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Characteristics of a virtual team
Virtual teams are revolutionizing the modern workplace
Thesis on benefits of virtual teams
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Virtual Teams are formed with knowledge workers to collaborate on a variety of workplace tasks for better communication across multinational corporations. It is a great way of getting things done as a group and help in finishing each others tasks correctly and on time. Working as a team is always a good way to get tasks done and an excellent way in putting everyone's ideas together all at once by working on an online workplace website. As a group we decided to work on our assignment on google docs through our GMail and worked on collaborating all of our ideas on this assignment. We also used blackboard for this assignment and kept in constant contact. This online assignment is considered to be a virtual assignment because we all worked together …show more content…
One obvious benefit is cost savings. Minimizing travel costs, eliminating office space, and reducing product costs are a few key ways in which an organization can reduce costs. Virtual teams also allow greater diversity within an organization. People who bring various experience, expertise, educational levels and culture can enhance a company's overall productivity. In addition, a company may improve customer service, increase access to information, foster more accurate communication and save time so they can compete on a global …show more content…
In a traditional class when working on group assignments students get to work on the assignments together inside class and outside the class. Students get to get to know more of one another in a traditional class and get to physically accomplish their tasks in the classroom. Online classes have no face-to-face communication with any of their peers and that makes it harder for them to accomplish assignments because it makes it harder for them to build team relations within the students. Ferdig, R. E., & Roehler, L. R. (2003) state that: “Researches has suggested that the use of discussion forums has the potential to increase interactivity in classrooms”. Face-to-face communication within a classroom is a better way to interact with other colleges and its a better way to build team
Lin, C., Standing, C., & Liu, Y. (2008). A model to develop effective virtual teams.
The increasing number of knowledge intensive research and development companies have turned to virtual teams in the recent past in order for them to generate the greatest competitive advantage from limited resources and labor. The geographically distributed teams must communicate via technology, and this has grown in prevalence as compared to the traditional teams in which all members were collocated and communicate face to face. Thus many organizations turn to virtual teams to reduce operational costs, embracing faster problem solving and innovate.
The majority of students prefer studying with group of people. Thanks to the Internet it allows students to work together collaborating with ideas and knowledge at the same time. For example, last quarter in my world politics class, I send out an email with two links that helped the whole class study for the midterm. I send out a Google doc’s link that helped the class organize their notes and a Skype link to answer any questions face to face video chat over the sections that they needed help understanding. The amazing part about Google docs is that multiple classmates would edit the document at the same time. Many students found this studying method useful not because they gain better grades, but they got to meet new students on campus and allowing them to be social connected through social media. On the other hand, Stoll may argue that students may face loneliness and depression, which in reality Internet has help students meet other students and become friends. Therefore, Students should keep studying in groups sessions online meet other students on campus to become
My virtual discussion with my fellow classmate Jeannette Marcel has led to numerous conclusions regarding the recreational playgrounds at our neighborhoods. While we do experience shortage of playgrounds, some areas also require additional maintenance with financial issues being obstacles in many instances. However, if the play area is only equipped with regular slides and swings, would children with disabilities be able to use them? The answer is simply no.
Overall company will find it extremely hard to succeed without the support of teams. Work group members will not only help each other improve their performance but also help improve the performance of the business. Teamwork allows them to learn to trust and respect each other; this will come in handy when the business is forced to deal with a loss of a team member or loss in revenue. Creating strong hard working teams will benefit a business in the short-run as well as in the long-run. That’s what business of the 21st century should strive for.
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 successful passing of information creates an important bond between virtual team members. “Without creating the connections, a virtual team can’t do what it needs to; function as a cohesive unit” (Thompson, n.d., Introduction section, ¶2). Information should be specific to the task at hand with a common goal in mind. Complete and accurate information not only helps a team reach its goal, but it also avoids problems and conflicts that arise between members. The importance of clear, concise information in a virtual team can not be stressed enough; however, timing should also be considered when sharing information. Information not received in a timely fashion also jeopardizes the cohesiveness of the team.
Virtual teamwork minimizes or even eradicates the requirement for funds and infrastructure. The collaboration of team helps to solve the problems that are occurring within the team regarding communication. It makes an individual look at bigger picture: The thinking of two people will not be always same, and when an individual working within a team, then there are several people from different backgrounds working up together. A leader must know how to power those differences among people and recognize how they can balance each other. One must recognize that even if the project does not shape up the mode that an organization need in the end, then the organization could still attain a great deal because of new ideas that are generated due to collaboration.
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.
Some teams are developed for the purpose of providing solutions to problems; they are there to advice and answer to people’s issues. Examples of problem-solving teams are quality circles, task forces, committees etc. (French, et al, 2008 p.290). Earley and Erez (1997) states with the different changes of trends regarding teamwork in organizations, it has provided new team forms including distinctions based on culture, both mixed and cross cultures and transnational teams; the developments have led to the disclosure of virtual teams; another important team in organizations. As noted by McShane and Von Glinow (2009) virtual teams are teams whose members work across time, space and organizational boundaries. The teams are associated through information technologies to accomplish organizational tasks. Employee involvement teams deals with the creative and functional evolution teams of organizations. French et al (2008) proposes that the term applies to a broad diversity of settings; where teams meet frequently outside their normal work units, to collectively discuss important work issues. The main aim of these teams is to allow for continuous improvement in all operations concerning the organization. The teams usually consist of ten members and regularly spend time debating on ways to improve quality, increase productivity, increase satisfaction of customers and enhance the quality of organizations. The last common team used in organizations are self-managing teams. As reported by the business 2 community (2012) they are teams in organizations who work without managers and dominance individuals. These teams are intended to give employees a feeling of empowerment and title of the job. These forms of teams are newer and were emerged in the United Kingdom in the 1950’s. Katzenbach and Smith (1993) believes that every self- directed teams need members with three different strengths; problem solving and decision making skills,
By hiring locally, we are restricting the available talent pool that can be beneficial to the business. The business savings on cost from virtual teams can be utilized to pay more to our team members. With the combination of being able to hire from anywhere, and with the potential for more pay will greatly increase the level of talent that we can attract to our organization. • Increase productivity. A recent Stanford study showed a 13% productivity increase when employees worked remotely.
Trust in teams collocated is developed through face to face meetings. In virtual teams, trust is created through actions that demonstrate competence and commitment of team members to share information and answer the communication. Silva (2007) also shows the importance of motivation in virtual teams through recognition and feedback in meetings by telephone or e-mail, among the factors raised to increase the performance of virtual teams. Human factors are also relevant, and - near or far - everyone wants to feel valued, supported and motivated. Outside the maintained daily contact with each employee - by email, phone, messaging and other support tools.
Virtual teams curtail the cost of travel as well as the risks of travel. There are many employee travel restrictions after the attack and, so virtual teams have aggressively increasing in number. Virtual teams collaborate with one another to accomplish their goals and tasks. In this process, they come across many challenges. Establishing trust among team members:
The benefits of virtual teams within organizations are that they allow for more flexibility to meet demands, opens access to more global resources, and expands their business (as cited in Mukherjee et al., 2012). Additionally, virtual team members reap benefits. Members have an increased sense of flexibility in terms of performing job duties and creating their own schedule (Mukherjee et al., 2012). Also, benefits of virtual teams for individuals include decreased travel costs (as cited in Carte, Chidambaram, & Becker, 2006).
All of our lives, we have gone through school learning with many other students in a classroom, and using books. But what if things were to change? What if instead of getting up to go to school, we simply had to just turn our computers on. Virtual Education is becoming a new way to teach and learn. Using computers, students can interact with other students and instructors, go to a history lecture with people all across the world, and even dissect frogs.