VIRTUAL TEAMS

“Today’s financial woes have forced many companies to pick members of project teams from across various global locations and have them communicate virtually–by phone, e-mail and videoconference–thereby saving both time and money” –(Meyer, 2010)



One of the topics we saw last week in class of intercultural management was the importance of virtual teams nowadays.

lets start by defining:  what is a virtual team?

"A Virtual Team, also known as a Geographically Dispersed Team : is a group of individuals who work across time, space, and organizational boundaries with links strengthened by webs of communication technology. They have complementary skills and are committed to a common purpose, have interdependent performance goals, and share an approach to work for which they hold themselves mutually accountable. Geographically dispersed teams allow organizations to hire and retain the best people regardless of location." (Definition of virtual teams. (n.d.). Retrieved May 15, 2015, from http://managementhelp.org/groups/virtual/defined.pd)

but.... why are they important? 

In them, we develop attitudes and skills for the resolution of conflicts through limited means, because all this takes place in a technological environment, which is limited only to connections on the Internet, where are separated geographically, and where time zones regularly are not the same which makes a little more complicated the communication.

The virtual teams are the future of business negotiations, in this way travel costs decrease and make faster th processes although a little bit impersonal this form of communication open access  to local and and international markets given the ease of access on the Internet without having to leave the office (computer) and for saying that the office is the computer, because then you do not have the need to meet any customer outside the Internet, it could work from home or from any place chosen, having everything within reach and easily.

But not everything is so simple, it also brings some disadvantages as I mentioned earlier the issue of hours, as not all clients or colleagues will be available at the same time, one of the problems  in my opinion would be the transfer of knowledge, since no one knows what the other person technology has and can be easily taxed and misused the information provided by this means.

according to: Definition of virtual teams. (n.d.). Retrieved May 15, 2015, from http://managementhelp.org/groups/virtual/defined.pdf  

 another important benefits about why to hold a virtual team are:

-Best employees may be located anywhere in the world

-Workers demand personal flexibility. 

-A flexible organization is more competitive and responsive to the marketplace

-Workers tend to be more productive 

- less commuting and travel time. 

- The increasing globalization of trade and corporate activity. 

- The global workday is 24 vs. 8 hours

in a personnal experience i had already been part of a virtual team, i had a class where was necessary to do an activity called X-Culture project, that is a academic virtual team to give the oportunity to students to experence the real working envinment. 

chek this out to have a better idea!

HOW CAN WE GIVE A PROPER USE  TO THOSE VIRTUAL TEAMS?

we as a interntional negotiatiors and future managers need to be aware of the change in future negotiations that we are facing nowadays. and the answer is to be DIFFERENT and to walk further the others, managing technology.

According to Forbes Magazine, th witer Erin Meyer says that there are 4 types working with virtual teams 

1. You must lead differently:" co-located teams often benefit most from a leader who acts as a facilitator, virtual teams need a manager who provides clearly defined direction and removes all ambiguity from the process. " says Meyer

aplying this to my experience working with X-culture remember that there was always the need for someone to lead our tasks, someone to respond from our responsabilities

2. You must arrive at decisions differently."Teams don’t work the same everywhere. In the U.S., managers are trained to solicit input from a team, choose a direction quickly and make adjustments as the project moves forward. It works, but then so do other methods. In Sweden teams learn to make decisions through lengthy consensus building, which can span many meetings but eventually leads to strong buy-in and rapid implementation. In France the Descartes-inspired education system teaches that debate and confrontation are necessary elements of any decision-making process. And in Japan decisions tend to be made in informal one-on-one discussions before a formal group meeting."(Meyer-2010)

applying this to my past experience, i worked with people from, Dubai, Brazil,United States, Turkey, and Canada, even tough i wasnt very difficul to reach an agreement all of us had different opinions and actitudes towards the work we needed to develop, and the conversations we had were so interesting 

3. You must build trust differently."Trust takes on a whole new meaning in virtual teams. When you meet your workmates by the water cooler or photocopier every day, you know instinctively who you can and cannot trust. In a geographically distributed team, trust is measured almost exclusively in terms of reliability." after few time of working with my virtual team, it was possible to apreciate who were the people from we could expect something or not, those who were always aware of the deadlines and those who were always asking  how was i going, in the other hand, there were those who never appeared no even to answer the greating 

4. You must communicate differently."The utmost key to global virtual team leading is, without doubt, communication. But when we communicate virtually, we often become less influential" (Meyer-2010)

SOURCES:

-Meyer, E. (2010, August 8). The Four Keys To Success With Virtual Teams. Retrieved May 12, 2015, from http://www.forbes.com/2010/08/19/virtual-teams-meetings-leadership-managing-cooperation.html

-Definition of virtual teams. (n.d.). Retrieved May 15, 2015, from http://managementhelp.org/groups/virtual/defined.pdf  

- Applications accepted for the 2015-2 season:. (n.d.). Retrieved May 15, 2015, from http://www.x-culture.org/