This case study discusses the importance of virtual teams in the R&D industry, their background, current issues, innovation, future usage, and strategic planning. It also provides insights on how virtual teams can enhance innovation and knowledge within an R&D enterprise.
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CASE STUDY ON: IMPORTANCE OF VIRTUAL TEAM IN R&D INDUSTRY CASE STUDY ON: IMPORTANCE OF VIRTUAL TEAM IN R&D INDUSTRY Name of the Student: Name of the University: Author Note:
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2DiscussionDiscussion Introduction In the modern digitalized era of evolution and innovation of science and technology, organizations are required to build more effectively and efficiently through the eminent usage of Research and Development procedures. It is a necessity for the company to combine capabilities and facilities to the achievement of desired goal. In the present R&D industries, the influence and emergence of virtual teams has been noticed to create an alternative to traditional working process. Moreover, the following study aims to provide deep insights on background of virtual teams in R&D, how virtual teams possesses certain issues during development of new products, how it influences innovation and has future usage benefits. The paper finally concludes to a deployment of appropriate strategy to produce profit according to the concerned environmental circumstance. Discussion Background According to Walvoordet al.(2015), the growing reputation of virtual team are evidently observed in innumerable organizations. According to a jounal by Martins et al. (2014), he concludes that the rare exceptions of all organizational teams are held virtual to some extents. The working process of virtual teams are bounded across space and time by appropriate utilization of computer-driven technologies. The term offers a wide variety of forms and activities in a technology-supported working environment (Anderson et al., 2017). The influence of the teams are popularly known in the field of research and development sectors. The
3DiscussionDiscussion importance of virtual team in overcoming temporal and geographical separations have been observed to be working in many different fields around the world (Cascio and Shurygailo, 2013). Current Issues While,virtualteamsproducesanefficientwayofdevelopmentofnewproductsinan organization, it also initiates certain mentionable issues that are detected to occur during continuous implementation in the R&D industry. Some of them are- Lack of physical interaction and communication Reinforcement in a much structured and formal way Project management is challenging due to the distance between team individuals and their language and cultural dissimilarities. Thought-process and trust issues are also included. The exchange of knowledge and tactics are also a concerning factor. Working exclusively in a specific location, rather than in a workplace has issues to deflection of opportunities by the individuals. Necessary judgements should be evaluated for selection of team members. At times, some products require complex technological applications that may sometimes seem to become a challenge of determining the appropriate task for an individual. Innovation Thecomplexstructureof organizationalinnovation,productivityandlaborinthe industries of R&D has been extensively explored in many recent studies (Mote, 2015). New productdevelopmentisacrucialpartwheredynamiccustomerrequirementsincreases complexity of product design and technologies. However, the innovation of a project remains unsuccessful unless the information and knowledge are successfully shared, abducted and
4DiscussionDiscussion internalized by members of the virtual team. The study by Gassmann and von Zedtwitz (2002) stated the four patterns of noticeable virtual team’s distinction during creation, as- Decentralized self-coordination: All R&D evaluated by decentralized divisions that coordinate loosely with each other. SystemIntegratorasCoordinator:MostR&Dactivitiesareconductedbythe decentralized divisions, while each coordinates with central integrator. Core Team as System Architect: The lead role in R&D activity. Also coordinating the activities of decentralized divisions. Centralized Venture Team: Transfer of R&D resources to centralized venture team and they conduct all R&D activities. Among these, the centralized venture teams are very likely to product strategic innovations of greater importance. The adoption of virtual teams has innovated a new way of product development in shorter time period and mitigation of pressure of increasing globalization competition across multiple nations. Virtual NPD processes are receiving greater attention due to the efforts of team members executing tasks in different time zones and distances whilehavingsametime-periodandworksubmissionportal,respectively.Hence, multinational corporations are very likely expected to become integrated to global R&D network systems than smaller units (Boehe, 2017). The process of employee distribution are efficient to evaluate critical productivity projects with their required decision supported knowledge and mainly, technology.
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5DiscussionDiscussion Future Use and Strategical Planning The availability of configurable and flexible base infrastructure is one of the noted benefits of virtual team in product development. Virtual teams tend to reduce time-to-market (MayandCarter,2013).Theintroductionof theseteammembersmakeeffectiveR&D continuation decisions. Again, the allocation of members produce greater productivity under shorter development time, which is the current requirement criterion in the market of high demand. Resultantly, it enables better outcomes that attracts new employees too. With correct identification during the selection of required skilled and ethical employee, the company can utilize his capabilities to any extent. Thus, the inheritance of virtual teaming instead of traditional teaming also provides extendable benefits that creates an attraction to the minds of the investors. However, to correctively control, implement and execute the productivity across the chain of virtual teaming, the issues with respect to the cultural diversities should be resolved. One of the strategies that can be implemented to support and enhance the absence of informal interaction by scheduling a routine online conference call in the group. This has the potential to connect the team members and distribute different ideas to the community. More identifiable factors can be resolved with appropriate planning that will keep the method of ‘Virtual teaming’ intact and error-free in the modern society (Kankanhalli, Tan and Wei, 2016). Conclusion Virtual teams enhance flourishment of innovation and knowledge within an R&D enterprise while bridging place and time factors and, also better decision-making options too. Therefore, the choice of opting virtual teaming is not taken as a choice but a requirement. This
6DiscussionDiscussion paper has considerably provided the conception of virtual teams and theirinnovation with respect to the influence in R&D industries. Clearly, identified issues are needed to be resolved for the fruitful outcome of the product. However, more research in the future would seem to be an essentiality in development of comprehensive study to combine the case study to different sized companies and various activities, to gain extensive knowledge of the types, practices and patterns of activities for effective continuation of a task by the virtual team members and also, more knowledgeable insightful questionable scenarios needs to be covered.
7DiscussionDiscussion References ANDERSON, A. H., MCEWAN, R., BAL, J. & CARLETTA, J. (2017) Virtual team meetings: An analysis of communication and context. Computers in Human Behavior, 23, 2558– 2580. BOEHE, D. M. (2017) Product development in MNC subsidiaries: Local linkages and global interdependencies. Journal of International Management, 13, 488–512. CASCIO, W. F. & SHURYGAILO, S. (2013) E-Leadership and Virtual Teams. Organizational Dynamics, 31, 362-376 GASSMANN, O. & VON ZEDTWITZ, M. (2002) Trends and determinants of managing virtual R&D teams. R&D Management 33, 243-262. KANKANHALLI, A., TAN, B. C. Y. & WEI, K.-K. (2016) Conflict and Performance in Global Virtual Teams. Journal of Management Information Systems, 23, 237-274 MARTINS, L. L., GILSON, L. L. & MAYNARD, M. T. (2014) Virtual teams: What do we know and where do we go from here? Journal of Management, 30, 805–835. MAY, A. & CARTER, C. (2001) A case study of virtual team working in the European automotive industry. International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics, 27, 171-186. MOTE, J. E. (2015) R&D ecology: using 2-mode network analysis to explore complexity in R&D environments. Journal of Engineering and Technology Management, 22, 93-111.
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8DiscussionDiscussion WALVOORD, A. A. G., REDDEN, E. R., ELLIOTT, L. R. & COOVERT, M. D. (2015) Empowering followers in virtual teams: Guiding principles from theory and practice”, Computers in Human Behavior (article in press).