Enhancing Team and Organizational Performance

Running head: VIRTUAL TEAM REPORT 1

VIRTUAL TEAM REPORT 8

Virtual Team Report

Student’s Name

Institution Affiliation

Virtual Team Report

Introduction

This is a detailed report on the creation of a professional team to oversee the opening of our third branch in New York. At Signature restaurant, we believe in passion and excellence towards our main goal, customer satisfaction. The team is meant to oversee the establishment of the main divisions of the restaurant: Kitchen, ICT & management and customer service. The kitchen department will be in charge of all food preparation affairs, including but not limited to ordering the required food stuff and other ingredients. The ICT and Management department will be responsible for human resourcing, ICT infrastructure and services and general restaurant management. It will also be expected to keep an ordered track of the restaurant performance in terms of finances, customer base and establish the most favorite dishes and orders by processing the data captured by the service department.

The customer service department will be responsible for taking customer orders, serve customers will respective foods , drinks , junks and drinks as orders. The department will also be responsible for taking and implementing customer feedback. The department will be responsible for maintaining the restaurant image to the customers and other guests. This team will be formed from amongst the successful job applicants, consultancies and the senior employees from across our branches. According to Breuer et al (2015), virtual teams are formed by bring together groups of professionals who are not in the same physical location. Their communication and time schedules could be a big challenge to the team leader, and hence, there is need to observe key tips and tricks when forming virtual teams.

Team Members

As mentioned above, the team will be formed by members from the successful job applicants, consultancies partners, and senior employees. The table below represents this information in a more precise and understandable manner.

Table 1 Team Members

#	Name	Source	Role	Comments
1	Morris Hughes	IRS Consultancies	Consultancy Services
2	Martin Petersen	ICT & Management, Illinois	ICT & Management
3	Veronica Donald	New Recruit	Service
4	Mitchell Mold	New Recruit	Service
5	Dominic Purcell	New Recruit	Kitchen & Catering
6	Antonio Benedict	Management, Tosho Branch	ICT and Management
7	Stella Martins	New Recruit	Kitchen & Catering

Team Selection Procedure and Communication Channels

All the team members are already conversant with what happens in our line of restaurants except the new recruits. However, the recruits have been vetted and found to understand what awaits then should they join Tosho Line of Restaurants. Due to the nature of virtual teams and the difficulties in bringing different personalities to work together compatibly, the team is founded with a common mission for all members (Zsambok, 2014). The team is formed as small as possible for easier decision making amongst the members. It is also intended that the team is geared towards a mutual accountability. All team members are selected based on their technical expertise, interpersonal skills and their problem solving and decision making skills. These collectively form a reliable complementary skill base for all tem members. To avoid undue expenses, communications will be done via Skype since it has been established as the most convenient means of communication in our line of work. The scheduled meetings are scheduled to overlap despite differences in member time zones. The team has been formed by selecting the most suitable candidates to avoid an undue costs in human resources. Communications will also be done remotes as they reduce commuter expenses (Rocco, 2015).

The team members are expected to make critical decisions in their line of work. However, since the team members do not know each other or, some of them may not be comfortable working with the others, it’s quite challenging to decide how to put them together. Although the ability to make decisions and solve problems has been vetted as per the company policy, other factors such as ones race and gender could turn out problematic. For example, sexual relationships amongst staff could result into underperformance. Other factor which could affect them include working away from home, raising children , working for longer hours than prospected, staff motivation and health in general. More so, cultural conflicts, the information provided, prejudice, personal attitude and personal habits could also be great determiners in decision making (Gilson et al 2015 & Noe, 2017 ).

Keith (2012) urges that conflicts amongst employees could be hazardous. Damages in creativity and productivity and lose of morale have been witnesses. She further explains that virtual teams are quite dangerous since conflicts can be in any direction. Petty issues such as impatience tend to cause a lot of problems. This is quite common in traditional teams that keep members waiting until a meeting is called. However, virtual teams, especially those joined in an online platforms, issues can be raised in real time. Improperly vetted issues and giving of false consensus due to peer pressure are dangerous in a virtual team. Keith further urges that false feedback and lack of transparency in a team stalls many processes and projects and this becomes expensive for the team management and the team at large. In an online platform, provision of false information especially on the main information repositories could lead to misinformation and consequently affect the cost and quality of production.

Running the Virtual Team

Rocco (2015) says that virtual teams are rapidly growing and their management is a quite difficult adventure. As a result, I will run the team in a work defined system where each member will be playing a distinct role. I will also set standards for very type of task or service that has to be provided. I will also establish a set of communication tools including emails, chats and video conferences. Meetings will be held regularly to establish any burning issues and have them solved. Any deliverables set will be clearly detailed to avoid ambiguities. The working environment will be as professional as possible. I will also come up with a staff motivation and rewarding culture for the all staff based on their skills and hard work. I will also utilize project management tools to track project time spans and deadlines.

Motivations

Lioa urges that motivation could be either intrinsic or extrinsic. He suggest that intrinsic factors are inbuilt and do not necessarily need any external input although they could be manipulated by some other external factors such as salary and allowances. He also points out that intrinsic motivation is more of feelings than anything else. Satisfactions, feeling capable, enjoying challenges and accepting appreciations are examples of intrinsic motivations. On the other hand, extrinsic motivations are moved by the immediate environment, whether coworkers or the organization. Conditions of work, political security, salaries, promotions and the general environment, all of which are beyond the control of the management motivate workers externally (Vassilev et al, 2014).

Tosso Restaurant business has been growing over the years. Management support to open a new Restaurant in New York must be welcomed as long as it generates enough revenue for the investors. As a result, a detailed report on the potentials of the new hotel and the projected financial gains will be reliable to convince the management to invest in this venture. Also, my personal portfolio is adequate to convince the management to buy my idea of a new restaurant in a metropolitan area.

The success of virtual teams is always a strategic goal for all team leaders. Firstly, self-trust is very essential before one move forward to trust the others. Secondly, understanding the business strategy, creating a strategic execution plan, and leading the change matter a lot. Feedback and business coaching help address issues as soon as they show up as it also changes the behavior. Another strategic move understands different personalities, style and cultures. This helps het the work done at a low cost. To demonstrate effectiveness in virtual teams, the following are necessary.

· Effective leadership

· High interactive environment, both in the real and the virtual world.

· Establishing and effectively resolving any performance difficulties

· Venturing in both hard and soft skills in staff

· Building trust and,

· Focusing on staff issues and affairs.

Conclusion

The main function of the virtual team is to oversee the main divisions in the organizations and ensure that they work towards to the goals and the objectives of the company. For the goals to be met easily, motivators are to be given to all the employees to boost their morale. Besides, they aid in the establishment of a clear communication path which the key to any of the organizations. Due to these advantages, I recommend the virtual team to be adopted in all the organizations.

References

Breuer, C., Hüffmeier, J., & Hertel, G. (2016). Does trust matter more in virtual teams? A meta-analysis of trust and team effectiveness considering virtuality and documentation as moderators. Journal of Applied Psychology, 101(8), 1151.

Gilson, L. L., Maynard, M. T., Jones Young, N. C., Vartiainen, M., & Hakonen, M. (2015). Virtual teams research: 10 years, 10 themes, and 10 opportunities. Journal of Management, 41(5), 1313-1337.

Hoch, J. E., & Kozlowski, S. W. (2014). Leading virtual teams: Hierarchical leadership, structural supports, and shared team leadership. Journal of applied psychology, 99(3), 390.

Liao, C. (2017). Leadership in virtual teams: A multilevel perspective. Human Resource Management Review, 27(4), 648-659.

Noe, R. A., Hollenbeck, J. R., Gerhart, B., & Wright, P. M. (2017). Human resource management: Gaining a competitive advantage. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.

Vassilev, I., Rogers, A., Kennedy, A., & Koetsenruijter, J. (2014). The influence of social networks on self-management support: a metasynthesis. BMC public health, 14(1), 719.

Zsambok, C. E., & Klein, G. (Eds.). (2014). Naturalistic decision making. Psychology Press.