Pro: effective for storming
a highly efficient way to transfer information on a non face-to-face level
Cons: require the leader's hard work
I personally do not disagree with their opinion. However, I think that companies will need time to be able to take complete advantage of that kind of team work.
Yes, diversity is crucial for storming ideas, and virtual team certainly can help bring that characteristics to the team and team members. Well we have to remember that virtual team is a non face-to-face way of communication and diversity might not play a good role for the team.
In my opinion, it is harder for team members to communicate with each other online as effectively as in person. Therefore, I think it is still uncertain that a diverse group of people can work well together in a virtual way. Yes, you might argue with me that advanced technology will solve that problem by connecting people through conference calls, webcam etc... Technology, however, has not been able to let team members communicating in a virtual "face-to-face" way.
Why do I insist on the aspect of "face-to-face" communicating?
I experience the problem when I enter a private chat room with friends. Once we start the chat, the conversation might go completely unorganized and it is really hard to control the topic. We experience less the same kind of problem when talking to each other in person. As much leader's work need to be put in as the article mentioned, there is also no proof that team members pay 100% attention to the conference because the leader/organizer himself is not in the same room with these members. Therefore, the leader can not completely control such unexpected elements that occur throughout the conference.
Virtual team is such a new and interesting way of communicating. I think there will be more technology being developed to cater to this kind of communication. One day leaders might not need to put in as much hard work or have problem with organizing conference any more. Why? Because they probably can pint-point the crucial topic and who the lazy guy is. :)
5 comments:
Yes, I think the virtual team will be the next solution and generation in the business field. Therefore, according to your opinion I think it is important to give a convince to group members about the object and goal they must achieve.
Thanks your post. I also agree with your opinion about the difficulty to control the attention of virtual team members. It's easy to lost their goal during chatting on-line. Therefore, each group member has a reposibility to take part in the discussion and it's important that the leader gives motivation to each member.
Hey, I enjoyed your post. And I think that is true it is a bit hard to concentrate to work through the online. But what I am thinking of is that running virtual teams is unavoidable, because businesses are getting international. I think it is time to find how to use virtual teams effectively.
I like the points you make here and I agree with them. It's sometime very difficult to get work done online efficiently, because there is so much overhead involved with the communication process.
For example, I have a yes/no question for someone. If that person were across the room, I could just shout over to them and they could provide an answer--almost without thinking. But if I send them an instant message, they would have to stop what they were doing, switch to my message and type a response. It may just be a few seconds, but those micro interruptions can often lead to longer delays and decreased productivity.
I remember when Jang asked the last guest speaker in class about a problem he had in one of his virtual teams, he said it was more cultural oriented. Like people from diverse cultures collaborating virtually to exchange ideas for a business. That's one of the problems of virtual teams but i think the good outweighs the not so good.
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