Effective Management of Virtual Teams

Running head: VIRTUAL TEAM MANAGEMENT
VIRTUAL TEAM MANAGEMENT
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1VIRTUAL TEAM MANAGEMENT
To: The concerned team
From: Manager
Date: 10 Oct. 2018
Subject: Virtual team management
As the technology has developed considerably, it has become critical for the
organizations to make use of and adapt themselves to the best technology so as to attain a
competitive edge and manage the enterprise in the best possible manner. With respect to this, it
has been suggested that for the proper communication our team uses the mode of virtual teams to
communicate with the branches which are located in different countries (Lilian 2014). It has to
be agreed upon that the management of a virtual team is not easy and involves dynamic activities
which can assist in greater benefits, however, there are some key challenges which need to be
taken care of in case an organization wants to ensure success with the virtual communication.
The primary objective of the memo is to state the critical areas which need to be assessed and
then develop certain best practices which would then go a long way in turning the technology to
the company`s side.
Firstly, it needs to be recognized that leading and management of diverse employees who
belong to different countries is not an easy task and the company needs to effectively
communicate with various employees in order to ensure the smooth flow of operations. The
changing demands of the company employees need to be met with because maintaining contact
with the employees is infrequent and any gap with respect to this can cause a major drift in the
company`s operations. The issue at hand needs to be addressed with the help of interpersonal as
well as technical skills which can make the employees feel whole and one with the company.
Although there are a number of areas which require consideration, some of the major areas will
be discussed.
The first key area is to manage the change. According to Hoch and Kozlowski (2014), the
change can be defined as the transformation of the physical team to the concept of the virtual
team. This makes it considerably difficult to manage the geographically dispersed team and if the
firm wants to achieve success then the team members are required to be assisted considerably
and this is a proven fact because the change becomes easier to manage when all the members of
the organization are involved and equally dedicated. Hence, with respect to a virtual team change
management requires equal distribution of authority and delegation so that change can be taken
to be as own.
The next crucial area which needs to be addressed relates to that of collaboration. Any
organization in the business domain needs to foster collaboration whereby it lies the duty of the
team leader to build up the team spirit and form adequate relations with the different members
which will then give rise to ideas which will assist the business to achieve its goals. When the
different team members will work together then they will be able to able to trust one another and
keep their differences away (Crisp and Jarvenpaa 2013).
The next crucial domain to be considered is the goal of the team and the sense of
direction which exists. In all teams, especially in the case of a virtual one there needs to exist
clarity which will help in inculcating the vision of the team to each of the members and thereby
contribute towards the achievement of the goals and stay motivated throughout.

Best practice 1: Holding
structured meetings
– Meetings tend to form an essential aspect of the organization and it is for this
reason, that when the meetings between the different teams are held, the need
to be included adequately in order to ensure that the agenda is discussed and
no time is wasted (Erez et al. 2013).
– The meetings need to be punctual and the digital medium to be used needs to
be well connected so that there are no disturbances.
– Time is a valuable component here and hence, no delays need to take place and
a fixed time needs to be discussed and defined before holding the meetings.