Globalization, advances in information and communication technologies and increased competition have forced organizations to use virtual teams in business and produce more rapidly, more effectively and more efficiently.
It is the call of the hour to put together different capabilities and services across the globe and through cooperation between suppliers and customers achieve the firm’s objective with high quality. A virtual team is a group of individuals who work across time, space and organizational boundaries.They coordinate their work predominantly with electronic information and communication technologies in order to accomplish one or more organization tasks. Members of virtual teams may never meet face-to-face yet virtual teams allow companies to procure the best talent without geographical restrictions (Wikipedia).
Collaboration across distance is more difficult than in an environment where people work together in the same office throughout a project. Many problems arise due to difficulties in communication and coordination like working in multiple time zones, lack of common ground, cultural differences etc.This is extremely frustrating especially if coworkers are regularly unavailable for discussion or clarification of task-related issues. However, many firms are learning that the key to success lies beyond a reliance on the greatest technology. They are seriously adopting some time tested strategies to effectively manage virtual teams and turn them into high performance units. Challenges in a Virtual Team It is difficult to manage many issues when team members lack the ability to interact face-to-face.
Communication is often more challenging, particularly among global virtual teams, which can also make it more difficult to overcome cultural barriers (Ebrahim et al, 2009). A recent report by RW3, LLC, on the Challenges of Working in Virtual Teams, based on a survey of nearly 30,000 employees from multinational companies found that the top challenge for virtual team members was the inability to read nonverbal cues (94%). Most virtual team members said they don’t have enough time during virtual meetings to build relationships (90%).Managing conflict is more challenging on virtual teams than on conventional teams (73%) and that decision making is more difficult on virtual teams than on conventional teams (69%). Studies from the human communication point out importance of the human aspects which can be observed in a conversation such as body language and intonation. According to these studies, face-to-face conversation is still much richer than an electronic conversation because technology is not able to capture and transmit these behavior characteristics effectively.
For example, people in North America tend to be “low context” communicators, and rely on words and signals to interpret what a person means. Most of the world’s populations, however, are “high context” communicators, meaning that they rely on nonverbal cues and focus more on the relationship, the setting, and previous interactions to interpret what someone means (Hastings, 2008). However, these challenges can be turned into opportunities by appropriate use of technology, cross- cultural competency trainings, and support from the management.Building Virtual Teams: Strategies for High PerformanceAccording to a 2011 Forrester survey of large companies, more than half of those surveyed expect virtual teams to increase over the next couple of years. Greater use of virtual teams is just one way companies are responding to increasingly global demands. There’s a widespread view in business that virtual teams are managed badly.
However, there is good news; many companies across the business spectrum are discovering how to make virtual teams work. Some of the strategies they are using to build high performance virtual teams are: Keep all team members in close communication.Creating a sense of team is a critical success factor for any team, but especially so where members can’t interact with each other directly. Regular communication among all team members is essential to bringing people together and fostering a sense of inclusion, while providing ongoing opportunities for input and influence and keeping them in the loop. Whether using teleconferencing, e-mails, web meetings, video conferencing, or the many emerging networking media to stay in touch, team members need opportunities to participate, share ideas and work outputs, and get to know each other regardless of where they are located.
This regular contact helps build trust and confidence among team members, despite distance, time zones, and differences in culture (C. Edison, 2009). Take a balanced approach The success of a team depends on striking a right balance between results, process and relationship. Results is typically the bottom line that the company measures. Process relates to a well-defined delivery system and relationship is about how we’re treated, valued and included.
All three factors have an enormous impact on the team’s ultimate results and when the three are out of balance, team performance suffers.When team members help define the process, they will participate in it in a more energetic and meaningful way. (S. Eric, 2012). Avoid Isolation and Build Relations The risk of out-of-sight, out-of-mind is higher in virtual teams and team members can easily feel disconnected. With virtual work teams, it just takes a little more effort to reach out and engage someone whom you don’t run into in the hall or by the coffee machine.
Managers should focus on “community before activity. ” To build rapport, meetings should begin with informal chats about what members are doing outside of work.Focus on what’s working and express that frequently. Say “thank you” more and call out team members by name. Express acceptance of questions, challenges and differing opinions.
Share your own feelings about facing uncertain situations. Be real. Learn what matters to the people with whom you work and begin meetings with relationship-building conversations. These talks will help to build a sense of community and help members feel connected (B. Leonard, 2011).
Build Effective Team Processes Here the focus needs to be on increasing both predictability and understanding.To increase predictability on the team ensure participants in a virtual meeting know why they are involved and what is expected of them. This will help empower your team members, reduce their urges to multi-task, and help them remain engaged throughout the meeting. Check your own understanding of proposals and obtain explicit verbal agreements on any decisions. Being transparent and expressing the rationale for your actions and decisions also brings clarity in virtual teams.
Use online chats, video-conferencing and audio-conferencing in addition to one-on-one conversations and e-mail.Provide frequent updates that communicate both what’s known and what’s not known and use active listening without judgment (S. Eric, 2012). Feedback and Performance Evaluation From my understanding through our class discussions, a system of 360-degree feedback and performance evaluations from other team members is an effective tool to measure performance.
When everyone understands their job roles and how they support each other they are in control of their performance. It also motivates people to do their best, because they understand that poor performance reflects badly on the whole team.When team members are not clear about their goals and expectations and when they don't know if they're doing things the best way, it is hard to keep up high energy and motivation. On the other hand, a positive review experience will go a long way toward team members feeling included in and valued by the organization (Brenowitz Consulting) Succession planning and promotions involving virtual team members can be excellent indicators that they are receiving recognition and credit. Performance metrics should be concrete and objective.
Often personal biases can have an impact on appraisals therefore, employees who aren’t in the office can be treated or assessed differently. Employers must take care not to vary the performance standards and metrics for virtual workers who have job duties that are similar to those of office-based counterparts (B. Leonard, 2011) Re-defining the Process is an additional step when working in the virtual environment. After one cycle of reviews has been completed, ask the team members what worked well and what they might like to see done differently.Virtual Performance Reviews is a new phenomenon and your process may need to be modified to best meet the needs of your virtual team.
When team members help define the process, they will participate in it in a more energetic and meaningful way (Brenowitz Consulting) Foster a “global culture. ” A global mind-set, in which people see themselves as part of an international network, helps provide an environment that is conducive to dispersed teams. Various human resource strategies can help foster that mind-set, including temporary staff assignments at foreign locations and inter-cultural training.For example, in order to accomplish increasingly complex activities such as research and development General Electric tend to cluster their competencies in different Centers of Excellence (COE), which are often scattered geographically, but still are a part of an international corporate network of operations.
Even though GE is headquartered in Connecticut it has it Business Processes Operations in India and China. Similarly, managers at Nestle are expected to move to another country every three or four years so that they can learn about the specifics of each of those markets and develop a global mind-set from their experiences.Such practices advance the development of diversity-friendly attitudes and the ability to work in different contexts, which in turn help employees cope with the challenges of distance when working on virtual teams. Critical Concerns and Class Forum Discussions Communicating when every time zone is your time zone With teammates dispersed throughout the globe, members often ignore established time boundaries and work around the clock. Coordinating across time zones causes communication problems and increasing frustration.
Excessive multitasking like checking your e-mails while in a meeting, during conversations causes stress and strain and division of attention. Furthermore isolation from colleagues is a big concern even for those working from a home office. Building Human connections Connection is the lifeblood of organizations, and without a ‘human connection’ facilitating communication, virtual teams cannot achieve optimum performance. Even in the virtual environment, occasional face-to-face communication is considered vital for certain aspects of team interaction, such as team set-up and conflict resolution.Working in a virtual team is not everybody’s cup of tea.
People who do not like ambiguity and instead like structure do not do very well in virtual teams. Water Cooler Effect Co-location enables informal communication. The water cooler effect represents a belief that conversations that develop in and around a water fountain, or in a cafeteria, significantly enable knowledge transfer, which indirectly contributes to positive work relationships. When the team members are co-located, they can focus their collective energy on creating the product.
This situation can result in lasting camaraderie among team members and foster team spirit. Literature also shows that co-location provides adequate conditions for decision making, collaboration, trust between team members, and effective interpersonal relationships. Co-location is regarded as one of the key ingredients in shortening development cycles at many companies, such as Chrysler, Black & Decker, and Motorola (M. Natalino, Z . Geilson Loureirob and C. Sales) Conclusions Virtual teams" and "telework" seem like productive strategies, both in terms attracting valuable talent, cutting costs and operating greener.
Cisco studied the impact of telework among close to 2,000 of its own employees, and reported that a majority of them experienced a significant increase in work-life flexibility, productivity and overall satisfaction as a result of their ability to work remotely. On the other hand, An informal poll, conducted by Vital Smarts looked at the impact on working relationships when employees never see one another. The study concluded that "distance in the workplace does more harm than good."Their survey found that 13 out of 14 workplace relationship problems occur far more frequently within virtual teams than within co-located teams. In addition to that, the problems that arise take a lot longer to solve.
As with many things, the success of virtual teams depends a lot on corporate culture and management. Frank Siebdrat, Martin Hoegl and Holger Ernst surveyed 392 managers and professionals from 80 software development teams from across the globe and concluded that "virtual teams can outperform their co-located counterparts when they are set up and managed in the right way. "
