Virtual teams are teams of people who primarily interact electronically
and who may meet face-to-face occasionally.
The following sections provide additional information on teams
and virtual teams of Digiknots.
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Introduction |
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What
is a team? One of the
more accepted definitions comes from Kazenbach and
Smith in Wisdom of Teams. A team is a small
number of people with complementary skills who are
committed to a common purpose, performance goals,
and approach for which they hold themselves mutually
accountable.
Generally, teams have from two to twenty-five people.
More than that, they tend to break into subteams.
Teams need complementary skills or the right mix of
skills to do the job assigned. These skills fall into
three categories: technical or functional expertise,
problem-solving and decision-making skills, and interpersonal
skills. A team's purpose and performance goals go
together. Both must be clear or confusion will likely
result. It is important that the team own and commit
to the purpose and shape it if necessary. In addition,
teams need to develop a common approach or method
on how they will work together to accomplish their
purpose. Finally, groups become teams when they hold
themselves accountable for the outcome.
What is a virtual team?
There are several different definitions of virtual
teams, but what these definitions have in common is
that, in addition to being a team, virtual team members
are physically separated (by time and / or space)
and that virtual team members primarily interact electronically.
This researcher defines virtual teams as teams of
people who primarily interact electronically and who
may meet face-to-face occasionally.
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| Reasons
for Virtual Teams |
Reasons
for virtual teams center around the differences in time
and space for team members.
• Team members
may not be physically collocated.
• It may
not be practical to travel to meet face-to-face.
• Team members may work different shifts
Specifically, teams may be distributed
because of the new realities facing organizations
such as:
• Organization-wide projects or initiatives
• Alliances with different organizations, some
of which may be in other countries
mergers and acquisitions
• Emerging markets in different geographic locations
• The desire of many people and government organizations
for telecommuting
• The continuing need for business travel and
information and communications technologies
available to support this travel
• Aneed to reduce costs
• A need to reduce time-to-market or cycle time
in general (the increasing velocity in usiness)
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| Types
of Groups |
Four basic types of groups of people exist:
• Task groups
• Friendship groups
• Command groups
• Interest groups
These groups also can exist as virtual groups. For example,
an example of a virtual command group would be a national
sales team distributed throughout the United States. An example
of a virtual task group could be a small software development
group of people telecommuting to their office. A virtual interest
group could be a group of investors sharing strategies and
outcomes. A friendship group might be represented by a virtual
community. Certainly other examples exist and some groups
overlap as well.
Note: In Digiknots research
uses the term "virtual team" in this web site as
a "virtual task group" or a "virtual command
group" where team members are focused on a specific set
of goals.
| Strategies
for Virtual Teams |
The following tips come from our research into virtual teamwork.
• Hold an initial face-to-face startup
• Have periodic face-to-face meetings, especially to
resolve conflict and maintain team cohesiveness
• Establish a clear code of conduct or set of norms
and protocols for behavior
• Recognize and reward performance
• Use visuals in communications
• Recognize that most communications will be non-verbal
-- use caution in tone and language
Technology Supporting Virtual Teams
Virtual teams are supported by both hardware and software.
General hardware requirements include telephones, PCs, modems
or equivalent, and communication links such as the public
switched network (telephone system) and local area networks.
Software requirements include groupware products such as electronic
mail, meeting facilitation software, and group time management
systems.
One way to think about teams is that teams are a network organization
-- a set of nodes and links -- wherein the nodes are of course
the team members and the links are the communications channels
or primarily face-to-face interaction. In virtual teams, the
nodes are the same -- team members -- whereas the links are
primarily virtual (electronic) and software is used to mediate
the interactions. In simple terms, then
virtual teams = teams + electronic
links + groupware
| Benefits
of Virtual Teams |
Several benefits of virtual teams include the following:
• Our team can work from anywhere at anytime.
• They can be recruited for their competencies, not
just physical location.
• Many physical handicaps are not a problem.
• Expenses associated with travel, lodging, parking,
and leasing or owning a building may be
reduced and sometimes eliminated.
• There is no commute time
