...companies tend to choose global virtual team with members of different cultural backgrounds because leaders gradually promote their company to the world. Global projects with using virtual teams are primarily linked through computer and telecommunications technologies across national boundaries. Globalization of the construction industry has brought unique challenges such as coordination among project participants from different countries, and individual’s preferences in decision make and communication. As economic borders between countries come down, cultural barriers will most likely go up and pose new challenges and opportunities for business. Solving the cultural issues has been found to be of crucial importance for the success of virtual teams. This research attempts to characterize cultural differences along the dimension of cultural values and cultural practices Keywords: Virtual global project; Cultural diversity; Project management. Introduction Traditionally, a team-based project requires all team members physically present in a specific location for a period of time. But virtual global project requires a virtual team that members can engage in and deliver projects with limited or no direct physical interaction with other members. It allows multinational enterprises to draw on the widest talent pool available among their global employee base. Team members typically don't need to meet face-to-face, they can use several different virtual meeting applications to...
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...Education 2013 Virtual teams: opportunities and challenges for e-leaders Snellman Carita Liliana* a Metropolia University of Applied Sciences, Business, Leiritie 1, Vantaa 01600, Finland Abstract In the globalized world with crucial technological changes, leaders are facing unforeseen opportunities as well as challenges while striving to reach their objectives. Such changes have led to organizational restructurings and implied rethinking of leadership functions and practices. Changing organizational structures, from traditional hierarchical towards lower and more flexible ones, have made leaders organize work in new ways. Teams account for one new way of organizing work and reaching organizational goals. Likewise, globalized markets have made leaders search for new solutions to meet the needs of customers. In consequence, organizations strive for competitive advantages through downsizing, subcontracting, joint ventures, strategic alliances, and other collaborative and network-based alternatives which are typically facilitated by virtual teams. Virtual teams are geographically and organizationally dispersed teams that function over time zones. Due to such dispersion, physical contact in virtual teams is reduced or lacking altogether which means that collaboration is enabled by IT-solutions such as computerbased communication. This kind of electronically facilitated team work is known to imply opportunities as well as challenges for today’s global e-leaders. Research...
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...INTO THE CHALLENGES OF MANAGING VIRTUALIZED TEAMS Table of Contents I. Introduction 3 II. Why Virtual Teams? 3 III. Are Virtual Teams For Me? 4 IV. Virtual Team Challenges and Best Practices 4 1. Communication Challenges 5 A. Cultural and Global Communication Challenges 6 2. Management and Leadership Challenges 7 V. On The Flip Side: Virtualized Project Managers 9 VI. Conclusion 9 Appendix 1: Source: Solomon, 2010, p. 10 11 Appendix 2: Source: Solomon, 2010, p. 12 12 I. Introduction As globalization becomes more prevalent in organizations and telecommunications infrastructure improves, virtual teams are becoming more and more of a reality. Collaboration of work and sharing of knowledge is becoming increasingly important as businesses promote more agile and just-in-time production. Many businesses realize that virtual teams can provide them with these competitive advantages. However, as virtual teams grow in popularity (Cascio et al., 2000), the challenges that come with managing these teams become more apparent. This is due to problems that naturally come from a virtual environment, such as communication deficiency, lack of motivation, and non-transparent management. This report is intended to inform project managers and IT professionals about the challenges of virtual team management and provide best practices for handling these challenges. In this paper, we will be looking at managing three different configurations for virtual teams: virtualized...
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...A global virtual team is a sophisticated system of people who routinely confront cultural differences in a digital environment that is constantly changing. This article mentions how understanding cultural differences is imperative for the success of a group of individuals within a team communicating virtually from different locations throughout the world. But also talks about the challenges global virtual teams will face with the use of technology. Third, the reading also distinguishes what is needed for effective virtual team considering the people, process and technology point of view and underlying characteristics of virtual teams and challenges the entail. Comment: I don’t fully agree with the use of global virtual teams. Organizations cannot take employees and put them in teams and expect them to work. It takes effort and time from both the employees and managers. However if correctly done, then yes building virtual teams could deliver even greater benefits. When focusing on global virtual teams, developing and increasing an individual’s and a team’s intercultural competence is an important variable in determining the team’s success. Trusting relationships in a disciplined structured environment is essential to the success of global virtual teams. These relationships are built through increased team member intercultural competence. Building trusting relationships is a differentiator that keeps people motivated, engaged, and committed. When cultural diversity is part...
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...lRole of Emotional Intelligence in Virtual Project Management Shazia Nauman MEM, MBA shaznaum@yahoo.com CASE, Pakistan Maliha Elahi, PMP, MCT malihaelahi@yahoo.com SPO, Pakistan Zeeshan Ahmed Bhatti xeeshan@gmail.com CASE, Pakistan Umair Khalid umair.khaled@gmail.com Ericsson,Pakistan Abstract- In today's competitive global environment, projects in organizations consist of cross-functional teams that are formed to utilize individual expertise. A project manager whose primary responsibility is to achieve project objectives deals these individuals. Since the rational and emotional aspects of a project vary in complexity, the role of the project manager is critical to project success. The objective of this study was to demonstrate linkages between emotional intelligence and the challenges faced by virtual project managers. The study will also show that there exists a multi tier relationship between Emotional Intelligence (EI) and challenges/elements of VPM. 1. INTRODUCTION Emotional Intelligence has its roots in the concept of "social intelligence", as first identified by E.L. Thorndike as early as in the early 1920s. The term Emotional Intelligence first appeared in a series of academic articles authored by John D. Mayer and Peter Salovey [1]. Goleman defined Emotional intelligence as a person’s self-awareness, self-confidence, selfcontrol, commitment and integrity, and a person’s ability to communicate, influence, initiate change and accept change [2,3]. In...
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...There are many similarities and differences between domestic and global project management. A project manager must realize that what might work in their country may not work in a foreign environment. Project managers might find themselves using practices that have worked for them in the past, without even thinking of the new environment, and issues may arise. Project managers need to understand the differences in a different country's environment to avoid and reduce any obstacles that there may be. Some considerations global project managers must consider are the legal, political, security, geographical, economic infrastructure, and culture implications of working with different countries (Gray, 2006). Some legal and political issues project managers should consider are staying within the laws and regulations of the country they are looking to work in. The foreign environment usually has protection of local workers, and may strongly influence how the different types of projects can be implemented. In addition, security is a high risk factor and must be considered when going to a foreign country. The geography of a country is also a consideration that one should make. It is necessary in this case to assess what the weather is like such as; does it rain often or is it extremely hot. These considerations must be made and planned into the overall projects, as some of these challenges could cause the project to be delayed if you are working on a construction project. In addition...
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...1. The most significant challenge to business success you see in this rapidly changing global economy; One significant challenge to business success in this rapidly changing global economy is that many business are focused on efficiency and economic of scales. Just like the example provided by Michael H. Hugo on Chapter 1, many companies are focused on lowering operating cost as much as possible. This is causing for executives not leave any room for unpredicted changes limiting the company’s ability to respond to customer’s changing needs. 2. An organization that has been successful in the global marketplace using virtual teams and the best practices it used (as discussed in Chapter 7 of Business Agility: A Sustainable Prosperity in a Relentlessly Competitive World); One organization that has been successful in the global market place using virtual teams is Bethel Farms. This organization acquired it most expensive product from Brazil. In order to do this and to continue to do this when needed, management developed a virtual team with key members of the organization. One of the reasons this team has been successful is because it has the important characteristics discussed by DeRosa and Lepsinger in Virtual team Success: A Practical Guide for Working and Leading from a Distance. This team has: 1. A clear team leader. 2. Each team member has a clear role. 3. The team knows what the goals and objectives are. 4. There are scheduled face to face meetings...
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...Virtual Teams: A Review of Current Literature and Directions for Future Research1 Anne Powell Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Gabriele Piccoli Cornell University Blake Ives University of Houston Abstract Information technology is providing the infrastructure necessary to support the development of new organizational forms. Virtual teams represent one such organizational form, one that could revolutionize the workplace and provide organizations with unprecedented levels of flexibility and responsiveness. As the technological infrastructure necessary to support virtual teams is now readily available, further research on the range of issues surrounding virtual teams is required if we are to learn how to manage them effectively. While the findings of team research in the traditional environment may provide useful pointers, the idiosyncratic structural and contextual issues surrounding virtual teams call for specific research attention. This article provides a review of previously published work and reports on the findings from early virtual team research in an effort to take stock of the current state of the art. The review is organized around the input – process – output model and categorizes the literature into issues pertaining to inputs, socio-emotional processes, task processes, and outputs. Building on this review we critically evaluate virtual team research and develop research questions that can guide future inquiry in this fertile are of inquiry. ACM Categories:...
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...Introduction Virtual project team has been the new trend in the global environment. It has been accepted by increasingly enterprises in recent years. Ariss, Nykodym, and Cole-Laramore [1] define a virtual team as a group of skilled individuals who communicate electronically. Through modern communication tools, a project can recruit team members around the world despite of geographically distant locations. All the members in the virtual project teams share a common project purpose like traditional project teams. Both traditional project teams and virtual project teams are conducted in the same model basically. However, as virtual teams generally have few physical interaction and separate in diverse locations, increasing risks are cultivated. In this case, it requires the project manager of virtual team with special competence to lead his/her team. Virtual managers need training for virtual skill sets, including management strategies and styles, communication techniques, and cross-culture skills [2]. To keep adopting traditional leadership, traditional management skills, and traditional communication skills in virtual project often causes poor-quality results and unhappy, frustrated project teams [3]. Therefore, when virtual managers enjoy the benefits from the virtual teams, they have to suffer the challenges as well. In this article, the challenges and benefits of leading a virtual team is discussed. Majority challenges and benefits are like two sides of a coin. They are...
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...Introduction: As global companies are increasing and technology is improving, future leaders and managers need to be prepared to communicate across cultures with their virtual teams. A virtual team is a group of team members that conduct work entirely with the use of technology. To better manage virtual teams, managers need to understand the advantages and limitations of technology, the advantages and limitations of different communication channels, and the strategies to effectively communicate across cultures. Advantages and limitations of technology: Managers as well as their virtual teams need to understand both the advantages and limitations of technology to effectively conduct work. The advantages of technology include being able to communicate around the clock, easily, frequently, and with a cheaper cost. Technology lets team members communicate with each other any-time of the day, regardless of the distance that may exist between them. Furthermore, technology makes the world seem like a smaller place. It can help a manager in America contact her virtual team that maybe anywhere in the world any time she wants. In addition, technology helps relieve the hassle of constant business related travelling; this helps lower the costs tremendously. However, managers and their team members must also know the limitations of technology. Technology can be unreliable and unstable at times. Technology is not the same everywhere in the world. In America, we have wireless internet almost...
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...Managing a virtual workplace The article Managing a Virtual Workplace focuses on the advantages and disadvantages of virtual workplaces and the tools needed for managers. There are many business reasons for a virtual workplace: reduced real estate expenses, increased productivity, higher profits, improved customer service, access to global markets and environmental benefits. There are also many disadvantages of a virtual workplace: set-up and maintenance costs, loss of cost efficiencies, cultural issues, feelings of isolation, and lack of trust. Virtual teams are not appropriate for every job or company. This article is about how to overcome the disadvantages and emphasizes the advantages of a virtual workplace and hoe managers will adapt to the new challenge of managing a virtual workplace. Critical success factors for global virtual teams This article focuses on the success and failures of virtual teams. There are several factors that determine the success or failure of virtual teams and they are: • Team Formation • Trust and Collaboration • Team Communication Within the team foundation, there has to be a clear sponsorship, agreed goals, awareness of cultural influences, and the right competencies and skills. Trust and collaboration are key skills in having a successful virtual team. Team communication is also a very important key in the success of a virtual team. You must stay connected with the members on your team and meet on a regular basis via e-mail...
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...Running Head: Virtual Teams and Face to Face Teams Virtual Teams and Face to Face Teams Research Paper March 4, 2012 Introduction As organizations continue to expand globally and increase the use of internet/web technologies to conduct their business, virtual teams continue to increase significantly. In today’s business world, virtual teams are more common in the workplace as opposed to face to face teams. There are various differences between virtual and face to face teams and thus the advantages and disadvantages of each team will be discussed. Comparison and Contrast Nonetheless, teams are defined as a group of people with complementary skills that are committed to achieve a common purpose. The author Gregory Berry further explains that teams interact interdependently and are bought together or come together voluntarily; to achieve a certain outcome (Berry, 2011). The members of teams are jointly responsible for the outcomes (Berry, 2011). It is important to understand the dynamics and structure of teams. Such an aspect is important because each team possesses different advantages and disadvantages and one must choose the most effective type depending on the purpose or task that needs to be attained. A virtual team is able to work anywhere and is linked by web communication to achieve organizational tasks (Cummings, 2011). A face to face team is a group of people who work in an organization in the same environment and communicate directly...
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...Virtual Teams and Managing Conflict. Name of the Author: Name of the Professor: Name of the Institution: Date of Submission: According to Duarte and Snyder (1999) “virtual teams operate without the physical limitations of distance, time, and organizational boundaries. They use electronic collaborations technologies and other techniques to lower travel and facility costs, reduce project schedules, and improve decision making time and communication (p.4)“. Virtual teams mean people who are geographically separated, and work together across borders. They are connected by modern technologies of computers. Internet has transformed most economies and workplaces into modern economies and workplaces. Many organizations are abandoning conventional face to face working teams for virtual teams. Most organizations are embracing technological revolutions. This enhances them to be more dynamic and adopt innovative approaches in their procedures. The ability of the work team to incorporate technology has led to success in most organizations. Well known international companies such as, IBM, Whirlpool, Hewlett-Packard, Ford Motor, Johnson and Johnson and Verifone have successfully implemented virtual teams. (Kiser, 1999; Stough, 2000). The rapid worldwide growth of virtual teams has been attributed by increased inter organizational co-operation, rapid pace of globalization and other benefits associated with its implementation. This includes the ability of the employees to work for...
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...Summary of Article 1 Managing a virtual workplace The article is about Virtual workplaces, which is a kind of workplace that is not located at any one physical location and all the employees and clients are connected to each other through technology. This article establish the need to have a virtual workplaces, the pros and cons of having this form of workplace and provide some automations to managers to be more useful to the workplace. The benefits that businesses have acquired from virtual workplaces are the reduced real estate expenses, the increased productivity of teleworking employees, higher profits in sales, improved customer services as consultant spent more time face-to-face with customers, more access to global markets, and environmental benefits. The disadvantages of virtual workplaces are that the setup and maintenance costs for the required upgraded equipments for home offices are much more, there are more cultural clashes in a business team as every person hold a different set of values and thinking, there is an increase feeling of isolation between supervisors and coworkers, and last but not least there is a lack of trust when it comes to employees abilities to do the work. This Article also explains the kind of jobs virtual workplaces are appropriate for. Jobs where the employees work is performed over the phones, via computers, or where the individuals does not have to spend a lot of face to face time with business clients. The individuals who are internally...
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...Performing Virtual Team March 28, 2015 Northeastern University Creating A High Performing Virtual Team Abstract Project teams have changed from being collocated to being diverse, globally located teams of highly skilled, individuals. Virtual teams are generally brought together quickly to complete a project in the shortest time frame within a budget and schedule. The challenge for organizations is to create a high performing virtual team, which takes time to achieve. This paper outlines characteristics and qualities of individuals who comprise a high performing virtual team. The team building approach is laid out and the levels that a team and it’s leader progress through to becoming a high performing virtual team. Introduction Globalization has lead to organizations changing from project managers of collocated teams to project leaders of virtual teams. In addition to having the necessary skills and experience, the people who comprise a virtual team bring unique characteristics and qualities to build a strong team. Building a virtual team takes analyzing every aspect of the project including the people who will work on the project. The team leader is not just managing a project, but leading and coaching highly effective people to produce at their highest level and meet the project objectives. Areas of Concern for Creating a Virtual Team Dr. Ginger Levin (2009), found that the following areas are important to building a high performing virtual team: * Personal...
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