VIRTUAL TEAMS

VIRTUAL TEAMS are a group of people that work together to reach an objective and whose mean for communicating is mainly electronically given that they are either in different countries or organizations. They use information and communication technologies, but can have occasional face to face meetings.

They have become necessary nowadays because of the emergence of markets in different geographic locations, the wide projects or initiatives of organizations, and the nature of the new organizations that can be in the form of alliances, mergers, and acquisitions with different organizations, some of which may be in other countries. For this reason, there is a desire for telecommunicating by governments, organizations and people, in a way that they are able to share and be part of a common community.

Some elements that support the nature of the new organizations are:

Some challenges for virtual teams are face to face communication, the lack of community among participants, the lack of immediate managerial oversight, the need for leadership skills, conflict resolution strategies and responsibility skills. The lack of community leads to mistrust and this poses a great difficulty for virtual communication. This is why intercultural virtual teams must be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-bound. As well, virtual teams present pull and push factors such as the following that make promote and facilitate their applicability in today’s global business environment in spite of the complications that may arise.

During the meetings efficient monitoring and controlling strategies are important, there must be clear goals, and focusing on simplicity and accurate communication is an efficient strategy. As well, two important elements are to build trust and to take into account different time zones. A written planning tool specifying the audience, purpose, deadlines, content, evaluation and resources can be of great use in order to have control over the process and guarantee better virtual team outcomes regarding the stated goal.

To further understand VIRTUAL TEAMS watch the following video, this explains Virtual Teams, the reason of their appearance and application.

Source: Virtual Team. (2008, April 25). Retrieved May 15, 2011, from YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1NyIBiYuFQ