Advantages and Disadvantages of Virtual Teams
Global management has slowly been changing from the industrial age to contemporary age. The differences in organizational management have been significantly influenced by technological advancements and changes in social and economic factors. In the industrial era, most organizations were managed by hierarchical structures that had gaps between the managers and employees. The management dictated upon most of the activities and the employees were barely involved in the decision-making process.
Specialization of roles and division of responsibilities were among the common trends in hierarchical organizational structures and this prevented employees from taking part in organizational activities. However, these practices have been changing gradually, especially with the advancement in information technology. The availability of internet, intranets and other communication features has enabled organizations to incorporate employees and other stakeholders in their management (Kimball 2000). In addition, the advancement in information technology has made it possible for organizations to shift from industrial practices to contemporary management that involves development and management of virtual teams.
Virtual teams in an organization can be defined as a collection of individuals working together, mostly in geographically isolated regions under independent space, time and boundaries, but with a common objective under the organizational goals (Lipnack & Stamps 1997). The individuals selected to participate in virtual goals rely on information and communication technology to enhance integration and cohesion. The virtual teams are created under common purpose and they may not necessarily have i...
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...ore use, the organizations can properly manage the information flow, sharing of activities and promote business growth.
Works Cited
Blaise, JB, Erich, BB & Phillip, WB 2008, ‘Nature of Virtual Teams: A summary of their advantages and disadvantages,’ Management Research News vol. 31, no. 2, pp. 99 –110.
Kimball, L 2000, Intranet decisions: Creating your organization's internal network, Miles River Press, Alexandria, VA.
Kimble, CL & Barlow, A 2000, Effective virtual teams trough communities of practice, University of Strathclyde Press, Glasgow.
Lipnack, J & Stamps, J 1997, Virtual teams. John Wiley and Sons, New York.
Norton, B & Smith, C 1997, Understanding the virtual organization, Hauppauge, New York.
Oravec, JA 2000, Virtual individuals, virtual groups: Human dimensions of groupware and computer networking, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA.
Watson, C.A. (2008). The relationship and differences between MBTI type, team skills and perceived team success in virtual and traditional teams. Ann Arbor, MI: ProQuest LLC
Teams benefit organizations by combining people who can achieve goals faster and more effectively through collaboration than can individuals working alone. These teams bring together individuals from different departments or functional areas in order to conduct their operations and address problems making the most efficient use of their resources. New technology allows employees in different geographic locations to collaborate with tools such as Google Docs, Skype a video-conferencing app, and or data networks that allow teamwork products and documents more effectively (Boundless, 2015).
The increasing number of knowledge intensive research and development companies have turned to virtual teams in the recent past in order for them to generate the greatest competitive advantage from limited resources and labor. The geographically distributed teams must communicate via technology, and this has grown in prevalence as compared to the traditional teams in which all members were collocated and communicate face to face. Thus many organizations turn to virtual teams to reduce operational costs, embracing faster problem solving and innovate.
As the technological advances in the quality of video conferencing has continued to improve, it has allowed organizations to communicate in real-time even though they are on opposite sides of the world. Unilever, a parent company of numerous household brand names, is one such global company. They have had almost every major innovation project in the past two years conducted via video conferencing. Unilever managers are trained and expected to clarify the goals amongst virtual teams. However, preparing employees to operate in an agile way isn't easy. The major traps are introducing concepts too quickly, not giving it time to develop and introducing changes without sufficient training for managers who still don't trust employees to be self-reliant.
According to Katzenbach & Smith teams that provide collective work products have three attributes as a part of the team structure: two or more skilled people working together, leadership roles which are not assigned solely to one person and may shift from one person to another within the...
Being able to communicate at the physical level compared to other means offers a better way to transfer information. Having a team be together for a long period of time also helps fade the problems faced by heterogeneous teams. One negative could be the moving to new locations which can cause some individuals to leave their families and friends. Another disadvantages is the cost which can be very expensive and disruptive considering some people may be hard to replace. Virtual teams can be hard to utilize considering the high amount of trust or the exchange of important loads of knowledge. Virtual teams would not work very good in my example of the development project of the locker rooms here at the University of Mary. The need to physically build and watch over the construction site would make a virtual team impossible because the workers and engineers need to be on the site to get the job
The article mainly focused the tips on how to manage and motivate virtual project teams. The authors has presented the key benefit of forming virtual teams in which they have mentioned that it is the ability to cost-effectively tap into a wide pool of talent from various locations. Along with that they have highlighted the understanding of the dynamics of the virtual team worker.
... such as communication, leadership, and groups and teams including virtual teams. Its engaging experience allowed for interactive learning and a thorough analysis of the interrelationship between effective communication and the beneficial outcomes of shared leadership in groups and teams. Through my individual experience as an observer assisted with my experience as a group member, the development of groups according to Tuckman’s model and ineffective methods such as barriers to communication and shared leadership possibly reduced the inefficiency in the first simulation. By implementing specific strategies such as minimizing intra-group conflict, adopting positive leadership attitudes and assigning roles to team members, group cohesion and team dynamics can be optimized in order to increase individual and team performance as reflected through our results.
Kirkman and collegues (2004) investigated the relationship between team empowerment and virtual team performance and found team empowerment to be positively associated with virtual team performance. Frequently cited performance outcomes include productivity, innovation, and customer service.
This paper will provide a hypothetical discussion of how each of the four “worldviews” (post-positivism, constructivism, advocacy/participatory, and pragmatism) might apply to the proposed study. It will refer to the topic paper developed during the class RSH9101B (Research Topic, Problem, Purpose, and Questions) with the assistance of Dr. Kenneth Gossett, class mentor. The portion of the Topic Paper to be used will be the problem statement, which will provide the foundation for this discussion and completion of this assignment. This discussion ultimately will lead to the strengthening of this research and the understanding for the need of better researches to help today’s virtual organizations.
The virtual organization is a network of independent suppliers, customers, and even competitors, generally tied together by computer technology (Roger, 1991). They share skills, costs, and access to markets. It is tend to have flat structures in which information and decision making move horizontally (Judith R.G, 2002). Through the support of modern electronic system, it becomes possible to link people across formal organizational boundaries (Judith, 2002, quoted in S.G. Straus, S.P. Weisband, and J.M. Wilson, 1998).
There are four different types of teams. These teams are problem-solving teams, self-managed work teams, cross-functional teams, and virtual teams. Problem-solving teams work together to help find methods to improve the work environment or have suggestions to increase employee’s morale. Self-managed work teams organize the responsibilities of the employee’s such as assigning tasks to individuals, scheduling conflicts, and evaluate employee performances. Cross-functional teams are individuals whom all have experience in the same work field. The individuals come together as a team to incorporate their thoughts, designs, and new ideas to accomplish what the company needs to improve or create. Virtual teams are individuals that work together, but only by technology such as the internet, emails, or web cam.
Organizations use teamwork because it increases productivity. This concept was used in corporations as early as the 1920s, but it has become increasingly important in recent years as employ...
Virtual teams – virtual team is one of the most popular teams in every organization because in virtual team the member are separated in different nation and use technologies to communicate to accomplish their goal on the time.
...tive impact on individual outcomes. Thus the result tells that managerial behavior control is not compatible with virtual team environment.