Virtual team

Virtual team

A virtual team comprises of a group of people who tend to take part in common projects by collaborating as a team to achieve shared goals and objectives. Therefore, these groups of people have to be committed to the projects as a team. Communication is so vital to bring success to the company; having an effective communication process within the organization will help the teamwork and contribute positively to the company. “Virtual communication has become an essential job skill that is critical to individual and group success, yet most people just muddle through it without giving it any thought (Kurtzberg, 2014).”

The present entrepreneurial literature tends to use advanced technology and geographical spreading to contrast virtual teams to direct staff management. Therefore, the main management structure used to examine the effectiveness of these teams is the Input-Processes-Output model. As per the Input-Processes-Output model, the achievement of the goals of an organization was based on the level of interaction and the support to the teams regarding personal skills and abilities (Ilgen, Hollenbeck, Johnson & Jundt, 2005). A team can be successful and valuable when they build a strong relationship and trust between the members.

The executive should develop an active system on how to manage various teams and ensure that their participation adds value towards the organizational goals. Though, a company will encounter many challenges to adopt the concept of virtual management, such as the high cost of technological devices (Marlow, Lacerenza & Salas, 2017). The outcome of the team will be beneficial to the company if they rely on various communication channels like; E-mails, etc.

To ensure that there are a productive working environment and teamwork in the organization we have different components that lead us to a capable virtual team such as;

Relationships: to enable an effective virtual team in an organization, the top management should develop a strong relationship with the employees. A strong correlation between the workers and their leaders will lead to excellent performance. Excellent leadership qualities will make the subordinate know what to do and when to do a specific task, and in case of anything, they know who to consult. Having those open and honest communications will also allow for faster conflict resolution as members will want the team to succeed and will want to step up with solutions to issues.

Accountability: accountability helps the team to build trust so fast among them. Consequently, the team leader has to play a significant role in building confidence for the team. A leader can do this by setting up some standards, ensuring those standards are well known and understood by them, and also then upheld. However, an individual team member should ensure that they know what to do and even speak up if the standards are unclear to them. An individual team member has to be honest and open when addressing any issue that is made unclear according to the standards set (Kurtzberg, 2014). More so, any member should not blame or finger point another member, but they should work together and come up with a solution to keep the team’s progress in the track.

Motivation: to ensure that a virtual team is successful and adequate to the company, then motivation is the key to the virtual team. Motivation should be kept high for a virtual team so that they can feel that they are considered as part of the organization. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a collaborative spirit whereby the team members can help each other in attaining a particular objective (Drouin, Bourgault & Gervais, 2010). Besides, the team leader can build up team motivation by ensuring how individual task hysterics to the entire project and how the project hysterics to the strategic plan of the company. This will make the company be more productive and improve in the future. A leader can also build up team motivation by recognizing and individual performance towards the entire project, and the leader should ensure that the whole team is aware of it. Recognition of personal achievement and rewarding them will develop hard-work and participation in the entire project hence increasing the organization’s profit.

Process and purpose: the virtual team should set up the goals, processes, and roles so as the group can be aware of what they are required to do. Identifying the goals and objectives will display to the team members what is expected after the project and how the results will affect the organization. Before handling and contributing to the entire scheme of an organization, the expectations should be made clear to bring success for a virtual team (Marlow, Lacerenza & Salas, 2017). Different plans should be established for each step in the entire project that the team will participate in the project.

For example, there should be plans on communication for a virtual team, how will a virtual team make successful decisions, how and when to have meetings to check out if the progress of the project is going on as planned. Furthermore, an individual team member should be made aware of the work to do, and the time frame required getting the things done to have a specific plan that is followed by the virtual team (Drouin, Bourgault & Gervais, 2010). This will lead to better collaboration between the team, and at the end of the project, there will be no individual accomplishment, but they will have accomplished the goal as a team.

In conclusion, from my research finding, I feel that the virtual team plays a vital role in every organization. However, it is a concept that cannot be avoided by any organization for them to be effective and productive. A company can develop a dynamic virtual team by recruiting new talents and creativity pools from all geographical areas. Such recruitment will ensure that no other skills are left out there. Additionally, a virtual team offers an opportunity for a company to attain its goals and make profits.