Virtual teams function through information technologies, and are becoming more prominent as globalization increases in the world today. Members of virtual teams are dispersed in different locations, as they operate globally. Virtual team members interact electronically, and might meet face-to-face occasionally.
Our society is transforming towards knowledge-based work, which emphasizes that knowledge is a major competitive advantage. Organizations are moving from production-based to knowledge-based operations. Globalization and organizational learning processes are causing the need for virtual teams to increase dramatically. Virtual teams motivate members to collaborate and share knowledge, even though distance might seem to limit this interaction. Global organizations rely on virtual operations to balance their human capital.
In order for virtual teams to be effective, members of the teams need to have the ability to effectively communicate through technology. Many believe that members should meet early in team development, to provide for organizational effectiveness.
Globalization is essentially about the opening up of new boundaries, and rising technology has allowed our environment to be characterized as a global one. Global economies give businesses the opportunity to market product and services all around the world. Globalization has also allowed companies to establish alliances, which has become vital for success in business today.
Virtual teams develop for several different purposes, depending on the objectives of the specific organization. For example, team members might not be physically collocated. It might not be practical for members to travel, in order to meet in person. Another possible reason may be beca...
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...discover how to effectively develop and manage virtual teams.
Teams are not designed the same way they were in past generations. The nature of teams has changed dramatically because of changes in organizations and the nature of the work they do. Relationships between people inside an organization and those outside are becoming increasingly important. Organizations have realized the value of collaborative work. Knowledge management has become significant in organizations, emphasizing the learning of members of the organization so that is available to the entire organization. Virtual teams are having more of an impact as organizations develop across geography and across industries.
Works Cited
McShane, Steven L., and Mary Ann Von Glinow. Organizational Behavior: Emerging Knowledge and Practice for the Real World. 5th ed. New York: Paul Ducham, 2010. Print.
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).
Many of the most successful companies in their branch heavily rely on teamwork. Especially companies that offer special services to individual customers which require specific knowledge take advantage of using teams to generate value. Goldman Sachs’ trains its teams regularly to ensure the extraordinary productivity they offer to their customers. “Despite this investment in the individual, our experience is that a person's true potential is only fully developed when he or she works as part of an outstanding team.”[1]
A virtual team refers to a collection of collaborating persons in geographically dispersed means. This group of persons do work across space, time and organizational boundaries and are connected together via information and telecommunication technologies in order to accomplish one or more organizational goals. The virtual teams do require new array of ways to work across boundaries through processes, systems, technology and people. This does require effective leadership in order to be a success.
Teams are crucial to making companies more flexible, quality-conscious, and competitive. Organizations need to ensure that they are using an organizational structure that matches today's demanding business environment.
Online learning is now a reality, with distributed learning and blended learning becoming more widely used in Higher Education (Whatley, 1999). Online learning has many advantages and disadvantages. Teamwork in online environments is becoming a widely used tool, whether it is in business or education. A team working together has more and better input than individuals working alone. This results in better ideas and decisions and higher quality output. Virtual teams are a good way to enable teamwork in situations where people are not sitting in the same physical office at the same time. The effective team-building requires the combination of clear team goals, empowerment, atmosphere of trust within the team, authentic participation of every member of team, innovative approach to work and ability to manage risks, proper leadership and ability to make the constructive changes.
Many organizations today believe that the use of work teams will allow them to produce better products and provide better services, faster, and at lower costs. Using a work team approach can reinvigorate productivity and service provider motivation, and better position an organization to deal with a rapidly changing environment. However establishing effective work teams is not something that comes easy. Though, the benefits of effective work teams within an organization are very substantial, it takes alot of hard work and dedication on the part of management and team members to develop, implement and maintain effective work teams.
In today’s environment of companies doing business in a global economy, teamwork is essential. “Employees working in effective teams help increase productivity, employee involvement, and contribution, while reducing costs and flattening organizational structure (Adams, 2003). In contrast, ineffective teams can cause increased costs, waste valuable time, and contribute to losses in market share (Ross, Jones, & Adams, 2008)” quotes Jean McAtavey and Irena Nikolovska in an article in Human Resource Development Quarterly. Today, teamwork is found in virtually all workplaces.
The management and development of leadership, trust, and accountability in culturally diverse virtual team members is an important business topic in today’s global economy.
When we think of the word team, individually many different ideas may come to mind about what a team really is. Some may think of an NFL team (Tennessee Titans), an NBA team (Sacramento Kings), or a NASA astronaut team with such pioneers as Edwin Aldrin, Jr. and Neil Armstrong as members. You might even think of the U.S. Navy, Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, or Marines as teams. In fact they all are, and they have a great deal in common as teams. However, for the purposes of this paper I will examine the characteristics of work teams, as they apply to organizations and I will supply answers to the following questions: What is a team? Where did the team concept come from? What are the types of teams? What are the advantages and disadvantages of having teams in organizations? What does it take to make a team effective?
Virtual team is also called as a Geographically Dispersed Team (GDT). A virtual team as a group of individuals who works independently across the world. In this modern day technology world we can communicate with the people very easily. Using the same technology virtual team would communicate and collaborate each other. Virtual team have corresponding abilities and are focused on a mainstream, they have related execution objectives, and they offer an approach to manage work for which they consider themselves commonly responsible. Organizations are allowed the virtual teams whomever have a best skills and they are the best people regardless of location. Virtual team have a unique characteristics and related to the management challenges. Virtual teams are utilizing the technology to communicate with the people and accomplish the company goals.
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.
In order for teamwork to be successful in the workplace it involves building a relationship and working with other people. The ability to work as part of a team is one of the most important skills in today’s job market. Working cooperatively and contributing to groups with ideas, and suggestions benefits everyone. A key to team effectiveness