The Advantages and Disadvantages of Working in a Virtual Environment
Advantages
There are many advantages of working in a virtual environment
1. Reach to Customer : Office work environment limits an employee to the office only. In today's world there are lot of jobs specially consulting or outsourcing jobs requires deep understanding of customer processes , which one cannot get just by reading document or talking to delegated people. It is always better for a consultant to actually reach out and get to know actual situation, there won't be a third opinion involved since any type of narration whether written oral has to subjective. Thus for those job this virtual environment model suits very well.
2. Family Time : A person can work through his home as well if he is not travelling. This offers altogether different lifestyle. There is no need to be have special time to be at home as the employee never leaves to office for work. This saves a lot of other activities which are to be performed when there is a "Office" at a particular time. A person can have a flexible routine for himself . Also he can dedicate extra time if required with no additional worries.
3. Relocation constraint : Many jobs are not reachable for a person because he is not willing to relocate. In this case a person may loose a better offer or a company loose a better employee. Thus virtual teams give provide win-win situation for both employers and employee. Thus for a company with virtual office , relocation won't be a problem for attracting best talent and for employee also can go for job he want and without any geographic limitation.
4. Physical handicapped people : For physically handicapped people virtual team can be a best offering . They can work from home with all possible contribution. They don't have to travel to office.
Disadvantages
There are disadvantages to virtual environment also.
1. Travel Intensive Jobs : The idea of not having a virtual office also means that there can be lot of travelling involved in it. Many times an executive may have to travel across countries. This is very difficult, with different time zone and jet lag. Also due to this the benefit mentioned above with family time goes away.
2. Conflicts : Due to lack of face to face communication there are more chances of clashes between virtual environment team member.
In the previous study, the authors stated that there are various studies about the telecommuting include references to corporate attitudes toward telecommuting, motivation, productivity, supervision and employee satisfaction.
Fordism and Scientific Management are terms used to describe management that had application to practical situations with extremely dramatic effects. Fordism takes its name from the mass production units of Henry Ford, and is identified by an involved technical division of labour within companies and their production units. Other characteristics of Fordism include strong hierarchical control, with workers in a production line often restricted to the one single task, usually specialised and unskilled. Scientific management, on the other hand, "originated" through Fredrick Winslow Taylor in 1911, and in very basic terms described the one best way work could be done and that the best way to improve output was to improve the techniques or methods used by the workers. (Robbins p.38)
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.
That is a common question, which more and more companies are finding out is the future of business. For most people, a chance to work at home would be ideal. Paper work and long term considerations for companies may actually be planned better at home as opposed to a busy work office or cubicle. Professionals such as accountants, consultants, marketing professionals and other information-age workers can benefit from telecommuting (people who work at home). This is not to say that all work will be completed at home.
A virtual team is a group of people working interdependently via various types of electronic media across organizational and geographical boundaries for a shared purpose (D’Souza & Colarelli, 2010). Research indicates virtual teams are becoming increasingly popular in organizations across the United States and the world (D’Souza & Colarelli, 2010; Rusman, van Bruggen, Sloep, & Koper, 2010). These teams vary in size, degree of geographic dispersion, prior shared work experience, nature of assignment, and expectations of a common future (Rusman et al., 2010). Although virtual teams have potential advantages like the removal of physical boundaries, the ability to form new partnerships, and optimization of competencies (Chinowsky & Rojas, 2003), they also introduce many challenges that may not be as prevalent in traditional teams.
The methods of communicating for a virtual team consist of different tools than used by a traditional team because “…awareness of others’ activities is more difficult and requires some degree of technological intervention” (Fussell et.al., 1998, p. 276). A virtual team needs to use alternative tools because it has members working from different geographical areas and possibly at different times. A traditional team meets face to face, whereas a virtual team needs the use of technology to operate and interact efficiently. Teleconferencing, video conferencing, faxing, e-mail, and instant messaging are some of the tools available to a virtual team.
The same can be said about the disadvantages of telecommuting. Advantages of Telecommuting One of the main driving factors for any company is economics and how will telecommuting allow the corporation to be profitable. The primary saving for companies embarking upon the telecommuting concept is the reduction in the amount of office space required to conduct business. Telecommuting benefits the employer because they have an expanded pool of employees. The skills of employees with commuting difficulties, childcare conflict, disabilities, geographical barriers are made available to a telecommuting employer.
The workplace today goes beyond just the walls and ceilings that surround an office environment or office building. According to the International Telework Association and Council, 44.4 million Americans worked from home at least part of the time in 2004, up 7.5% from just on year earlier (Earthweb, 2005). Though it may be very convenient to work from home, the choice can bring its own set of problems. There are financial reasons, efficiencies, and even managing time are just a few to name that bring about many challenges and issues that any remote employee would face in that type of work environment.
In today’s virtual society our office experience is getting more and more dependent on cyber culture. Due to the increase in employees working at home, virtual offices have become a convenient way for staff, clients, educators, students and all other types of business people to stay connected. Teleconferencing, skyping, e-mails, and texting have become mainstream ways of conducting business so it seems pertinent that businesses learn to effectively create and conduct virtual teams.
Virtual corporations have some major characteristics (Judith, 2002, quoted in Byrne. n.d.) as following state: technology, excellence, opportunism, trust and no borders. Technology makes distance no longer a problem while entrepreneurs or companies far away from, due to the computer networks link people all over the world. Excellence was showed by each partner bringing its core competencies to the corporation, which can exert all advantages. Companies make alliances for specific market opportunity and this is a more efficiency work way than any others. Members in a virtual organization must trust their partners due to they meet the need by cooperating. The new communication ways were brought by computer networks, which blur the traditional hierarchies and boundaries.
Although still in its, infancy, virtual reality will have a substantial effect on our future way of life. Virtual reality already has made astounding progress in the world of commercial design, and it is predicted to have a tremendous impact on everyday life as well. Virtual reality, when more available, will have various uses ranging from recreation to basic communication. The applications of virtual reality into different fields of occupations and research will have both positive and negative effects on our society.
Studies show that the cost of setting up a potential telecommuting situation for an employee or employees is dependent upon the existing technology level of the employer and potential telecommuting employee(s), the type of security network required to safeguard the data transmitted between them and the size of the operation. If an employer has a preexisting computer infrastructure including base units and server capabilities it can decrease the startup costs of a telecommuting operation. For small businesses the investment could be as little...
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.
...ease employee engagement in jobs the redesigning of jobs and careful attention towards Job analysis. Telework could play a vital role in this manner.
With the rise of mobile working whereby companies employ from different regions without necessarily having employees enclosed in one building, they end up employing more skilled and qualified workers regardless of their location. This has been made possible by companies embracing virtual meetings and video conferencing where managers and