Organisational Behaviour: Problems and Solutions for Virtual Team Management

This article discusses the problems faced by Johnson while leading a virtual team of different cultural backgrounds and provides solutions for effective team management. It also highlights the importance of selecting an effective team and promoting teamwork and unity in the virtual team.

Running Head: ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR 0
Organisational
Behavior

ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR 1
Contents
Problems of Johnson.............................................................................................................................2
Solutions for the product launch...........................................................................................................2
Selection of effective team....................................................................................................................3
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................4
References.............................................................................................................................................5

ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR 2
Problems of Johnson
Johnson is facing several issues while leading a virtual team of different cultural
background. All the problems arise due to the launch of new product within a time of six
weeks that is too short to manage. The usual time taken for the new product is three month
that has created a problem for Johnson to assist the virtual team. Due to the involvement of
diversified members, culture diversity is one of the major issues for Johnson. All the
members use different communication styles that have created the problem. Members from
different cultural background are having different perception about the task. In this way, it
was difficult for Johnson to agree all the team members’ at one point. Some of the members
prefer doing telecommunication while some prefers communication in oral or written form.
When team operates in different location, every member has different time as per his
or her location. Due to this, Johnson was not able to communicate effectively on time. Due to
the urgent launch of product, it is required by Johnson to communicate on continuation basis.
Therefore, Johnson was not able to effectively guide its members due to these communication
barriers. In addition to this, there were various conflicts existing among the three members of
the team. The conflict was due to the mission of the members. These three members were not
agreeing from the actual mission (Jang, 2017). Everyone was having different perspective
regarding the mission statement in the group. Besides this, the decision-making of the team
members was quite slow that might delay the making of new product in given time. Besides
this, there is no adequate and proper structure for promoting teamwork and unity in the
virtual team. Due to lack of person meeting of team members, communication problem was
at peak.
Solutions for the product launch
Despite of the various problems, Johnson has to take some short-term measures for
launching the product in six weeks. He must take the sensitive leadership approach to handle
the members of different cultural background. It is rightly stated that when the problems are
large, divide it in small slots so that it can be solved easily. The same approach can be taken
by Johnson to solve the various problems that it is facing in leading virtual team. Training is
also one such effective method for assisting the team members. Due to non-availability of
team members at one place, it is not possible to take the face-to-face training session.
Through the help of video conferring, it can assist the members regarding the problems that

ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR 3
exist in the group (Lisak & Erez, 2015). It can start a session for these members. In this
session, all the members will interact with each other so that some collaborative approach can
be developed. Besides this, there must be some sort of communication channel in which
members can continuously interact with each other. For this, an official page for
communication can prove to be effective in order to remove the hindrances that are coming
on the way. It can also prescribe the described time limit for the completion of the task.
While communicating with the team members on video conferencing, team leader
should ask the members to provide their solution for the problems that they are facing. After
analysing all the solution, it can assist the member by giving them proper guideline (Dunn,
Grannan, Raisinghani & Stalling, 2015). It can also see some forms of motivation such as
timely feedback incentive in order to fasten the decision-making process. The leader should
also start a “performance assessment tool” within the application used by them. In this way,
effective response and level of responsibility for each member will be hunted. Motivation
proves to be a key for boosting the morale of team members (Carter et al, 2015). It is
generally seen as a tool of increasing the productivity and quality work on the part of
members.
Selection of effective team
The solutions that are discussed above can help to overcome the drawbacks that are
coming on the way of new product launch. Multicultural teams provide various advantages if
working effectively while communicating with each other in a better way. The most
important for any effective leader is doing the best selection of team members at the time of
forming team. System should be place in order to encourage the members for [providing
feedback (Ford, Piccolo & Ford, 2017). Team leader is also expected to consult not only
externally but also internally. It is one the best way to compose a best leadership styles,
approaches of work as well as effective communication mode. By doing this, team leader will
be able to choose the members with blending skills as well as culture that is based on the
task.
During the development stage also, leaders must require to explain the values and
missions from starting. This will help the members to know the clear expectations from them.
After the starting of the mission into action, there are chances of conflict among the
multicultural team. Therefore, conflict resolution mechanism must establish while

ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR 4
formulating the team. This will assist in solving the future conflicts in an effective way.
Lastly, the teams must have proper structures for development and team building so that
members interested to work in a team of diverse culture and background.
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that while incorporating virtual team,
there are various problems that come on the way. Johnson, in the given case study was facing
various issues. The major problem was due to the launch of new product within six weeks
that was too short time limit. Synergy was lacking among the team members due to
breakdown in their effective communication. Some members of the team preferred oral
communication while some preferred written or telephonic communication. Besides this, lack
of agreement on one point among the team members were leading to slower decision-making.
Different locations of team members were also one of the causes of slower decision-making.
Johnson can solve all these problems by responding appropriately. The major factor
for problems was fewer time limits for new product launch. Therefore, it must divide the
solution in short time limit so that targets can be achieved. As a leader, it is the responsibility
of same to assist its team members for responding quickly. Meeting or session on
videoconferencing is the best way to remove the conflicts among team members. In addition,
it can also select a best communication channel for continues conversation. It will lead to
faster decision-making. The selection of effective and talented members is also necessary for
better output with more positive outcomes.

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References
Carter, D. R., Seely, P. W., Dagosta, J., DeChurch, L. A., & Zaccaro, S. J. (2015).
Leadership for global virtual teams: Facilitating teamwork processes. In Leading
global teams (pp. 225-252). Springer, New York, NY.
Dunn, S., Grannan, C., Raisinghani, M., & Stalling, H. (2015). Communication Strategies for
Successful Virtual Teams. In System Sciences (HICSS), 2015 48th Hawaii
International Conference on (pp. 364-373). IEEE.
Ford, R. C., Piccolo, R. F., & Ford, L. R. (2017). Strategies for building effective virtual
teams: Trust is key. Business Horizons, 60(1), 25-34.
Jang, S. (2017). Cultural brokerage and creative performance in multicultural
teams. Organization Science, 28(6), 993-1009.
Lisak, A., & Erez, M. (2015). Leadership emergence in multicultural teams: The power of
global characteristics. Journal of World Business, 50(1), 3-14.