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.
Videoconferencing in Virtual Teams, The Business Review, 7(1) p.164-170.
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.
Explain that less office space will be needed and how employees of companies that offer telecommuting often have a better retention rate than companies that do not.
Remaining focused on the overall goals and objectives of a project can become an issue if these are not consistently restated by managers or team leaders. Without the advantage of regular and ad hoc personal meetings, members of virtual teams may misinterpret, inadvertently change, or lose focus on the goals of the project. Because of this, individuals are charged with a greater responsibility to remain focused on both expected outcomes and objectives (Chinowsky & Rojas, 2003).
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.
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. Companies are now starting to expanding oversees where the labor price is cheaper for telecommuting. This however can be looked at as both an advantage to the employer, and as a disadvantage to the employee.
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.
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.
In conclusion, I believe despite the fact that virtual team member and leaders face unique challenges, they revolutionizing the global workforce. If done correctly and with strong leadership, virtual teams can increase productivity, lower costs and save precious time for organizations and businesses and their clients.
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.
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.
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