The team is an essential part of any organization in order to reach a common goal. The most effective teams in business are created aiming for reducing the transaction cost while operating. Traditionally, the focus of building effective teams is exercised through three functions: dream, design, and development (Commentary, 2021). The team should have a clear vision of their overall goal. The team members and the leader should together find ways of operation during the process in order to make the team communicate effectively. After a stable operation is established, the team should also focus on how to increase productivity by maximizing the efficiency of the procedure. During the pandemic, while companies keep utilizing these functions to build an effective team, there is also the need for the company to be flexible on the effect of the immobility of the employees. With many companies are shifting towards remote working, the topic of how to keep a virtual team being effective shows its importance. In the commentary, the author discussed the advantages and disadvantages of forming geographically dispersed teams.
Geographically dispersed teams can make people’s collaboration more convenient and increase diversity (Commentary, 2021). The format of the virtual team uses fewer resources for the leaders to set up the team. Recalling from what I have learned in the human resources classes, a virtual team can save the company the cost to rent an office and provide equipment for the employees to work with. The commute cost of the employee gets lower, and employees’ schedules tend to be more flexible while working in a virtual environment. The format of the virtual team eliminated the distance. At the same time, the employers established their hiring policy, which may help the team contain people with different cultures or mindsets, thus reducing the bias during decision-making.
On the other side, geographically dispersed teams are pretty difficult to manage (Commentary, 2021). While managing a virtual team, employees’ motivation is hard to control as the leaders and members are lack direct communication. My personal experience is when I set up meetings with my team member during the summer. Because of the time zone difference and other reasons, one of my team members never opened her zoom camera during our meeting. After a while, I figured this team member participated less in the group activities we had, and the work she did was significantly less than the other members. I also had a hard time trying to engage her back in the group, and a month later, she decided to leave the team. This rings the alarm for me as I realized the engagement for the virtual team is heavily based on the communication, and the bondings team members have. Later, by implementing more online social events and mandatory team events, I was able to engage the rest of the team actively.
To sum up, the virtual team being the trend of the new work style has its pros and cons. Workers in the virtual team will be benefiting from the convenience of the new work style, and the employers will have a more diverse group of workers to achieve the goals. On the other hand, it is also hard for workers and employees to figure out the way of maintaining engagement from a managing standpoint. Geographically dispersed teams being a powerful tool, should be used with carefulness.
Reference
Pennsylvania State University World Campus (2021). PSYCH 485 Lesson 9: Introduction to leadership. Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2132629/modules/items/32790622
jma313 says
You’re right: Virtual team building is an essential component for many businesses’ success now and in the future. The ability to geographically disperse teams has major advantages, such as diversity (PSU WC, 2021, L9) and increased coverage, while it can also have disadvantages like less sense of company culture. In the case of in-person teams moving into virtual teams, theoretically there shouldn’t be that much difference – except that we know that isn’t the case. You present an interesting case-study for team leadership in the virtual world.
As shown in Northouse (2018), the Hill Model for Team Leadership cites “Leadership Decisions” as a major component of the practical application of this theory. In your example, you mention the need for virtual engagement and team management as a pain point, indicating that this falls under “internal relational leadership actions” or an intervention needed by the leader (Northouse, 2018, p. 385). Even though your team was meeting goals and performing well, you recognized that a sole straggler could have the ability to negatively impact the overall performance of the team. In the Hill Model, this might fall under the need for “satisfying individual member needs” through trust, support, or advocation (Northouse, 2018, p. 385). I’ve been in similar situations with dispersed teams and have found time differences to be particularly difficult to overcome without the increased support of the individual experiencing the issue. However, as Northouse (2018) also notes, the exact method of intervention by a leader is not black and white but may vary depending on other factors, like the development stage of the team or project. In your situation, your intervention seemed appropriate and prudent in order to establish more comradery and fidelity to the team as a whole.
I think that the criticisms or weaknesses of the team leadership model posited in the Hill Model in Northouse (2018) are also relevant here. There is a complexity to team leadership that is more ambiguous than other theories and encompasses more nuances, with leaders, followers, and situations. Given the organizational responsibility and autonomy of many virtual teams, those in leadership should be consistently assessing their teams and where interventions are, and are not, necessary.
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Northouse, P. G. (2018) Leadership: Theory and practice (8th Edition). SAGE Publications, Inc. (US).
Pennsylvania State University World Campus (2021). PSYCH 485 Lesson 9. Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2132629/modules.