Making (Global) Virtual Teams Effective*

Having a group whose members live and work in different countries once seemed impossible, but today virtual teams have become relatively common. In some cases, the group members never meet face-to-face, instead, conducting all their work over email, phone calls, and videoconferencing tools like such as Skype.

Although global virtual teams present many challenges, such as ensuring smooth coordination, establishing trust, and overcoming cultural differences in communication, they also present many opportunities. Many companies utilize them to make sure the most qualified individuals are assigned to top projects.

Besides providing advanced technology to facilitate communication, organizations can do a number of things to make it more likely that global virtual teams succeed. These include ensuring sufficient time for preparation activities such as setting goals, formulating group strategy, and conducting ongoing analyses of the group’s mission. This preparation, along with making tasks interdependent to create the need for collaborative interaction, ensures that everyone in the group has the same understanding of who knows what and who does what.

If you find yourself on a global virtual team, be aware that individuals from different cultures arrive at decisions differently. For example, while U.S. managers prefer to gather input from others and quickly implement a decision, managers from Sweden lean toward consensus building, which although lengthy can lead to greater commitment to the ultimate decision. And in France, debate and conflict are viewed as part of good decision making. Thus, both organizations and employees need to recognize that global virtual teams often require different strategies from traditional teams in order to be effective.

Refer to these pages for some tips and tools for managing virtual teams:

http://www2.deloitte.com/au/en/pages/human-capital/articles/leading-virtual-teams.html

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/245650

http://www.forbes.com/sites/iese/2013/06/20/managing-virtual-teams-ten-tips/#310c75dc21d9

http://www.siop.org/WhitePapers/Visibility/VirtualTeams.pdf

Discussion Questions:

What, if any, are the unique challenges of virtual teams compared to face-to-face teams?

Discuss how virtual teams can be managed to be more effective, drawing on concepts from group development, cohesion, roles and norms.

Which of the tools and tips in these articles are most helpful for managing virtual teams?

Which of the tools and tips could also be helpful for managing face-to-face teams?

Sources:

Meyer, E. (August 19, 2010). The four keys to success with virtual teams. Forbes. Downloaded on May 31, 2013 from www.forbes.com

Maynard, M. T., Mathieu, J. E., Rapp, T. L., & Gibson, L. L. (2012). Something(s) old and something(s) new: Modeling drivers of global virtual team effectiveness,” Journal of Organizational Behavior 33, 342-365.

Robbins, S. P., & Judge, T. A. (2015). Organizational Behavior. Global Edition. Boston: Pearson. Page 292