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Factors in team cohesion
Group cohesiveness and performance
A research project on project management
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Problem
Working on a virtual team, or as Daim, et al. (2012) described it, "culturally diverse, geographically dispersed, electronically-connected workgroups" (p. 202) moves the team members away from the traditional, face to face communication. As Daim, et al. (2012) continues, "team members struggle to effectively communicate and work with one another" (p. 202) as traditional communication channels are replaced with an assortment of tools.
The tools available today to facilitate communication in the virtual world are varied. As Pauleen and Yoong (2001) cites, "Virtual teams may communicate and work synchronously or asynchronously through such technologies as electronic mail, bulletin boards, audio/video/data conferencing, automated workflow, electronic voting and collaborative writing (Coleman, 1997)" (p. 2-3). Each of the tools available for communication have different idiosyncrasies, and some are more suited for selected tasks than others.
The skills required to effectively use the communication tools are referred to as "soft" skills, and these skills have to be developed and fostered. Zaugg and Davies (2013) describe soft skills as skills that "not connected to the technical skills required to complete the task" (Intro, para. 2) Zaugg and Davies continue, "Understanding how the soft communication skills develop and unfold on GV teams becomes a critical element of successful GV teams" (Intro, para. 3). This concept is reiterated by Pauleen, Yoong (2001), "Another issue that can be a factor is team member competence in using various technologies. This may be an organisational training issue, but in some cases it may be a member-selection issue (Jarvenpaa et al, 1998) as some people may have a psychological dislike for c...
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... the report provided complete bibliographic information to allow the reader to reference the original material.
The report focuses on important conditions on which project managers must focus while working in a dispersed virtual team. There are many factors included in the report as there are many factors which will either help or hinder a team on its quest to accomplish work. The topics of communication efficiency and communication rules are frequently mentioned as being strongly correlated to the success of the team. The paper does not contain a list of specific rules and guidelines, but quotes provided by research subjects mention some rules implemented within some virtual teams.
This paper will provide a good foundational basis for my research paper in that it highlights the fact that having rules for communication has been demonstrated to help ensure success.
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.
Throughout humankind, communication has been used from sending firer signals to the pony express; communication is a very important part of our world today. Team Leader and member should always know their audience. Managers have all the tools necessaries to get their message across from meeting, email, office bulletin board, using FedEx. No matter how they chose to get the message across effective communication is important.
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.
When you hear the word communicate many ideas come to mind. To some it brings thoughts of face to face conversations others think of internet based video conferencing. There are many ways to communicate with others in this day and age. Leaders have many tools and methods with which they can communicate with those around them. They must evaluate each situation to determine which method or methods will provide the desired result for what we are trying to communicate to their teams so they can avoid the confusion that comes when they choose the wrong communication method. (Gendron 2015) In this paper we will discuss several communication methods available to leaders and then look at what are some common challenges and barriers they face when
People tend to have different ideas of what constitutes good communication. It is important to define communication and ways to build effective communication within teams, in order to have a successful team output. Some people think of communication solely as speaking, but it should be stressed that up to 90% of communication can be listening to fellow team members, and only 10 % talking (Lay, 2008). There are different aspects of effective communication that should be discussed by the group when it is initially formed. In order for teams to be successful, they should define how they will communicate with each other, and define the tasks that will set out by the team.
Videoconferencing in Virtual Teams, The Business Review, 7(1) p.164-170.
McComb, S., Schroeder, A., Kennedy, D., & Vozdolska, R. (2012). The five Ws of team communication. Industrial Management, 54(5), 10-13.
The importance of teams is becoming more and more apparent in today's dynamic business world. Increasingly managers are searching for a means to improve production and keep their organization competitive in the global market. A lot of these managers have turned to the team as a means for achieving this improvement. Quality circles were originally looked at to fulfill this role, however they are being phased out in favor of self-managed work teams. These teams are increasingly being used to solve many of today's organizations production problems and inefficiencies, and in the process are both badly failing and greatly succeeding. So the discussion of teams is a very important one to address. Managers should be aware of the concept of teams and learn about as a means to further their organization and for when the time comes to implement a team they are prepared with the knowledge needed to build and use a team properly.
Communication is an integral part of working in the business environment. Individuals communicate various pieces of information to internal and external business stakeholders.The design of an organization should provide for communication in four in distinct directions: downward, upward, horizontal, and diagonal. But we have only discuss about downward communication and upward communication, where downward communication is more prevalent than upward communication in organization. Communication can flow vertically or laterally. The vertical dimension can be further divided into downward and upward direction. Downward communication is more prevalent because in this type of communication, we have to give orders and instructions to our sub-ordinates. So we have to explain each and every step that is going to help in work. But in upward communication they sub-ordinates do not have to give instructions their head.
Lipnack, J., & Stamps, J. (1997). Virtual teams: Reaching across space, time, and organizations with technology (p. 262). New York, NY: Wiley.
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.
Teams have been around for many years. It is vital for members who are a part of any team to work together so that their labor is not in vain. A major advantage for working cohesively as teams is greater output and interpersonal skills. The drawback of not working in uniformity can lead to project delays and time constraints. Organizations create teams with the purpose of fulfilling certain obligations and acquiring business success. Roming (1996) states that togetherness and dependability means that members within the team assist each other and the team. Which in turn, yields a better-quality product.
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.
Effective communication skills enable people at all levels of the community to work together to achieve the community’s goals and move it forward on the path of success and development.
Communication plays a vital role in the working of any business. Organizations have to communicate to carry out their business activities. Organizations cannot meet their goals unless they have effective communication. In any business activity manager is a key player and the triumph of any organization depends on the relationship between manager and his subordinates. Communication is a ribbon, which binds the management and its official together. It is very obligatory for the success and excellent performance of any organization.