MGT Case: Virtual Teams
A rapidly growing trend in the business world is the growth of virtual teams. Some companies are allowing teleworking, which means that more and more workers have to coordinate their activities with other team members through the phone or internet. Even among workers who are working from their office, more and more companies are having employees work in teams with employees who work at other locations who they may or may not have ever met in person. New technologies have been developed to help facilitate virtual teamwork, but challenges still remain.
Review the background materials and also do some research on virtual teams. Here are a few articles on virtual teams to get you started:
Garfoot, A. (2003, 05). The reality of virtual teams. IT Training, , 32-34. [ProQuest]
Sadri, G., & Condia, J. (2012). Managing the virtual world. Industrial Management, 54(1), 21-25. [ProQuest]
Rigby, R. (2013). How best to manage a virtual team. The Financial Times [ProQuest]
When you are finished with your research, integrate what you learned in general about group dynamics in the background materials with more specific information you learned about virtual teams. Write a four(4) page paper addressing the following issues:
- How do you think the five stages of group development (forming, storming, norming, performing, adjourning) will be different for virtual teams as compared to traditional teams? Discuss in regard to all five stages of group development.
- Do you think virtual teams will be more or less cohesive than traditional teams? Include a discussion of the issue of groupthink in your discussion.
Overall, do you think virtual teams will perform better or worse than traditional teams? Explain your answer with references to the background readings.
Case Assignment Expectations
- Answer the assignment questions directly. Stay focused on the precise assignment questions; don’t go off on tangents or devote a lot of space to general background materials.
- Make use of both the required Case Assignment articles as well as the required general background materials in your paper. Apply concepts that you learned in the background materials in your answers to the assignment questions.
Virtual Teams
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Technology has brought on board some of the most revolutionary changes and developments in communications. Businesses are the most affected by the changes, with massive benefits to be reaped from the developments. Teamwork initially involved the team members meeting and carrying their activities in the same venue (Sadri &Condia, 2012). However, this has since changed as technology now provides various platforms that team members can communicate through. As such virtual teams are quite common and team members can work without ever meeting physically. This has revolutionized teamwork from the traditional ways of operation.
In 1965 Bruce Tuckman a psychologist, wrote an article titled developmental sequence in small groups. In the article, Bruce explained the stages necessary to forming a group for optimal teamwork (Mindtools.com, 2014). Forming is the first stage of establishing a team. At this point most of the team members are not sure of their responsibilities and are anxious while other are excited. Traditionally the leaders would take on the role of guiding the teams on their roles and helping them fit in. with the virtual teams the members do not have a chance to meet and neither does the leader (Nair, 2010). As such, it is quite easy for the teams to lack comfort of familiarizing themselves to the team and the roles. Leaders and the team members have to put in more effort to make the arrangement work.
At the storming stage where traditionally, team members have a chance to challenge the boundaries set, it becomes even more crucial for the leaders of virtual teams to assert their roles. Different members will have different working styles, some of which may conflict with the rest of the team or just a few members. Traditionally, leaders have a much easier time managing these situations and restoring balance in the team (Rigby, 2013). Definition of the rules and the roles is now done virtually and leaders have to be extra careful to make sure the same take effect constantly. Additionally, team members may have to cope with more stress as they feel overwhelmed with work, but with very minimal support and relationships that are not strong enough.
At the norming stag, most team members understand fully their roles and the differences in their abilities and limitations including those of their team members. It is also at this stage that the team members show progress socially and professionally as they appre...