and critical communication in virtual teams and how the incidence of such communication can effect cohesion, consensus, and group efficacy. V. SWOT Analysis: Strengths -The team’s cultural diversity at some point can help in making and finalizing decisions. Weaknesses -Poor team cohesion; lacking in unity -each member has a different idea about what the goals were. -Language Barriers Opportunities -Each member can use his/her country’s degree of technological specialization to focus on individual aspects of the new product. Threats -Non-working holidays in different countries -Different Timezones VI. Alternative courses of action: All members spend time to meet though videoconference {text:list-item} {text:list-item} {text:list-item} The members of the team meet face to face {text:list-item} {text:list-item} {text:list-item} {text:list-item} Use the Delphi technique {text:list-item} {text:list-item} {text:list-item} VII. Recommendation: