The Management of Virtual Teams - Essay Example

It is necessary for each individual to take his own developmental path, which is actually the core of the functioning of virtual organizations.

Virtual Teams have become an integral part of many organizations because of all increases in corporate restructuring, competition, and globalization. A virtual team is also defined as one that conducts its work almost entirely through electronic technology. Virtual team members, who are normally isolated both geologically and organizationally, hardly ever meet face-to-face while relying on technology for task-related communication (Matthews-Joy & Gladstone, 2000).

Because communication is often seen as the most important factor in coordinating work among team members, effective communication is vital for virtual teams. However, "in virtual teams, separated by geographical distance, the process of developing a shared understanding is more challenging" (Ancona & Caldwell, 1992). In particular, such teams must address three challenges to accomplish their goals.

First Challenge

The first challenge is compensating for the lack of face-to-face interaction. When meeting in person, team members can depend upon voice levels, smiles, and raised eyebrows to determine whether they are being understood; however, virtual teams do not have these nonverbal cues and can fail without communication strategies to manage the lack of face-to-face communication or silence. Because research continues to support the findings of Mehrabian that communication is predominately nonverbal, virtual team members lack one of the primary elements for generating shared understanding. Even in the best videoconferencing, facial expressions can be difficult to pick up if the transmission is poor if someone is off camera, or when the mute button is pressed. Therefore, it is essential for individuals who are about to become part of a virtual teaming experience to be sensitized to the importance of this barrier and how it may be addressed.

Second Challenge

A second communication challenge for virtual teams is building relationships. Successful teams are founded on a relationship of trust, and relationships are easier to build face-to-face. Virtual teams are confronted with the challenge of establishing trusting working relationships through technological interaction alone. Virtual team leaders need to pay close attention to the first interactions team members have with each other to support the creation of positive interpersonal relationships. People who are being prepared to participate in virtual teams need to be taught methods of increasing the likelihood of getting off on the right foot with each other.

Third Challenge

A third challenge is accessing and leveraging the unique knowledge of each member to successfully achieve the team's goal. While a team is working on a project, usually the project is like a puzzle, and each team member is responsible to work on an assigned piece of the project. The team must develop a system for sharing information so that nothing relevant to solving the problem is lost. What some team members may consider the most insignificant piece of information may prove to be critical to the final solution. Whereas the reason for withholding information may have several sources, including cultural differences, conflict management styles (Griffith, Mannix, & Neale, 2003), or uncertainty regarding the predictability of another's behavior, the essential element to be addressed is learning to share everything to ensure that nothing relevant is lost. Helping virtual team members learn to address these differences in ways that will support full, open, and complete communication is also a fundamental teaching objective in preparing people for virtual teaming.

Conclusion

It is important that team members build relationships with each other. Trust comes from performance and virtual performance is still somewhat limited. It is easy to send data by e-mail and other electrical means, but it is harder to send "parts of your heart" and to motivate team members. One of the critical aspects of effective virtual teaming is the full participation of all of the team members. For optimum performance, it is imperative that the team members establish an organizational structure from the very beginning.

Regardless of the specific means of communication used in virtual teams, the use of good, sound, basic project management techniques can provide a means to clarify the objectives, milestones, plans, and progress toward the objective.  Virtual teams by their nature involve very little face-to-face time; therefore, fundamental project management techniques can minimize stress and clarify the process in what is already an extremely challenging environment. By understanding the communication challenges of virtual interaction, business communication virtual team members can overcome many of the difficulties typically encountered in virtual settings.