Advantages and Disadvantages of Virtual Marketing Teams

This report analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of implementing virtual marketing teams in an organization. It discusses the cost savings, talent availability, and potential conflicts associated with virtual teams. The report concludes that while there are some disadvantages, efficient leadership and effective communication strategies can help overcome them.

MANAGEMENT COMMUNICATION
SHORT REPORT
13 APRIL 2019
Authorised by: the marketing director, ABC COMPANY
AUTHORED BY: MANAGER, MARKETING DEPARTMENT, ABC COMPANY

REPORT 1
Introduction
The businesses of the twenty first century are highly driven by the technological
innovations and the globalised business practices, and the same have become the
prime essentials of the modern businesses. One of the emerging trends in the field
of the information and communication technology is the virtual teams. These are
referred to as the team of people who are working together from various locations
and are connected to each other though internet and communication technologies
(Gilson et. al, 2015). There are a number of advantages and disadvantages which
should be considered before the implementation of the virtual marketing team in
ABC Company. The report is aimed at analysing the various facets of the virtual
teams.
Advantages of the Virtual Marketing Team
Cost savings: This is essentially the primary advantage of the creation of the virtual
marketing team within an enterprise. Some of the costs that can be avoided by the
entity by the establishment of the virtual marketing team is the office space, costs of
other administration services and facilities and the costs for the traveling and
accommodation for employees to take part in the meetings (Haines, 2014). The
employees from the various locations across the globe can be efficiently connected
through the internet and an organisation can thus therefore operate round the clock.
Wide Availability of talent: The next major advantage that the company ABC can
enjoy from the implementation of the virtual marketing team is that the organization
can look for talent beyond their country of origin. Thus, there is an increased
knowledge sharing and greater innovation in the overall human capital resource of
the company, which will further increase the market shares in respective regions for
the company as well (Mukherjee et. al, 2012). The localised teams would be able to
understand the needs of the customers in a better manner and thereby improve the
overall marketing function of the enterprise and business practices as a whole.
Other advantages: Apart from the stated above, some other advantages that can
be reaped from the virtual marketing team is that it would allow new opportunities for
the employees who are reluctant to shift from their origin countries to new job
locations. As a result, the company would benefit in terms of the higher employee

REPORT 2
retention and improved collaboration activities by including the employees from
various nationalities under one organisational roof (Lin et. al, 2010).
Disadvantages of the virtual marketing team
Nevertheless virtual marketing team has certain number of disadvantages as well,
which needs the attention of the management before implementing the same in the
organisational structure of the company.
Cost of Technology: The virtual team set up would require the company to invest in
terms of the hardware and software needed to facilitate the connection. Some of the
multiple communication technologies that would require investment are the emails
and video-conferencing, instant messaging and likewise.
Conflicts, Lack of Trust & Collaboration: Another chief disadvantage of the virtual
teams is that the cultural differences between the members of virtual teams may give
rise to number of conflicts within the marketing team (Pinjani and Palvia, 2013). In
addition, as the nonverbal cues are absent from the communication such as the
body language, eye contact and others, there is a lack of efficient communicating
flow and misunderstandings can arise among the team members. Further to add, the
lack of physical presence leads to difficulties in fruitful collaboration and the
resolution of the conflicts.
However, it is essential to note that the stated disadvantages of the virtual team
implementation can be addressed by following innovative managerial approach by
the senior management of the entity. It is important to note that the initial investment
in the above listed technologies would reap benefits for coming number of years for
the enterprise and therefore actual cost can be distributed over the years. Further,
efficient leadership/managerial approach, trainings, greater role clarity by
development of organisational policies and effective communication strategies; can
together lead to successful virtual team implementation (Wadsworth and Blanchard,
2015).
Conclusion
The discussions in the previous sections of the report aid to conclude that the virtual
team set ups are increasingly becoming more and more essential to collaborate with
remote teams of an organisation. The report highlighted the number of advantages

REPORT 3
of the said implementation. Though, there are a few disadvantages as well on the
lines of the communication, motivation and warmth of the relations; but the same can
be managed by efficient leadership. Hence, it is suggested to implement virtual
marketing team in the entity.

REPORT 4
The development of information and communication technologies have led to the
proper trend of virtual teams in the organisation. The processes such as emails, chat
groups, video calls and voice calls connect the people across the globe to work
under a single brand name. These are stated to be the prime requirements of today’s
global mind-set teams and to gain an overall competitive advantage.

REPORT 5
The main advantage of a virtual team is that an enterprise can diversify its human
resource team beyond the international borders and can recruit talented personnel
from anywhere in the world. The second benefit of the same is that it increases
productivity by reducing the discrimination at workplace and thus allow improved
business functions.
The next set of advantage is that organisation is not required to incur much costs on
account of travelling, boarding, lodging for the employees to join the face to face
meetings. The opinions can be gauged as and when required. Real time
communication enhances productivity. Further, as employees are connected even
from remote locations and who do not wish to physically move, there are more
chances of retention of employees.

REPORT 6
Some of the disadvantages of virtual teams are listed. The main disadvantage is
that unlike face to face communications, interpersonal relationships between leaders
and subordinates and between peers is quite evident. This creates an atmosphere of
lack of trust. In this scenario, resolution of conflicts is not easy because of complex
structure of teams. Further on lines of budget and finance, the set up requires
resources and expertise to manage the same.
It can be concluded that the virtual team must be adopted in the enterprise, however
certain aspects must be taken care of for efficient functioning and governance of the
teams. It requires an efficient set of leadership abilities to guide and manage a team
that is full of employees from various cultural, social, and professional backgrounds,
The leaders must understand the needs and aspirations of different members.
Further a clarity in roles is necessitated, to avoid the unnecessary delay,
misunderstandings, that will hamper the overall purpose of the virtual team.

REPORT 7
References
Gilson, L. L, Maynard, M. T, Jones Y, Nicole C, Vartiainen, M and Hakonen, M 2015,
‘Virtual teams research: 10 years, 10 themes, and 10 opportunities’, Journal of
Management, Vol. 41, no. 5, pp. 1313-1337.
Haines, R 2014, ‘Group development in virtual teams: An experimental re-
examination,’ Computers in Human Behavior, Vol. 39, pp. 213-222.
Lin C. P, Wang, Y. J, Tsai, Y. H, Hsu, Y. F 2010, ‘Perceived job effectiveness in
coopetition: A survey of virtual teams within business organizations’, Computers in
Human Behavior, Vol. 26, no. 6, pp.1598–1606.
Mukherjee, D, Lahiri, S, Mukherjee, D and Billing, T. K 2012, ‘Leading virtual teams:
How do social, cognitive, and behavioral capabilities matter?’, Management
Decision, Vol. 50, no. 2, pp. 273-290.
Pinjani, P and Palvia, P 2013, ‘Trust and knowledge sharing in diverse global virtual
teams’, Information & Management, Vol. 50, no. 4, pp. 144–153.
Wadsworth, M. B and Blanchard, A. L 2015, ‘Influence tactics in virtual teams,’
Computers in Human Behavior, Vol. 44(C), pp. 386-393.