Virtual teams are teams whose members operate across space, time and organizational boundaries, and are linked though information technologies to achieve organizational tasks. (Organizational behaviour, Steven L. McShane, 8th edition, p-230.) Virtual team members are usually dislocated from the main office and each other, depending on information technology instead of face-to-face communication for the interaction.
A virtual team consists of professionals working remotely in various locations. Some members may work out of their home, some may work in co-working offices, while others might work in branch offices. All, however, work on the same team and work toward the same objectives.
Virtual team members collaborate …show more content…
Want to know what someone said in a meeting? Go back and review the recording or chat log. And stop wasting time transcribing white boards–it’s all digital with virtual teams.
§ Metrics Become Dominant: managing a remote team, you rely on metrics and progress to measure employees rather than relying on the number of hours in the office. A reliance on metrics helps you understand your company better and investors love metrics that measure progress.
§ Extra Bandwidth During Meetings: activities considered rude or disruptive during face-to-face meetings can be beneficial during online meetings. Researching the topic being discussed, referencing tasks & documents brought up during a meeting and leveraging chat to have side conversations to build consensus, or ensure all questions and viewpoints are being addressed, give online meetings a leg up over in-person …show more content…
1. One of the factors is: good communication technology skills, strong self-leadership skills to motivate and guide their behaviour, higher emotional intelligence. ((Organizational behaviour, Steven L. McShane, 8th edition, p-231.) As with any other team the structure of the virtual team should factor in competency and skills that are required to accomplish the project. Competencies and skill should be balanced to ensure that there is no polarization.
2. A second key is a toolkit of communication channels and the freedom to choose the channels that work best for them. (Organizational behaviour, Steven L. McShane, 8th edition, p-231.) These set of tools enables teams to work with each other to accomplish the common goal. Virtual teams need to interact in the same manner as other traditional teams, the collaboration tools facilitate this interaction. Collaboration tools include (enterprise wiki, document management systems, resource virtualization, messaging system, Portals and