Virtual team is a group of individual working together across time, geography and organization structure barriers with the support of modern electronic communication technology to communicate, collaborate and perform the activities . It is also termed as geographical dispersed team or remote team. Team members Unlike tradition team, do not meet face to face but interact with each other in a virtual world. Virtual team members may be from different organization, country and time zones.
Survey conducted by Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), reported that 46% of organizations has incorporated virtual team structure in their organization. Due to globalization …show more content…
concept of following sun provides the opportunity to round the clock work with high productivity at the same time create difficulties. Nonverbal communication is said to be 90 % of total communication which is generally absent in virtual teams. Virtual team members are unable to read the nonverbal cues. Some team members feels difficulties in expressing opinion in virtual team. Effective communication helps to build trust and rapport among team members. Video conferencing solutions has helped to minimize the communication challenges up to some extent but it is unable to provide the environment observed in traditional team meeting. Virtual team members also complain about lack of time to connect with people during virtual team meeting. Different time zones are also contribute towards communication challenges in the virtual team. If any team member stuck in any problem and need immediate intervention of team leader or other team member he/she need to wait till that person is available and this can lead to delay in activity. The ability of team member to communicate clearly and constructively can reduce the communication …show more content…
As we have discussed the virtual team have various challenges which are not alike the traditional team . Various problems arise due to communication, technology and diversity of team. Given a chance to manage a virtual team i will be following strategies to manage and get best out of it.
1. I will try to define each and every task in detail with standard operating procedures. I will set guidelines to complete the task and with some degree of freedom to operate.
2. Organize the team meeting regularly. Team meeting provide the chances to interact each other and also reduces the chances of misunderstanding . It also provides the routine which helps to organize the activities. Regular meeting. Video conferencing is a best tool for the team meeting it also allows to observe non verbal cues.
3. Use multiple communication channels/technology: I will encourage to use different communication tools like emails, instant messaging and data sharing tools. I will set the guideline to use different tools depending upon the situation and requirement. Suppose an issue to be addressed immediately, team members can use the instant messaging along with the regular