Advantages and Disadvantages of Virtual Teams: A Memo to the Marketing Director of XYZ Company

This memo discusses the advantages and disadvantages of virtual teams and provides recommendations to deal with the issues. It also identifies areas that are required to be managed in order to ensure an effective virtual team.

Running head: MANAGEMENT COMMUNICATION
Management Communication
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Authors note

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To: Mr A, The marketing director of the XYZ Company
From: Mr B
Date: 22. 4. 2018
Introduction
A virtual team is defined as a team that comprises of members who are either
geographically or organizationally dispersed. The Sydney headquarter of the XYZ Company is
planning to develop a virtual team in order to complete a complex project. The team members of
the virtual team will include team members from New York, Mumbai, Beijing as well as Sydney.
In spite of the fact that that the complex project can be effectively handled by a virtual team,
employees of the organization are highly concerned about the various issues associated with it.
In this memo, the advantages, as well as disadvantages of the virtual team along with
recommendations to deal with the issues, will be discussed.
Thesis statement: Identification of areas that are required to be managed in order to ensure an
effective virtual team.
Blueprint: In the first paragraph, the advantages of the virtual team will be discussed. The
second paragraph will include issues related to the formation of the virtual team. Finally, in the
third paragraph, recommendations on how the XYZ Organization can deal with the issues of
virtual team formation will be provided.
Discussion
Benefits of Virtual Team

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In today’s era of modernization virtual team is considered as a highly effective method to
handle highly complex projects. By developing a virtual team, XYZ Company will be able to
assemble the most talented experts located at different parts of the world for completing the
complex project effectively (Hoch and Kozlowski 2014). Not only that, employees of the XYZ
organization will be able to gain knowledge and vivid understanding of the project from each
other while working in the virtual team. This, in turn, will enable them to use the experience and
knowledge gained in future projects. Another advantage of the virtual team includes cost-
effectiveness (Dalkir, 2013). Virtual team reduces the overall cost of team management since
here employees don’t have to travel from one place to another for consultation. This will not
only save the cost of the company but will also prevent wastage of time travelling from one
location to another.
Issues associated with the Virtual team
While the above-discussed factors are some commendable advantages of a virtual team,
the fact that virtual team has a huge number of disadvantages cannot be ignored. Unlike real
team, employees working together in a virtual are often found to face difficulties to communicate
with each other and thus trust issues get developed (Verburg et al. 2013). Lack of informal and
face to face communication often makes it difficult for one team member to understand the exact
expression of the team member of another side of the communicating tool. As a result of a
misunderstanding, conflict within the team may take place. Besides that, considering the fact
that members of a virtual team resides in different parts of the world, it becomes difficult for the
team leaders to manage the team effectively. For instance, an issue often arises while conducting
a meeting (Daim et al. 2012.). Since team members of the virtual team are located at different
parts of the world, the availability of all the team members during the meeting becomes a major

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problem (Dalkir 2013). While it is working hours for one member, another member who resides
in an opposite time zone may be not available for the meeting.
Recommendations for XYZ Company to deal with the issues
In order to deal with the above-mentioned issues, the following recommendation should be
followed by the XYZ Company.
1. In order to ensure trust among the employees both formal and casual communication
should be encouraged (Pangil and Moi Chan 2014). Highly developed communication
tools should be used by the company to ensure active sharing of information. The
company must implement video calling devices so that employees can have face to face
communication. Face to face communication will help the company to prevent any type
of conflict in the team due to misunderstanding (Hinds and Bailey 2017).
2. Informal communication should be encouraged by the team leader so that employees can
understand each other (Baruch and Lin 2012). Informal communication not only helps
the employees sitting in the different time zone to develop trust but will prevent any type
of cultural issues.
Conclusion
It can be concluded from the above discussion that XYZ team must develop a virtual
team in order to handle the complex project effectively. With the help of the virtual team, the
ABC Company will be able to complete the complex project within the stipulated deadline. By
following the above-mentioned recommendations the company will surely able to manage the
issues related to the virtual team.

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Reference List
Baruch, Y. and Lin, C.P., 2012. All for one, one for all: Competition and virtual team
performance. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 79(6), pp.1155-1168.
Daim, T.U., Ha, A., Reutiman, S., Hughes, B., Pathak, U., Bynum, W. and Bhatla, A., 2012.
Exploring the communication breakdown in global virtual teams. International Journal of
Project Management, 30(2), pp.199-212.
Dalkir, K., 2013. Knowledge management in theory and practice. Routledge, pp. 23-27
Hinds, P.J. and Bailey, D.E., 2017. VIRTUAL TEAMS: ANTICIPATING THE IMPACT OF
VIRTUALITY ON TEAM PROCESS AND PERFORMANCE. In Academy of Management
Proceedings. Academy of Management Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510.
Hoch, J.E. and Kozlowski, S.W., 2014. Leading virtual teams: Hierarchical leadership, structural
supports, and shared team leadership. Journal of applied psychology, 99(3), p.390.
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.
Verburg, R.M., Bosch-Sijtsema, P. and Vartiainen, M., 2013. Getting it done: Critical success
factors for project managers in virtual work settings. International journal of project
management, 31(1), pp.68-79.

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Appendix

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