Virtual Teams

1. Virtual teams and why there are differences in management control activities in virtual teams compared to traditional teams:

Virtual teams are defined as geographically and/or organizationally dispersed coworkers that are assembled using a combination of telecommunications and information technologies to accomplish an organizational task.

They are an increasingly common organizational phenomenon and must be managed differently from more traditional teams, especially when team members are from different organizations, cultures, or countries.

2. Comparison between the challenges facing virtual teams and traditional teams:

Leaders of virtual teams cannot easily observer the behaviour of virtual team members. Thus, monitoring of behaviour is likely to be more limited than in traditional teams. Performance is more likely to be evaluated in terms of output than on displays of behaviour, because the team members are dispersed, providing feedback is especially important – not just at the end of a team’s project, but throughout the team’s life.

In order to encourage the accomplishment of the team’s goal, compensation should be based heavily on the team’s performance, rather than just on individual performance. Compensating team members for individual performance may result in “hot-rodding” or lack of cooperation among team members. Organisational reward systems must be aligned with the accomplishment of desired team goals. This alignment is especially difficult when virtual team members belong to different organizations, each with their own unique reward and compensation systems. Each compensation system may affect individual performance in a different way. Managers need to be aware of differences and attempt to discover ways to provide motivating rewards to all team members.

Communication:

• Virtual Teams:
  - Multiple time zones can lead to greater efficiencies when leveraged, but can also create communication difficulties in terms of scheduling meetings and interactions.
  - Communication dynamics such as facial expressions, vocal inflections, verbal cues, and gestures are altered.
• Traditional Teams:
  - Teams are allocated in same time zone. Scheduling is less difficult.
  - Teams may use richer communication media, including face-to-face discussions.

Technology:

• Virtual Teams:
  - Team members must have proficiency across a wide range of technologies; VT membership may be biased toward individuals skilled at learning new technologies.
  - Technology offers an electronic repository that may facilitate building an organizational memory.
  - Work group effectiveness may be more dependent on the ability to align group structure and technology with the task environment.
• Traditional Teams:
  - Technology is not critical for group processes. Technological collaboration tools, while possibly used, are not essential for communications. Team members may not need to possess these skills.
  - Electronic repositories are not typically used.
  - Task technology fit may not be as critical.

Team Diversity:

• Virtual Teams:
  - Members typically come from different organizations and/or cultures. This makes it:
  -> Harder to establish a group identity
  -> Necessary to have better communication skills
  -> More difficult to build tryst, norms, and shared meanings about roles, because team members have fewer cues about their teammates’ performance
  -> More likely that they have different perceptions about time and deadlines
• Traditional Teams:
  - Because members are more homogenous, group identity is easier to form.
  - Because of commonalities, communications are easier to complete successfully.

Answers could include examples to better explain the discussed points.