Leading and Managing Virtual Teams

This article discusses the challenges and critical areas that need to be addressed in the leadership and management of virtual teams. It covers topics such as building stronger relationships, setting up infrastructure, improving communication, and resolving conflicts. The article provides insights into the advantages and disadvantages of virtual teams and offers suggestions for effective leadership and management.

10 August 2018
LEADING AND MANAGING VIRTUAL TEAM 0
Management Communication

LEADING AND MANAGING VIRTUAL TEAM 1
To: The Managing Director
From: Assistant Manager
Date: 10 August 2018
Regarding: Effectiveness of the Virtual Teams
Communication and collaboration are two most important elements in the successful working
of the teams in an organisation. The combination of the technology and the communication
has completely changed the methodologies and the effectiveness of the communication (Lin
and Atkin, 2014).
Virtual Team refers to the collection of the geographically dispersed people, who are
connected through information technology processed, to work towards a common goal. The
top-level management of the enterprise has decided to form a new marketing team, the
members of which would be located at Sydney, New York, Beijing and Mumbai. As a result,
a virtual team would be established, the area of work of which would be spread over four
different time zones.
The creation of virtual team in the organization would render a number of advantages such as
reduction of travel cost and the time, opportunity to expand for the organisation in different
geographical locations, building of the diversified teams and more. However, a few challenge
exist in the creation and the functioning of the virtual teams. The right mix of technology,
team and leadership can make the virtual team working effective (Ferrazzi, 2014). The memo
is aimed to identify and communicate the critical areas that are needed to be addressed in the
leadership and management of the virtual team.
Relationships: Building stronger relationships is a major challenge in the management of the
virtual teams (Zofi, 2011). However, it is important as it aids in collaboration and creation of

LEADING AND MANAGING VIRTUAL TEAM 2
a creative and a solution bound environment, and thereby renders meaning and significance
to the overall working. Trust among team members is a vital element for the successful
organisation and the working of a team as a whole.
Set up: Another major challenge is the set up cost, in terms of the initial investment involved
and the infrastructure facilities to be installed. In addition to this, a pool of experts is also
required to manage the systems and technical processes of the virtual communication setup.
Communication: Proper flow of communication is also a critical issue in the management
and the leadership of the virtual teams. As the virtual marketing team would not be able to
conduct the face-to-face meetings, there is an obvious lack of cues from the body language,
facial expressions, and voice tone (Lockwood, 2015). This often results in the loss or
misinterpretation of information. Communication is also an issue, when the people are
engaged in multitasking while communicating, unlike in the real team communication. This
further hinders the decision-making effectiveness and the overall performance.
Different Time Zones: One more key challenge in the virtual team communication is the
different time zones. As decided, the marketing team would be working in four different time
zones. It has to be ensured by the management that an overlapping time zone is identified and
accordingly, a common time window is created across the four different time zones. This is
essential to enable the team to solve their problems and discuss on the important issues.
Team Building: The leaders of the team are advised to formulate clear directions for the
team members, and thus make sure that every team member is connected to a common goal
and the objective of the enterprise as a whole. It is necessary to have a clear code of conduct
defined in terms of the roles and responsibilities to avoid confusions and delays in
functioning (Morley, Cormican and Folan, 2015).

LEADING AND MANAGING VIRTUAL TEAM 3
Resolution of Conflicts: Motivating and establishing the team spirit is also a critical issue in
the management and leadership of the virtual team (Pangil and Moi, 2014). Thus, the virtual
team communication may not be suitable to all the employees as in terms of the
psychological factors. Face to face interactions with the team members stimulates them
towards achieving their targets. Thus, the management must ensure to resolution of the
serious conflicts effectively and thereby avoiding frustration among the team members.
Thus, as per the points discussed in the previous parts, it can be concluded that virtual team is
an effective way to enhanced knowledge sharing and an opportunity to provide diversified
and 24*7 services. However, there are several challenges, which the management of the
company should take into account to implement successfully the virtual team in the
organisation. Some of the major challenges that were listed above were the building of trust,
working in different time zones, timely and efficient resolution of the conflicts and
motivation of the personnel.

LEADING AND MANAGING VIRTUAL TEAM 4
References
Lin, C. A. and Atkin, D. J. (2014) Communication technology and social change. In
Communication Technology and Social Change. Oxon: Routledge.
Zofi, Y. S. (2011) A manager's guide to virtual teams. USA: Amacom Books.
Lockwood, J. (2015) Virtual team management: what is causing communication breakdown?
Language and Intercultural Communication, 15(1), pp. 125-140.
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.
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.
Ferrazzi, K. (2014). Getting Virtual Teams Right. [online] Available from:
https://hbr.org/2014/12/getting-virtual-teams-right [Accessed on 11/08/18].