Journal of Engineering Research and Studies E-ISSN0976-7916

JERS/Vol. II/ Issue IV/October-December, 2011/116-119

Research Article
ART OF MAKING AND MANAGING VIRTUAL TEAMS
Dr. T. Munirathnam Naidu, Dr. G. Ramesh
Address for Correspondence
Associate Professor& Head, Department of Commerce, Sir Theagaraya College, Chennai-600 021
Assistant professor, Department of Commerce, Sir Theagaraya College, Chennai-600 021
ABSTRACT
For attracting best talent in time and sustain it, organizations need to apply emerging trends among the International
workforce. Virtual Teaming is one of the current, most important techniques in this direction. As technology grows by leaps
and bounds, it will be wise for enterprises to operate in a virtual environment to become global and meet cut throat
competition. Business constraints dictate that virtual teams are viable to reap the benefits of increased, globalized scale of
operations. People with role-specific competencies will know more than managers and play critical roles in almost every
organization. Admittedly, these highly skilled techies are the brains behind the amazing software and accompanying
hardware that run many companies and teams. Employees and leaders have typically viewed dispersion as a liability than an
opportunity. Hence Virtual team management becomes a real challenge to organizations. Building and maintaining
successful Virtual Teams require a powerful structure, comprehensive organizational policies and dynamic strategies. In the
present scenario, as the technology moves fast due to global innovation, employers are changing plans and processes in
quicker cycles than before.
INTRODUCTION
In the present competitive business environment,
organizations can thrive and meet the business
demands only by adopting latest techniques of
performance. Globalization of business has created
a momentum and drastically changing the corporate
world in recent years. Advancements in
communication technologies alter the ways of
operations in many organizations in a significant
way. Undoubtedly, the office atmosphere is shifting
from conventional methods of performance to new
and convenient ways. In the present scenario, as the
technology moves fast due to global innovation,
employers are changing plans and processes in
quicker cycles than before. Talented employees are
moving out among organizations at rapid rate and
availability of qualified manpower at particular place
for specific tasks is increasingly becoming tough for
companies. In order to get the best talent in time and
sustain it, organizations need to apply emerging
trends among the International workforce. Virtual
Teaming is one of the current, most important
techniques in this direction. Knowledge workers
who are the main players of virtual teams (also called
dispersed teams), carry with them high level of
technical expertise and advanced knowledge of their
generation. Values and attitudes of these
professionals towards work keep changing with
changing times. Till recently, technical competence
of team members was more than enough to produce
desired results in a team. But, Virtual team the new
avatar of conventional teams, can excel and
accomplish miracles only when team people gel well
and co-operate with each other. Today, companies
are investing heavily on tools, technologies, methods
and approaches that they use for extracting maximum
performance. It is highly important for them to foster
a supportive environment to virtual team players
which contribute to overall team/ organizational
success. If a dispersed team is managed properly, the
results it can produce will be priceless. Many modern
enterprises are on fast track in setting up virtual
teams. However they fail to recognize the need to
handle those teams appropriately. It has become a
real challenge to build successful virtual teams,
maintain them effectively and deriving best of them.
MEANING OF VIRTUAL TEAM
A virtual Team is a group of individuals performing
the tasks across time, space and organizational
boundaries. It is a team of people who work
electronically and primarily interact through
communication technology. It is made up of people
who work together through internet and other links
developed and strengthened by advanced
technologies in communication. It consists of
knowledge employees who are geographically
dispersed and routinely carry out their work
independently for the accomplishment of common
objectives beyond the lines of distance and culture.
They work and coordinate basically with electronic
communication and information. Due to geographical
dispersion and occasional face to face meetings, a
virtual team is predominantly rely on array of
interactive, telecommunication technologies for
performing one or more tasks. The members are
physically separated and communicate electronically
through off site communication. The chief feature of
a dispersed team is that the members of this team
hardly meet face to face (or may never see each other
in person). As business organizations expand globally
and face increased competition in getting suitable
work force, a virtual team is an evolutionary form of
network enterprise which is enabled by a technical
advancement in the form of fiber optic technology.
NEED FOR THE EMERGENCE OF VIRTUAL
TEAMS
Virtual teams allow the employers and HR managers
to attract best skills in the world without affected by
geographical restrictions. They may bring in an
outside talent (either domestic/ foreign) to complete a
specific task and align people at different parts for
ongoing projects. Emergence of virtual teams is very
helpful to project organizations in which groups are
formed, reorganized and dissolved rapidly towards
the developments of the dynamic market. Virtual
teams are responsive to the needs of individuals with
Journal of Engineering Research and Studies E-ISSN0976-7916

JERS/Vol. II/ Issue IV/October-December, 2011/116-119
different competency levels and are located across
the globe and cultures. In the present target fixed
work environment, virtual teams provide flexibility,
lower cost and improved talent utilization to meet
ever- increasing performance standards. Hence more
and more contemporary organizations are using
virtual teams to get things done in every day
business. In many corporate houses, even top
company management is distributed geographically
to support major, global corporate functions and
connected through virtual teams.
Today, business constraints dictate that virtual teams
are viable to reap the benefits of increased, globalized
scale of operations. As technology grows by leaps
and bounds, it will be wise for enterprises to operate
in a virtual environment to become global and meet
cut throat competition. The recent recession, like
any other bad experience, has given the HR managers
and Team leaders, the opportunity to work out new
methods for extracting maximum performance from a
team. Formation of Virtual Team is one of the ways
of achieving excellence and speed in the operations.
Because of the complexity of working through time,
distance and organizational boundaries, it is
important to build effective virtual teams to get the
desired results. Presently, Virtual Teams can be set
up for almost any purpose right from developing
basic software to maintaining accounts for managing
an entire project. To Meet the organizational
objectives and keep the business running, work has to
be delivered in time. In the new realities of work
environment prevailing in modern organizations,
virtual teams become critical for the following
reasons:
Emerging markets at different geographical
locations
Business alliances with various
organizations both domestic and
international
Mergers and acquisitions
Organization wide projects
Avoiding or postponing business travels
Reduction in performance time of
employees
Availability of advanced communication
technologies.
Reduction in the cost of operations
Continuing desire of organizations/
employees for telecommuting
Team members working in different shifts
Team members may not be physically
collocated
Difficulties in traveling and in meeting other
employees (personally) face to face
Deriving the benefits of top talent available
at distance places or in other countries
Achieving success in the globalised market
TYPES OF VIRTUAL TEAMS
Based on the distribution of team members nature of
work and use of experts service, virtual teams can be
classified into six types. They are:
1. Networked Teams are geographically
distributed from members of many
organizations for specific areas/ topics. These
teams are formed in specific areas and
dissolved when the process is completed or
issue is resolved.
2. Parallel Teams are basically job oriented
teams that usually consist of experts
within/outside the organization.
3. Project Development Teams are mainly
focusing on creating new organizational
processes to users or products to customers.
4. Functional Teams are completely function-
specific teams working on a particular area
(i.e., Finance, Marketing, and Training) in an
organization.
5. Service Teams are assigned to particular
services (like customer support, network
upgrades) which are geographically located at
different time zones. They operate on shift
basis so that someone provides round the clock
service.
6. Offshore-isd teams are outsourced,
independent service provider teams that an
organization can subcontract a portion of work
and usually work in conjunction with an
onshore team.
MERITS OF VIRTUAL TEAMS
Virtual team provides several benefits to
organizations by procuring the best talent available
across boundaries. They allow organizations to be
more flexible in their operations without being
affected by geographical restrictions and locational
problems. The main benefits of a virtual team
include:
Achieving personal flexibility ( work
anywhere)
Reduction of commute time and availability
of faster time to market for new products.
No rigidity in work time
Increased productivity
Increased business opportunities
Direct access to different markets.
Enhance small/domestic businessmen
abilities to compete worldwide
Utilization of people (with different
knowledge) spread all over the globe
Recruitment by competency; not influenced
by physical location and its handicaps
Elimination / Reduction of cost of owning a
building and maintaining an office
LIMITATIONS OF VIRTUAL TEAMS
Operating in a virtual environment is really a big
challenge for leaders in organizations. While skill
sets needed for virtual team members do not vary
significantly what the real team have, performance
and its appraisal will have to be based on different set
of factors unlike before. When people do not see or
meet each other, but work together, it will pose many
new problems in the organization. The key issues
are:
Journal of Engineering Research and Studies E-ISSN0976-7916

JERS/Vol. II/ Issue IV/October-December, 2011/116-119
Unclear team structure members may not
understand hierarchy of authority/reporting
system
Lack of adequate /proper communication
due to constraints of virtual communication
channels
Ineffective leadership
Inefficient management of teams
Incompetent team members
Difficulty in achieving motivation
Lack of organizational fit employees
Cultural disconnect among team members
Difficulty in building trust among team
members
Obstacles in achieving team bonding.
VIRTUAL TEAMING- A REAL CHALLENGE
As the Virtual Team is made up of people who
telecommute and hardly ever meet each other in
person, operating in a virtual environment will be a
big challenge that managers will have to brace for.
When people work together but do not see other, it
will pose certain new problems. In the absence of the
normal give and take of face to face meeting, there
may be slow responses which result in lack of mutual
respect among team members. Dedicated team
members and sound organizational structure are the
keys to overcome the obstacles associated with the
distance organization and culture. Building and
maintaining successful Virtual Teams require a
powerful structure, comprehensive organizational
policies and dynamic strategies. Virtual teaming
management becomes a real challenge to
organizations in the following areas:
Human Resource Management
Issues relating to virtual knowledge
employees career advancement and options
Extracting maximum commitment of leaders
and members.
Lack of a sense of belonging, low morale
and inadequate motivation
Problems in performance recognition and
evaluation and rewards
Challenges in getting the desired team
bonding
Difficulty in noticing the team members
/leaders in competencies immediately
Organizational structure and culture
Challenges in drawing nuclear team
structure
Defining each members role exactly
Opening up appropriate communication
channels
Extracting maximum communication
channels
Recognizing and rewarding team members
performance
Information management system
Designing new ways for assignments and
work load tracking
Organizing for multiple use of information
gathered at one place / by one person.
Developing new management planning and
decision making systems.
Collecting and administering data for overall
control
Learning and Development
Regular focus on training the virtual team
processes
Continuous attention on development activities
in a virtual work environment.
Educating all the members in virtual team
culture.
Leadership and members
Convincing leaders and members about the
need to form Virtual Team
Establishing cross functional management
teams to solve cross functional, virtual issues.
Building interpersonal relationships
Deriving Maximum proficiency in the use of
interactive technologies
Attracting members sensitivity to project and
time parameters.
TIPS FOR MAKING EFFECTIVE VIRTUAL
TEAMS:
Virtual teams are supported by advancements in
hardware, software technology and of course by
Human Resource. General hardware items include
telephone, personal computer, laptops
communication links, local area network. Software
requirements cover electronic mail, groupware
products, video conferencing and meeting facilitation
software. Human resource, in the form of
Knowledge Workers, is the key which dictate teams
success or failure. Clearly, one of the main reasons
for organizing a dispersed team is to draw superior
knowledge from remote and distant locations.
However it is unrealistic to bring together individuals
from different places and of different cultures with
the expectation that they will automatically know
how to collaborate in a virtual environment. For
achieving the real potential of virtual teams and take
advantages of functional and cultural diversity,
managers must be able to establish a basis for
effective exchange of varying capabilities. Social
skills and team work related skills are the keys for the
successful exchange of talent. Team cohesiveness is
important to derive best results for team efforts and
success. Leaders should enhance team bonding by
utilizing available communication channels to
maximum extent. They will have to develop mutual
trust and get desired bonding through innovative
thinking and effective vocabulary. All problems need
not be escalated to the administration and there will
be issues that the leaders can sort out at their levels.
It is also critical for the leaders part to see that the
team gets all the rewards and incentives they deserve
for the performances delivered. The success of any
team, whether virtual or other, depends mainly on
one factor - the ability of the leaders to build trust
among the team members first and then among the
teams. A few tips for managers / Team leaders to
Journal of Engineering Research and Studies E-ISSN0976-7916

JERS/Vol. II/ Issue IV/October-December, 2011/116-119
work and polish to make virtual teams become a
reality and success.
Set out team structure clearly avoid
ambiguity in reporting system and also in
sorting out issues
Have an initial personal meeting with all team
players
Let every body know the entire project/ whole
work. Make the big picture / common goals
visible to all team members
Define each members specific role with its
relative importance to whole project /
organization
Set individual targets and draw the roadmap to
proceed
Set time frame for completing tasks and for
responding network demands
Have periodic face to face meetings, discuss
teams progress, and resolve conflicts without
causing ruptures to anybodys feelings
Motivation to deliver better cannot be easily
achieved. So create a congenial environment
in which people develop self motivation to
work at their peak levels
Develop rapport between leaders and members
and maintain the team cohesiveness
Open up as many communication channels as
possible considering the individual
preferences.
Recognize that majority of information will
be non verbal. Use caution in language
Close the generation gap for better team
bonding let older generation employees
collaborate and communicate freely with their
younger counterparts
Establish clear code of conduct and norms for
behavior
Build trust among the members
Recognize and reward performance regularly.
Emphasize on good team work, mutual
support and on social skills
Promote broad based leadership across the
team
Foster a global culture encourage global
employee mindset and ensure
International (or Interstate) diversity friendly
attitudes of employees
CONCLUSION
In the present corporate environment virtual teams
are fast becoming rule than exceptions in
organizations. Many companies have already started
to realize the need for such teams and rely heavily on
them to derive better results. It is high time to stop
thinking of them as a special case or optional and
start strategies for dealing with the challenges they
pose in the work environment. virtual teams need the
same things all the teams need- a clear mission,
explicit statement of roles, opportunities for learning
and development, better direction and good
communication devices. Above all, the overall
success of a dispersed team depends predominantly
on the ability and performance of team leader.
Because virtual teams suffer with increasing levels of
dispersion, managers should create ways to make
working of these teams visible to all, motivate team
members and counsel them from distance. Basically
they have to help the team learn how to be a virtual
team. It is not so much telling the team members
what to do or how to do but motivating them and
coordinating their performance. People with role-
specific competencies will know more than managers
and play critical roles in almost every organization.
Admittedly, these highly skilled techies are the brains
behind the amazing software and accompanying
hardware that run many companies and teams.
Employees and leaders have typically viewed
dispersion as a liability than an opportunity.
However, dispersed team members can outperform
their collocated counterparts and provide substantial
benefits to the employers. If managed in a right way,
virtual teams can offer the advantages of diversity,
varied expertise and top-notch talent available at
different locations. In order to avoid the drawbacks
of dispersion of talent and to reap the real benefits, an
organization can not just assemble different people
and expect best from them. For integrating dispersed
knowledge effectively and taking advantage of the
cultural and structural diversity, leaders must ensure
that the group has necessary social skills and task
related talent in it. Even though all businesses suffer
due to uncertainties, nothing can stop organizations
with strong structure and determined workforce from
reaching the goals. Few companies are destined to be
successful but many enterprises achieve success only
through complete determination. Organizational
success comes in Cans and not in Cants. Leaders of
virtual teams should think that they can, certainly
they will. When they have character to build virtual
teams and strong commitment to manage their tasks
efficiently, nothing is impossible to achieve and
succeed.
REFERENCES:
Raj K, Virtual Teams Can achieve net worth
through trust, Opportunities, The Hindu, January
19, 2011
David Gould Ed.D., Fifth Generation Work- Virtual
Organisation, www.seanet.com