How to Manage a Virtual Team
A virtual team is a group of individuals who work together across space, time, and organisational boundaries. Webs of communication technology link them together. Other names of virtual teams are distrusted team, remote team, and geographically dispersed. Gibson and Cohen (2003), in their literature, define a virtual team as a team of geographically, organisationally, and time dispersed with an aim to accomplish common organizational tasks by use of information and telecommunication technologies. Virtual team members communicate electronically. Surprisingly, they may never meet face-to-face. Virtual teams are vital for companies and organisations to acquire the paramount talents without geographical restriction. However, for a virtual team to be effective, it has to follow the following principles.
To start with, …show more content…
The members of the team may be in different working weeks, different time zones, different start and end of a business day, and different approaches to breaking time such as lunchtime. Correspondingly, due to the different location, there may have different public holidays and religious holidays. Karolak, (1999) states that for an organisation to have an effective virtual team, they should have an authoritative source of information to deal with these times and dates differences. To come up with a mutually convenient time and day for every member, the organisation should have an excellent diary management that considers the members calendars and presence indicators. People are willing to attend virtual meeting when they are sure that it will be productive. If an organisation chooses to rely on the corporate calendar, they may never come up with a mutually convenient time; hence, members may be forced to hold meetings even at weird times. Virtual teams should have a high level of trust towards each other and good communication
A virtual team is a group of individuals who work together across space, time, and organisational boundaries. Webs of communication technology link them together. Other names of virtual teams are distrusted team, remote team, and geographically dispersed. Gibson and Cohen (2003), in their literature, define a virtual team as a team of geographically, organisationally, and time dispersed with an aim to accomplish common organizational tasks by use of information and telecommunication technologies. Virtual team members communicate electronically. Surprisingly, they may never meet face-to-face. Virtual teams are vital for companies and organisations to acquire the paramount talents without geographical restriction. However, for a virtual team to be effective, it has to follow the following principles.
To start with, …show more content…
The members of the team may be in different working weeks, different time zones, different start and end of a business day, and different approaches to breaking time such as lunchtime. Correspondingly, due to the different location, there may have different public holidays and religious holidays. Karolak, (1999) states that for an organisation to have an effective virtual team, they should have an authoritative source of information to deal with these times and dates differences. To come up with a mutually convenient time and day for every member, the organisation should have an excellent diary management that considers the members calendars and presence indicators. People are willing to attend virtual meeting when they are sure that it will be productive. If an organisation chooses to rely on the corporate calendar, they may never come up with a mutually convenient time; hence, members may be forced to hold meetings even at weird times. Virtual teams should have a high level of trust towards each other and good communication