VIRTUAL TEAMS

Virtual Teams



Virtual Teams

Introduction

With the rapid advancements in information and communication technologies, the concept of virtual teams has got wide acceptance all over the world. Today businesses incorporate the services of virtual teams, located outside the boundaries of business. Most of the times, the virtual teams exist far away from the physical, geographic locations. The formation of virtual teams supports the organizations in fulfillment of their goals and strategic objectives with the expenditures of less time and resources. This paper discusses the major concepts and issues of virtual teams, the rules and regulations of virtual teams, and finally the monitoring results and checklist for virtual team work in our organization.

Virtual Teams

Virtual teams are the groups of people formed on temporary basis, in order to achieve the common organizational task (Ebrahem, et.al, 2009). These groups are dispersed organizationally, and geographically who collaborate relying on modern information and communication technologies for sharing knowledge and working together. The major difference between the virtual teams and physical teams lies in the nature of interaction. Unlike the physical teams virtual teams may never see each other face-to-face, despite of working on common projects for years.

The concept of working in virtual teams gained wide popularity in the last decade. Virtual teams help organization gain access to the knowledge and expertise without geographic or organizational boundaries. The organizations become able to learn the new ways of doing business, by using technology, people and other resources. The virtual teams can be beneficial for the companies in numerous ways; however, some serious issues such as leadership of virtual teams exist and need research to be done. Next, we discuss the structure of the virtual teams.

Virtual Team Structure

The three main aspects of virtual teams include the purpose of formation of the team, the people who are the part of the team and the links which connect the teams together. The virtual teams do not have common hierarchical structure, as most often these teams belong to different organizations and different cultures. Purpose of formation is the main factor which holds the team together. The purpose is translated into goals and objectives, in the later stages.

The four main areas related to the virtual teams are inputs, processing tasks, socio emotional tasks and the outputs obtained as a result of virtual team efforts (Powell et.al, 2004). The inputs for the virtual team involve the activities for planning and designing he team. It involves the discussions on which members should be included in the team, depending on the expertise and the project requirement. The communication tools and technologies which shall be used for interaction between the teams are finalized, the meeting timings, and matters about face-to-face meetings (if possible) are discussed. In addition, the input phase also includes the training exercises, which help the teams to succeed in working collaboratively. Research showed that, initial face to face meetings help in better learning and improved relationships amongst the team members. For providing technical assistance, all the teams are provided with common knowledge bases and ...