Overview of Virtual teams
Virtual teams are groups of individuals spread across the globe and in different time zones that use specific software and electronic communication technology to interact with each other, to effectively perform work related tasks, hence the term "virtual team" or graphically dispersed teams (GDTs) (Sessa, Hansen and Pretridge, 1999).
(Virtual team, 2007, ¶ 8) suggests there are different types of virtual teams;
• Networked team – individuals who get together to work on a particular task for a given purpose.
• Parallel teams – quick fixers who make recommendations to improve a system or process.
• Project or Product-development teams – Work on projects within time constraints for users or customers.
• Work or production teams - Carry out regular and continuous work, normally in one function.
• Management teams – Work collaboratively on a daily basis.
• Action teams – activated in quick response to an (mostly) emergency situation.
Lifecycle of a team
According to Brown, Huettner and James-Tanny (2007) the lifecycle stages of virtual teams consists of;
• Forming: Exciting trial balloon phase
• Storming: Various challenges will arise
• Norming: With teambuilding and with use of protocols and processes, things settle down, and every-one knows what’s expected of them
• Performing: Team works well together
• Testing: Specifications and other features are verified and tested.
• Adjourning: Finish up, evaluation; prepare to move onto other things.
An effective team has a shared team focus, expertise, capability and desire to do it Brown et al (2007).
Reasons for a Virtual team
• Perfect platform for individuals to collaboratively work on a task.
• Expands a company’s potential employee base to scope for various and skilled talent.
• Keep up with changing technological advances.
• Growing globalisation of organisations (Virtual team, 2007).
• Perform specialised tasks/projects with a concentrated group of highly skilled individuals who could otherwise not be brought together due to real world issues.
• Competitive advantage.
• Allows people of different parts of the globe to work together and gets around time-zone, cultural and disability differences (Virtual team, 2007).
• Reduces company costs, such as travel, office space, and overhead expenses.
• Prospective global marketing of products, services with fresh ideas from individuals with “inside” geographical and market knowledge.
Challenges
Trust
It is hard to replicate the atmosphere that creates trust within the virtual environment, according to Edwards and Wilson (2001) this is the defining factor as to whether or not 1 year after the initial input of the virtual team programme whether participants continue to collaborate, and take ownership over tasks. It is found participation slumps after a year if team building does not take place.
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 process of forming virtual teams is very crucial and plays a significant role in the success of a virtual team, since the team members can be formed from virtually anywhere. As such, the management of the particular organizations needs to take significant care in the formation of virtual teams. Lerner (2008), did say that the leaders of distributed teams should have a heightened sense of awareness of the various subgroup formations and their weaknesses”. Thus the formation of virtual teams is critical to ensuring the objectives for a given project are met and the chemistry of the team is proper to achieve given goals. Karayaz (2006) did define thr...
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.
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...
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.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a team as: “a number of persons associated together in work or activity,” or “a group of people who work together.” In the current information age more companies are relying on teams to solve challenging tasks and to reach more difficult goals. Since a team of professionals with varying expertise can produce solutions that an individual working alone would likely struggle with, it is no wonder teamwork is becoming increasingly valuable to companies across all industries.
A work team will be defined for the purposes of this paper by a definition borrowed from Bateman and Snell (2004). A team is formed of people (usually a small number) with complementary skills who trust one another and are committed to a common purpose, common performance goals, and a common approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable. Teams generally see themselves and are seen by others as a social entity, which is interdependent because of the tasks performed as members of a group.
First of all, I want to gain self-knowledge about cross-cultural virtual teams, I would like to improve my team building skills and of course to obtain a high grade in this
Greenberg, P., Greenberg, R., & Antonucci, Y. (2007). Creating and sustaining trust in virtual teams. Business Horizons, 50, 325-333. doi:10.1016/j.bushor.2007.02.005
Thomas, D., & Bostrom, R. (2008). Building trust and cooperation through technology adaptation in virtual teams: Empirical field evidence. Information Systems Management, 25(1), 45-56. Retrieved June 13, 2008, from EBSCOhost database.
As stated by Robbins and Judge (2011) virtual teams face a number of particular challenges. Members experience very little social interaction and do not feel the benefit of the usual give-and-take experienced by teams. They tend to be more task-orientated and members often report less satisfactio...
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.
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.