2 Part Assignment due in 14 hours

Explain benefits and challenges that a manager has when developing, leading, and motivating virtual teams and how those challenges are unique to virtual teams.

Explain which of the challenges you identified that need to be addressed directly by a manager, and which challenges should managers empower or allow the team to address.

Describe how you would meet the challenges and contribute to the virtual team if you are assigned to manage the team. Be sure to identify obstacles you think you would have and how would you address them.

Hint: An exemplary response will draw on the themes from previous weeks, such as ensuring a positive and productive environment, handling difficult conversations, motivating employees, providing feedback, maintaining levels of trust, etc.

Part 2 (250 words or more for each colleague)

Read a selection of your colleagues' posts.

Respond to two or more of your colleagues' postings in one or more of the following ways:

Share an experience that is relevant to a colleague’s post about having managed, lead, and/or participated on teams that largely collaborated in a virtual environment. Evaluate the factors that made the teams successful or ineffective.

Expand on a colleague’s post with relevant concerns or observations, based on your experiences or the readings in the classroom, about working on or managing virtual teams.

Expand on a colleague’s post by offering resources and processes that should be in place to support virtual teams and how to mitigate the risks that working virtually creates.

1st Colleague to respond to:

“Virtual team members may be located across the office, but almost as easily across the country or across the world and may rarely or perhaps never meet face to face” (Berry, 2011). When it comes to a virtual team, managers are face with many benefits and challenges when developing, leading, and motivating a team. Some challenges are having infrequent face-to-face contact as a team, (DeRosa, 2009), building a collaborative atmosphere virtually, (DeRosa, 2009), lack of trust, poor communication, time zone differences, and physical distance. “The most effective leaders of virtual teams develop a process for establishing and adjusting priorities as a tool to address these challenges” (DeRosa, 2009). Communicating daily to ensure that you are running a successful business is important. Without communication within your company, you are not operating a business successfully. “Virtual teams are greatly influenced by the effectiveness of communication” (Emelo, 2002). To ensure that as a manager, you are operating a successful virtual team, everyone should help others achieve their goals, provide their support, and take accountability for their own actions. To help enhance team performance, managers, should ensure that a team charter is created to enhance team commitment and accountability, and that team members are happy and comfortable with giving feedback virtually. Some benefits include lower office cost, reduced travel time, and having a 24-hour workday. With some employees working from home, computer equipment isn’t being used frequently. A staff that works from home, is a substantial benefit, because they do not need to travel everyday to work. Employees that work out of another office several time zones away, is a benefit to the company, because you can operate your business on a 24-hour schedule with shifts in different countries. One of the challenges that should be addressed directly by a manager would be the lack of communication. Communication is the key to a successful business, because it allows a company to be productive and operate effectively. You must communicate daily with all employees to ensure that the job performance is successful, to make sure every employee is on the same page, and to build a relationship with your employees so that they are motivated and committed to working essentially. As a manager, you should always allow employees to work at their own pace, long as deadlines are met. Having different time zones is a challenge but as a manager I would allow, because you know someone will always be available because you have staff working different schedules. If I was assigned to manage a virtual team, I would motivate all employees to work hard, by recognizing all the hard workers, which includes giving bonuses. As a manager, I would ask for feedback daily to ensure that we are on the same page. I would also provide feedback to ensure that we as a team, is doing what we supposed to do to achieve daily goals.

References

Berry, G. R. (2011). Enhancing effectiveness on virtual teams. Journal of Business Communication, 186–206.

DeRosa, D. (2009). Virtual success: The keys to effectiveness in leading from a distance. Leadership in Action, 9–11.

Emelo, R. &. (2002). Virtual team interaction. T+D, 17–19.

2nd Colleague to respond to:

There are many benefits and challenges that a manager has when developing, leading and motivating a virtual team. Some challenges can be physical distance. This is when there is no face to face contact so it is my belief when it is like this one must pay very close attention to the things that they are asked to do. Communication can also be a challenge this is important because you must be mindful of the right messages being sent when I look at this challenge I thought of ( when you send a WhatsApp message and how you can sometimes send the message to the wrong person). Also, miscommunication of lost files can happen when we look at communication. The website https://managing-virtual-teams.com/en/virtual-teams-articles/project-management/advantages-and-challenges-of-virtual-work-teams.html. notes that "Communication is arguably one of the most difficult aspects of business, especially with virtual employees and members."Another challenge can be different time zones this is something honestly that the manager can not control. With the bad comes the good there are three benefits of a virtual team that I will discuss one would most definitely be flexibility, who does not love having a flexible time let's be honest this leaves a person in charge of their own schedule. Also, freedom to travel this one is my favorite with this it does not mean jumping on a plane but virtually being able to go anywhere in the world gives a person freedom to choose their physical workspace. Another benefit would be spending less money. When there is not a physical location the company and team save money.

Secondly out of the challenges that were identified I would state that communication would be the one that should be addressed directly by a manager. Communication is key in any workplace especially one where most interactions occur via email, chat or calls. Ensuring a free flow of accurate information throughout your company's structure means hiring the right people, fostering a communicative culture, and using the right tools for the job. Close attention to relationship building is important. This can be a process to ensure good communication. When there is a strong culture of communication this allows collaboration. Also, before hiring a person to work virtually ensure that you test their usage of communication through calls and writing. Managers can allow employees to address whether they should work the same time when in different time zones once the work is getting done before the deadline, let everyone work at their pace and the time that they agree. Working with a virtual team requires leaders and organizations to be flexible. In many cases, team members work in different time zones, making it difficult to coordinate virtual meetings or collaborate in other ways. Even when employees share a common time zone, they may favor working at different times of the day when they feel they can be more productive. Since it’s not absolutely necessary for all team members to be working at the same time, it makes sense for the team to be flexible enough to accommodate everyone’s needs. DeRosa, D. states "Furthermore, it may be beneficial to have all or most of the team working at the same time for at least a portion of the day in case important information needs to be communicated to everyone."

Finally, It's a situation more people and businesses are facing. With the globalization of business and leading a team that one has never met in person can be a bit challenging. Even as the growth in social media and communication technology has made everything easier for a leader to guide a team even though the human interaction is missing. I would have to put extra emphasis on the ability to influence my team, communication and most definitely planning. Kalman (2018) noted, "Because virtual gatherings are disconnected by the traditional human relationships that are formed when people work together daily, the ability to create a sense of unity and purpose for the team and for the goals of each meeting or project is an especially important skill for leaders to acquire."There are also many obstacles that I am sure that I would encounter one would most definitely maybe making persons accountable, sometimes as humans I feel as though we become relaxed so this is where I feel that I may have to send regular reminders and this is fine this simply just means that I must be organized and up to date with my information.

Reference

DeRosa, D. (n.d.). 7 Tips to Ensure Your Virtual Teams Are Productive. Retrieved October 9, 2019, from https://www.onpointconsultingllc.com/blog/productive-virtual-teams.

Kalman, F. (2018, August 21). How to Lead Effectively in Virtual Environments. Retrieved October 9, 2019, from https://www.chieflearningofficer.com/2012/01/13/how-to-lead-effectively-in-virtual-environments/.

(n.d.). Retrieved October 9, 2019, from https://managing-virtual-teams.com/en/virtual-teams-articles/project-management/advantages-and-challenges-of-virtual-work-teams.html.