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B325
KW
Arab Open University
Harnessing the power of virtual worlds is now a necessity as industry penetrates every comer of our planet, and workers are required to be in touch with teammates on the next block and on distant continents at any time. In most companies, participating in virtual teams is no longer an exotic exercise, but a bottom-line requirement.” “Often widely separated geographically and located in distant time zones, virtual teams are frequently composed of members from different cultures who work in different organizations with unfamiliar standards and models of behavior.” Members of virtual teams most likely have never met each other in person.
NetAge, a company that provides consulting services for networked organizations, maintains that the secret to successful virtual teams is 10 percent technology and 90 percent people. Likewise the failure of virtual teams is largely due to people. The substantial role of people in the success of virtual teams prompts the question: what are some human factors that contribute to the success of virtual teams, and what are some human factors that contribute to the failure of virtual teams? Virtual teams require interdependent work relationships. “Interdependent work teams share common goals and responsibilities; at the same time, the team members are self-reliant and self-motivated.” Effective virtual collaboration requires an understanding of people, cultures, and organizations. Employees who can tolerate or even relish ambiguity in their job responsibilities tend to function well in virtual teams, whereas employees “who like regimented schedules and concrete instructions on how to do their jobs won’t perform as well in virtual work settings.” Two very key human factors that determine the success or failure of virtual teams are communication effectiveness and stimulating work. When it comes to communication in virtual team settings, ambiguity increases the chances of failure and clarity of communication contributes to success. “Employees must write well to draft easy-to-understand and to-the-point communications. Ambiguity can be a detriment because the way virtual workers write and comprehend written communications can alter meaning and generate unneeded tension among team members and managers.” As Joseph Grenny, writing in Leadership Excellence, observes: “The challenge [that] virtual teams face is productively brainstorming ideas, solving problems, and executing on projects with people whose physical location⎯not to mention specialty, and in some cases, culture⎯makes it difficult to freely and clearly speak one’s mind.” Reporting in The Wall Street Journal, Lynda Gratton observes that the work of virtual teams is frequently unsupervised and consequently team members’ tasks should be challenging and stimulating. Otherwise, disinterest could cause the virtual team to disintegrate. When team members do not experience the work as stimulating and challenging, “[t]hey simply fade away, with fewer and fewer dialing into the weekly conference calls or posting ideas on the shared site. It’s not that the members don’t like one another. It’s simply that the atmosphere becomes more like a country club than a dynamic collection of inspired people.”
Volvo is one company that has taken the issues of communication effectiveness and stimulating work to heart in working toward making its virtual teams as effective as possible. With a very significant global footprint of manufacturing in 19 countries and sales in 180 countries, and 120,000 employees with half of those being information workers, the Volvo Information Technology (VIT) unit seeks to support team effectiveness around the world. The mission for improving the effectiveness of the company’s virtual teams is to “[a]ssist teams with establishing effective ways of communicating and collaborating to reach business objectives.” Volvo evaluates the effectiveness of its virtual teams with a variety of metrics in four major categories that can be framed in the form of the following four questions: “How aligned is the team’s understanding of goals, actions, and expected results? How familiar is the team with roles and responsibilities? How comfortable is the team with communicating internally? How clear are project timelines and milestones?” At peak performance, Volvo’s virtual teams would be judged as having attained “shared accountability [and] shared leadership for achieving team objectives.” Attaining this level of virtual team performance is possible only by having interesting work for the team members to do and effective communication among them.
Globally distributed organizations bring people of different cultures and languages across heterogeneous locations together to collaborate on specific projects. Based on B325 course material, discuss the three conceptual structures of virtual teams’ organizational context. What is the most evident conceptual structure in the case? Support your answer with evidence from the case and explain from your experience which structure has been more materialized after covid-19 pandemic and the shift towards a more virtual working space.
The aim of this paper is to discuss concept of virtual teams and the importance of virtual teams in a business or in any area of a society. Multinational organizations are often comprised of employees from various background and race. Virtual teams provide the opportunity to connect with different people irrespective of geographical distributions. Hence, the aim is to analyze the concept of virtual teams and study three major conceptual structure associated with a virtual team (Großer and Baumöl 2017). Further, the paper provides a brief reflection on the scenario based of personal experience.
Virtual teams are defined as the teams that is comprised of participants who never met physically (face-to-face) hence, use ICT as their primary medium of interaction (Redlich et al. 2017). In addition to that, virtual teams involve groups who collaborate to share similar goals or objectives using a combination of communication as well as information technologies for accomplishing a task. However, a virtual team might be faced with potential challenges as the team members are unable to meet face to face, hence appropriate communication strategy is highly essential for executing the goals and minimizing various risks associated with this business (Chappell and Schermerhorn, 2021).
Another study shows that there are various types of virtual teams, which include networked teams, parallel teams, product development teams, service teams, management teams as well as action teams among many others. In any virtual team, the manager focuses on ensuring roles and responsibilities of each team members, which might help the firms to attain higher organizational performance and reduce the risk of conflicts among team members (Painter et al. 2016).
Study shows that the three conceptual structures of virtual teams include, the lifeworld, organizational structures and thirdly, work practice (Großer and Baumöl 2017).
Lifeworld: This conceptual structure of virtual team reflects an inter-subjective reality, which is built over the interpretations of personal experiences and collective experiences of members of the company (Collins et al. 2017). In addition to that, this conceptual structure is a lived experiences & beliefs which influences people’s attitudes or behaviors as well as actions during interaction. Lifeworld serves as filters of a collective reality where people can observe and they can interpret other’s actions (Großer and Baumöl 2017).
The organizational structure: This is comprised of explicit, articulated & visible structures, which include norms, policies, ritual activity, patterned behavior or symbolic artifacts. Furthermore, this conceptual structure defines the authority or status of an individual within the organization (Großer and Baumöl 2017). Organizational structures are considered as emergent because it is constantly restructured due to various social interactions as well as negotiations among the team members.
The work practice: Study shows that ‘the work practice’ is comprised of profession-specific norms as well as collaborative practices & languages (Großer and Baumöl 2017). However, experts believe that developing a common work language helps a firm to execute the organizational goals effectively (Großer and Baumöl 2017). In case of international teams, the risk of complexity is high as participants do not necessarily share any common work language (Großer and Baumöl 2017).
Studying the case, it can be analyzed that it is emphasizes on “The Work Practice”, because the company (Volvo) is highly concerned with its organizational performance. Hence, the firm evaluates effectiveness of their virtual teams with the help of metrics classified in four major categories. This helps them to develop a common work language and assist the firm in attaining targeted organizational goals. With the help of these metrics, they developed various groups that focus on developing different vocabularies or speech usage based on professional background or the nature and role of their work.
Reflecting on my personal experience as a student, I have realized that virtual teams are perhaps the most important component to gain education and skills. Outbreak of pandemic and implementation of worldwide lockdown has influenced the use of virtual study to a huge extent. In addition to that, it has been observed globalization has also influenced the rise of virtual teams as many of my batch mates are pursuing this course from different geographical regions. This reflects the importance or benefits gained from development of virtual teams for educational purpose.
Analyzing the activities and objectives of this virtual team, I can assume that the conceptual structure of “The work practice” has been implemented for better communication with students pursuing from foreign locations. Our professor created different groups for different projects and encouraged us to develop a common work language so that the students from international locations can easily communicate and execute the desired goals for this project. Furthermore, I observed our team uses both formal and informal language to communicate and encourage each other.
Lastly, the paper can be concluded by saying that virtual teams are one of the major components for an organization to improve its overall brand image and employee performance. This is because, virtual teams support the formation of creative and innovative ideas that further, assist in higher organizational growth and development. From my experience, I have realized that “The Work Practice” conceptual virtual teams are highly beneficial as it helps the team members to develop a common work language so that the participants can communicate easily and collaborate to achieve the targeted objectives or goals.
How information technology can help boosting communication among virtual teams. Critically discuss how problems that emerge might be tackled. Reflect on the case and discuss how information technology in general is beneficial and how it has helped Volvo in particular to improve communication between its virtual teams. Discuss your experience with information technology in the era of covid-19. Did it have negative or positive effects in improving communication being it at work level or educational level?
The aim of this paper is to discuss importance of technology mediation and translucence in virtual teams and further emphasize on the role of technology mediation in virtual teams. Study shows that technology mediation employs technology for mediating communications as well as actions in a virtual teamwork. This paper emphasizes on discussing the challenges present in technology mediation and focus on role of translucence. Reflection on the topic is also assessed along with its relevance to the case study.
Technology mediation is considered as a necessary requirement for any virtual collaboration in a groupware technology (Kannampallil and Ma 2020). This is comprised of common repository as well as functionality for creating and sharing objects-of-work among the participants. In addition to that, technology mediation includes the effective use of information space, which requires ‘articulation work’. This means the participants must construct meaning related to shared objects & negotiate agreements about how to enact the meaning in shared information items. Furthermore, the common information space or virtual teams serves as a form of social ‘sphere’ where various social actions are operated and articulation work are also achieved.
The theory of technological mediation offers an appropriate framework for analyzing the roles of technologies in society as well as in the lifestyle of an individual. Study shows that technology has become an important function in every area of a society due to the rise of globalization. Technology mediation helped both small as well as large organizations to conduct their business operations effectively with diverse workforce.
As discussed, it can be observed that technological mediation has benefitted various organizations as well as helped to improve the business. However, it has been analyzed that technological mediation might result in potential problems, which can affect the virtual teamwork adversely. Communication breakdown is one of the common issues occurred due to technological mediation. Virtual teams are highly dependent on technologies as a medium for communicating, hence communication break down can result in conflicts or misinterpretation of messages (Daskalopoulou, Keeling and Jones 2019).
Other than that, geographical distance or difference in perception can result in simplified views of a work situation. Furthermore, it has been observed that important aspects of a collaborative practice become invisible from a distance thereby resulting in increase of boundaries shadowing in work. This minimizes the effectiveness of a virtual team and it might also affect the performance of each team members negatively. The manager also witnesses major challenges in managing the virtual teams and individual performance of the team members (Echeverria et al. 2019).
Translucence is defined as the triangulation of three components such as awareness, visibility and accountability. In addition to that, translucence permits important yet invisible social clues to be visible.
Experts believe that the sole purpose of translucence in collaborative technologies is to avoid or even recover from different communication breakdowns in virtual interaction (Pandey 2018). Translucence plays an important role in technology mediation where it minimizes the risk of disruption, which occurs due to various causes. Study shows that there are two major type of communication breakdown that might occur due to lack of translucence. This includes delays from any blocked access to a needed resource and interruptions because of unscheduled synchronous interactions which caused discontinuity in any current activity.
Volvo holds a strong market reputation due to their global footprint in manufacturing and sales in various countries. From the above case study, it can be analyzed that Volvo practiced “The Work Practice” conceptual structure for achieving the organizational goals. Hence, questioning the efficacy in teamwork practice and routines can be the cause of communication breakdown. However, with the help of re-assessment & re-design of the teamwork practices, the brand can overcome these challenges.
As a student, I have realized that technology mediation has helped me to develop many skills and abilities during this Covid-19 pandemic. Other than that, technology mediation has also assisted me to understand the importance of teamwork and patience. This is because, many of my team members in a group project resides in different geographical locations (some of them even belong from other nations), hence with the help of technology mediation and development of virtual team, I have been able to perform well and deliver quality teamwork. Even though, our professor encouraged us to practice, “The Work Practice” concept, however, we faced many challenges that might have reduced the overall effectiveness of our teamwork. Due to poor team management, many team members faced challenges and resulted in conflicts thereby we witnessed communication breakdowns. Difference in time zone also resulted in communication breakdowns however, with the help of translucence, we were able to re-design the team structure and motivate each other to collaborate and deliver the project within deadline.
Lastly, the paper can be concluded by saying that technology mediation is a primary factor for growth and development of an organization as it helps them to sustain a diverse workforce and implement various innovative strategies. Furthermore, it has been observed that technology mediation also includes several challenges such as communication breakdown that might affect the overall effectiveness of a virtual team. From the case study of Volvo, and from my personal experience I have concluded that re-assessment and re-design of teamwork practices can help us to overcome the challenges and resolve this issue.
Chappell, D.S. and Schermerhorn, J.R., 2021. Introducing international business experience through virtual teamwork. In Teaching and Program Variations in International Business (pp. 43-59). Routledge.
Collins, N., Chou, Y.M., Warner, M. and Rowley, C., 2017. Human factors in East Asian virtual teamwork: A comparative study of Indonesia, Taiwan and Vietnam. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 28(10), pp.1475-1498.
Daskalopoulou, A., Keeling, K. and Jones, R.P., 2019. Understanding technology mediation and new service provider roles in health care. Journal of Services Marketing.
Echeverria, V., Martinez-Maldonado, R. and Buckingham Shum, S., 2019, May. Towards collaboration translucence: Giving meaning to multimodal group data. In Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-16).
Großer, B. and Baumöl, U., 2017. Virtual teamwork in the context of technological and cultural transformation. International Journal of Information Systems and Project Management, 5(4), p.15.
Kannampallil, T. and Ma, J., 2020. Digital translucence: adapting telemedicine delivery post-COVID-19. Telemedicine and e-Health, 26(9), pp.1120-1122.
Painter, G., Posey, P., Austrom, D., Tenkasi, R., Barrett, B. and Merck, B., 2016. Sociotechnical systems design: coordination of virtual teamwork in innovation. Team Performance Management.
Pandey, S., 2018. Framing smart consumer technology: Mediation, materiality, and material for design. International Journal of Design, 12(1).
Redlich, B., Siemon, D., Lattemann, C. and Robra-Bissantz, S., 2017, January. Shared mental models in creative virtual teamwork. In Proceedings of the 50th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.
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