People and Technology: Virtual Team Challenges

By Raul Bernardino

Introduction:

The globalization and ICT revolution brings a lot of benefit for world communities. We can easily find an expert, talent, and experience person for specific fields. Either brings them to be onsite or just works from remote location. The technology enables the virtual team works are possible.

The benefits of having the virtual team as follows:

a. The business will use right expertise for job

b. Does not need a relocation and it saves cost for the business

c. The person does not need to resign from current post and leaves family for certain period of time

d. It creates a creativities

e. It creates a loyally

f. Does not need to invest in the human capacity

There are some differences on onsite team and virtual team on the issues of culture, social interaction, and the working environment. The onsite team may direct effect with country and organization cultures which is dynamical progressing as organization and country moves. It is because he or she is present in those cultures environment by person or face to face. While the virtual team may not has chance to have cross culture effect directly from the country that he or she works for from remote location. However, the virtual team has to aware that they are interacting with different person, culture, and ethical virtually. The virtual team is very much focusing on the task accomplishment of the individuals or group within the time table or schedule as planned.

There are several challenges in the virtual team as follows:

a. The trust: It is quite hard to build a trust over virtual interaction, while not have a physically meet with the person. The one of the important component to build the trust here is the communication.

b. The synergy: It is difficult for people to have a synergy while not spend time together. It is also difficult to build a team relationship. However the virtual team lead or manager have to establish schedule for virtual team to meet virtual either with videoconferencing or audio conferencing in order to improve the communication among the team, also discuss the issue the team member faced, including sharing the information.

c. The Isolation: The virtual team member is working from remote individually. This isolation makes team member feels work alone and some time out of the loop because loss some updates from the rest of the team. For instance team member is not able to participate the virtual team meeting.

d. The collaboration: Here the virtual team members have to work and thinking independently while manager or virtual team lead has adjust and adapt their styles in managing the team. He or she has to encourage, motivate, and monitor the progress of each individual works.

e. The performance review: It is hard for team lead to assess each individual that works virtually. He or she has to establish the reliable quantitative and qualitative measurement for the accuracy of the performance review. For instance establish the result agreement upfront. In the result agreement has to state tasks to executed, indicator of the outcomes, and time line of the delivery.

In Conclusion: The communication is essential part in the virtual team success or failure during programs or projects execution.

References:

Hall, P. A.V. & Fernandez-Ramil, J. (2007) Managing the Software Enterprise:

Software Engineering and Information Systems in Context. London: Thomson Learning.

Lecture note, MNGSWE_WK2_seminar

Managing Groups and Teams/How Do You Build High-performing Virtual Teams?, [online].

Available from: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Managing_Groups_and_Teams/How_Do_You_Build_High-performing_Virtual_Teams%3F (Accessed: 14 October 2011)

Trautsch, B.R. (Dec.11, 2003) Managing Virtual Project Team, [Online]. Available

from: http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~ceb/b895/btrautsch895.pdf (Accessed: 14 October 2011)

Kimball, L. (1997), Managing Virtual team, [Online]. Available from:

http://www.groupjazz.com/pdf/vteams-toronto.pdf (Accessed: 14 October 2011)