Challenges of Implementing Virtual Teams in XYZ Company

This memo analyses the challenges of implementing virtual teams in the marketing department of XYZ Company. The challenges include different time zones, language barriers, less cohesiveness, communication flow, problems in conflict resolution, lack of interpersonal relationships and trust among members, and cost and expertise consideration.

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XYZ Company
Memo
To: The Marketing Director
From: Assistant Marketing Director
Date: 04 December 2018
Subject: Implementation of Virtual Teams
Communication is one of the most important functions of the organisations and is regarded as
the blood of the organisational operations. With the rise of information technology, there is a
revolutionary change in the processing, storage, distribution of information and collaboration
among the members of the organisation (Barney, 2011). One such tool based on the
information technology principles is the virtual teams.
Virtual Teams refers to the collection of the geographically distributed people of the
organisation that are connected through the various technological applications and internet,
thereby allowing the organisation to become more connected in the global marketplace. Some
of the benefits that can be yielded by the successful implementation of the virtual teams are
pooling of the talent across the globe, real-time conversations, reduction in the travelling cost
and increased provision of services across the globe and thus the revenue growth (Binder,
2016).
The memo is intended to analyse the challenges of the virtual team implementation in the
marketing department of the entity at the locations namely, Melbourne, Los Angeles,
Shanghai, and Bangalore. Accordingly, the management is suggested to not to implement the
virtual teams because of the following critical areas involved in its management.
The development and implementation of the virtual teams have a wide range of benefits.
However, the challenges are no lesser. Some of the major challenges of the virtual teams that
make the virtual teams’ complex to manage are as follows:
Different Time Zones and Language Barrier: One of the major drawbacks of the management
of the virtual team in the entity is the fact that there are four different time zones. It is
complex to identify an overlapping time zone and thus, the creation of the common time

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window for the members of the virtual teams to interact (Ferrazzi, 2014). Thus, this creates
an issue for the members in terms of the common discussions and solutions of the problems.
Followed by this is individuals belonging to different countries having different language
background, which makes it further difficult to understand and agree with each other (Pangil
and Moi Chan, 2014).
Less Cohesiveness: The fact that the different team members belonging to different locations
will choose their own working hours would lead to the fragmentation of the organisational
operations (Zofi, 2011). Thus, decentralization of operations is another challenge of the
virtual team implementation.
Communication Flow: One of the other major disadvantages of the virtual team
implementation is the improper flow of communication might arise (Lin, and Atkin, 2014).
This is because people can engage in multitasking while communicating with the team
members who are located on the other side of the screen. Thus, this kind of communication
may lead to problems in decision-making and affect the overall performance of the enterprise.
Problems in the resolution of conflicts: Yet another major issue in the virtual team interaction
is that the resolution of conflicts is not easy. This is because of the lack of face-to-face
interactions and thus the psychological barriers creating frustration at times between the team
members (Lockwood, 2015).
Lack of interpersonal relationships and trust among the members: The process of
communication is hindered in the virtual team setup, as there is an absence of facial
expressions, body language changes, voice tone modulations, and other such physical cues
(Morley, Cormican and Folan, 2015). This makes the communication monotonous and lacks
trust among each other. This further creates a sense of isolation. The group behaviours in case
of the physical teams and virtual teams differ significantly in terms of the familiarity with
each other and the respective cultures.
Cost and Expertise Consideration: Another critical area in the virtual team operation is the
initial investment in the form of set-up costs of infrastructure and experts. In order to manage
the hardware and software systems for the effective functioning of the virtual teams, the
experts managing the same must be well equipped.

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Thus, as stated above there exist a number of critical areas that must be considered before
implementation of the virtual teams in the organisations. The points stated above makes it
difficult to manage and successfully operate the virtual teams. Thus, it is suggested to the
management to go for the traditional team structure, which will enable more transparent and
meaningful interactions and conflict resolutions.

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References
Barney, D. (2011) Communication technology. Canada: UBC Press.
Binder, J. (2016) Global project management: communication, collaboration and
management across borders. Oxon: Routledge.
Ferrazzi, K. (2014). Getting Virtual Teams Right. [online] Available from:
https://hbr.org/2014/12/getting-virtual-teams-right [Accessed on 05/12/18].
Lin, C. A. and Atkin, D. J. (2014) Communication technology and social change. In
Communication Technology and Social Change. Oxon: Routledge.
Lockwood, J. (2015) Virtual team management: what is causing communication breakdown?
Language and Intercultural Communication, 15(1), pp. 125-140.
Morley, S., Cormican, K. and Folan, P. (2015) An analysis of virtual team characteristics: A
model for virtual project managers. Journal of technology management & innovation, 10(1),
pp. 188-203.
Pangil, F. and Moi Chan, J. (2014) The mediating effect of knowledge sharing on the
relationship between trust and virtual team effectiveness. Journal of Knowledge
Management, 18(1), pp. 92-106.
Zofi, Y. S. (2011) A manager's guide to virtual teams. USA: Amacom Books.