Virtual Teams

Hello and welcome to my blog—PMGT 611- Anatomy of Project Organizations. As part of my Master’s coursework at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, I am tasked to analysis different project management lessons and/or scenarios. Each time I learn valuable lessons while gaining a little insight into myself.

This leads us into this week’s discussion topic: Virtual Teams.  Before we dive into the discussion of virtual teams, let us define virtual team:

“Virtual team is one whose members are geographically distributed, requiring them to work together through electronic means with minimal face-to-face interaction” (Lussier & Achua, 2013 pg. 292)

Quoting Lussier (2013) Leadership: Theory, Application, & Skill Development, “In the United States, it is estimated that among companies with 5,000 or more employees, more than half of them use virtual teams” (Lussier & Achua, 2013 pg. 292). This has presented management with new challenges: how do you manage a team virtually?

Virtual Team SWOT Analysis

What are strengths of virtual teams? Globalization of organizations and technology advances have created a need for virtual teams. “virtual teams enable organizations to pool the talents and expertise of employees and nonemployees by eliminating time and space barriers” (Lussier & Achua, 2013 pg. 292). This has allowed organizational work to be performed  geographically and across different time zones. This has a major advantage in that work can be continuous.

What are weaknesses of virtual teams? “Challenges include communication challenges (such as time zones), language barriers, resource challenges (do they have the right skills to work in a virtual environment), and cost challenges (fluctuating exchange rates)” (Dow & Taylor, 2015 pg. 76). In my opinion, the most important challenges of virtual teams come down to two words, trust and communication. Great, dynamic teams often build relationships and have a good rapport. If the virtual team is not managed effectively, allowing for relationship and rapport building, teams can become ineffective.

What are opportunities of virtual teams? Opportunities are present in the virtual team’s ability to accomplish organizational objectives. By working across distance and time, tapping into global expertise and employee availability across time zones, organizations can create opportunistic advantages. One such advantage is the first-mover advantage. “First-mover advantage are advantages that come to firms that make important strategic and technological decisions early in the development of an industry” (Barney & Hesterly, 2015 pg. 49). By employing virtual teams, strategic organizational objectives can occur with the expertise not available locally (or incurring the expense of travel) and without time constraints of the work day ( without overstressing your local employees with overtime).

What are threats of the virtual teams? Threats are “conditions or barriers that may prevent the firm from reaching its objectives” (Pride et al., 2015 pg. 163). The major threat inherent with virtual teams is technology and communication. In order for virtual teams to accomplish objectives, communication through electronic means has to occur. If the organization experiences technological issues, this could create a condition where virtual teams cannot operate or succeed.

 

Success of Organizational Virtual Teams

As identified above, the most important challenges of virtual teams come down to two words, trust and communication.  

Here are some tips and techniques to help manage a virtual team (Dow & Taylor, 2015):

-          Conduct a kick-off meeting.

-          Build a rapport and establish trust.

-          Create good team dynamics.

-          Meet in person.

-          Keep tasks short for early success.

-          Ensure each team member has enough work.

-          Give team members more responsibility.

Use the following to help motivate a virtual team (Dow & Taylor, 2015):

 -          Hold morale events.

-          Recognize and reward people.

-          Create fun.

-          Monetary rewards and pay raises.

Success of ERAU Course Virtual Teams

During my time as graduate student with ERAU, I have had the pleasure of working with many virtual teams. Some teams functioned with high intensity, some faltered. What was the difference maker? COMMUNICATION!

How does an ERAU member ensure effective virtual teams for coursework? First and foremost, the ERAU course members that form virtual teams must establish a communication plan. This plan must establish communications responsibilities such as how, when, where, etc. When I worked on effective teams, the communications  requirements was completed by the end of the first week. As a team member, I knew exactly when the team was to virtually gather for meetings, how we would establish this communication (Skype, Canvas, Phone, etc.) and  why we were communicating (agenda of to-do items). The performance expectations were agreed upon, with all members signing off final agreement. Here is an example of my PMGT 502 Team communications plan outline:

-          Norms & Sanctions

o   Meetings and Attendance

o   Performance

o   Conflict

o   Sanction Issues

o   Evaluation of Members

-          Organization

o   Structure

o   Decision Making

o   Organization of Meetings

-          Responsibility Assignment Matrix

-          Signatures

We approached the project with enthusiasm and ended the course with outstanding group performance reviews. Another key to our success was the kick-off meeting. During the first week, we all engaged in a conference call which helped us establish rapport. By taking some time to learn about each other, discovering common grounds, we were able to begin building relationships. By identifying a member on our team as a real person, not just a virtual name, we felt a camaraderie that pushed us to work harder.

Well, that is it for this week. I hope you enjoyed the post on virtual teams!

Damien

References

Barney, J. B., & Hesterly, W. S. (2015). Strategic management and competitive advantage (5th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Pearson Education Inc.

Dow, W., & Taylor, B. (2015). Project management communication tools. Renton, WA: Dow Publishing LLC.

Lussier, R. N., & Achua, C. F. (2013). Leadership: Theory, application, & skill development (5th ed.). Mason, OH: Cengage/Thomson South-Western.

Pride, W. M., Hughes, R. J., Kapoor, J. R., Zikmund, W. G., Babin, B. J., Carr, J. C., . . . ...Cochran, J. J. (2015). Business foundations MGMT 500 (Fourth Edition ed.) Cengage Learning.