Global Virtual Teams: Analyzing Success Factors and Challenges

This report provides a detailed analysis of global virtual teams, exploring the factors that contribute to their success and the challenges they face. It begins by defining global virtual teams and highlighting their increasing importance in modern business. The report identifies reasons for the failure of global virtual teams, including uncertainty about roles, lack of variance in actions, ineffective leadership, lack of trust, poor team management, and deficiency in operative communication. It then outlines key components for the success of virtual teams, such as setting the right goals, effective meeting management, clear rules for members, selection of appropriate technology, timely issue resolution, and development of self-motivation. The report also discusses the common components of success between virtual and traditional teams, emphasizing the importance of effective leadership and communication. It concludes by highlighting the need for collaboration, coordination, and enhanced digital uses in global virtual teams to overcome the challenges and achieve business objectives. This student-contributed report is available on Desklib, where students can find additional resources and solved assignments.

Global Virtual
Team

Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Main Body..................................................................................................................................3
Reasons for the failure of Global Virtual Teams...................................................................3
Components for the success of virtual team-.........................................................................5
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................7
References..................................................................................................................................7

Introduction
Global virtual team refers to the organization of business events on online platform by
considering all the members or employees who are associated with management but living in
different parts of the world. The idea of virtual team is not only for those business entities
who running at global or international but it can also be used by the domestic organization as
well (Jones, 2020). It is the best method that helps in conducting the activities without any
further extra cost as company does not have to pay any sort of maintenance and functioning
of the business. This given report is about the factors which are creating the difficulties for
the firm to carry out the virtual team more effectively and in what way it can be solved to
subsidize the best growth of the business. It will also state the similar factors which are useful
for both types of teams i.e., virtual and traditional.
Main Body
Generally, these virtual teams evolve for all those business organization which are
looking to expand their functioning in more emerging market across the world. But in some
other situation these virtual team came into existence because of the required employees of
the organization are not able to reallocate them in the domestic country and for this they start
working from their own place or country (Graham, and Daniel, 2021).
Reasons for the failure of Global Virtual Teams
 Uncertainty about the role and procedure- When individual who are involved in
virtual are not aware their title and about the task which they have to perform, in this
type of circumstances no work can be completed within set phase. As lots of time
could be consumed by those employees who are not known to the purpose or the
objective of the organisation, and the management primarily look over on these
members of the team. Workers who are not informed about the functional areas of the
business and the results can bring the unproductive thoughts among the other
colleagues too.
 No variance in the actions to the dynamics of virtual team- If the fact which about
the different thoughts and views of the team member is being avoided in the global
virtual team then it might result in confusion among the individuals. As the formation
of overall team consist of people with distinct region and artistic values. Improper
knowledge about them about the activities and duties for which they are present could
result in the failure of such sort of line-ups. For instances, if organisation is to giving

the proper set of training and other kind of improvement practices to the employees
then they are not able to fulfil the work expectations.
 Ineffective leadership- Despite the fact that virtual teams are not like other common
group teams, it has been noticed many of leaders sidestep to pick unique set of
leadership by which it could be easy to make the members more inclusive in the
activities. It should be the responsibility of a leader to eliminate the use of those
instruments in virtual team work which are time overwhelming and leading to the
inefficient working of the employees in the organisation. Sometime, virtual team
members need more attention and guidance in performing any function or the work
and this generally dodged by the leader.
 Lack of trust- The prosperity and success of the virtual team working can be conquer
in the occurrence of faith and loyalty among the members and higher authority. As
this is the only way which may allow to the individual to present their thoughts and
planning freely on the virtual meeting. It also helps in boosting the confidents of the
employees when their ideas being considered in the operational and managerial
activity of the business. By showing the equal amount of trustworthiness to the
individuals who have come from different culture is like an act to show respect
others’ beliefs (Eisenberg, Glikson, and Lisak, 2021).
 Poor team management- It might be difficult to deploy and maintain the team spirit
among the members over the virtual team, due to lack of understanding bout the
working style and though process, organisation cannot find the right solution to
acquire the optimum administration in the team. All the members will hardly get the
time to have that friendly interaction with each by which they can become familiar to
each other and can exchange workful conversation. Due to this they start forming
their own speculation and insights about each other and this could disturb the actions
of the overall team as well.
 Deficiency of operative communication- During any type of business activity, it is
very essential for all the team members to communicate with each other. By this
management can reach to the decision and can get the one profitable plan of action
which may have the potential to accomplish the objective of the business institution
(Swartz, 2022). But virtual teams are lagging behind from this strategy, because of
numbers of barrier, such as the technical issues, disinterest of the members in
continuing the meeting, or else. Not having the required information about the
company may often leads to the non-communicative groups in virtual team.

Components for the success of virtual team-
 Setting the right goals and objectives- If the members are allotted with the common
objectives which company wants to achieve in the definite period, then it can
encourage the employees for their jobs. On virtual teams, it important to provide time
to time acknowledgement regarding the company’s goal to issue a metric for the
members by which they can analyze their complete activities. In the existing virtual
environment it necessary for the establishment to present the answers for which the
teams has to perform, along with the end result and there must be no vagueness in
representing all these aims among the employees.
 Decision regarding the meeting- Differences in the time zone is the reason due to
which mass number of employees are unable to take part in the meetings and other
activities which is conducted in the virtual team. For this company can elect one
specific time period on which every employee could be presented (Edsall, and
Conrad,2021). Apart from this, a specific notice regarding the holidays and criteria for
the leaves should be mentioned. It may support in retaining these members with the
management for the longer period of time. Arrangement of the meetings as per the
requirement will support in reaching the goals before the set deadlines.
 Rules for the members- Informing team members about the all-work guidelines
which are prevailing in the business such as timeline for their job, responsibilities
which they have to fulfill during their duty, about the deadlines of the project which
are assigned to them. This should be presented in front of all the members who are
working in virtual team of the organization. Furthermore, before putting employees as
a part of virtual it is very important to conduct a meeting in person, in order to
examine the capability of the person for the job role (Gupta, and Pathak, 2018).
 Selection of best technology- Today, different type application has been introduced
for the global virtual team. In order to ensure the success of this framework, company
must emphasis over the right set of digital mediums which give all the facilities to
make it easy to conduct the meetings with the members who are living in the different
parts of the world. Moreover, company should suggest the members to utilize the
suitable techniques for storing the information and data which is being shared by
management with them.
 No delays in solving the issues- In normal business meetings or operation, it has
been seen that management focuses on handling the delinquent timely. This is also
needed in virtual team, by taking the time for cracking the complexities can make the

project lengthy and time taken. It also shows the unprofessional side of the leader as
well, for this it is important to work on these problems as soon as possible. In addition
to this, little work frustration enhances the burden on the employees and if they get
quickly employees become more involved in the functions.
 Development of self- motivation- Members as well as leaders of virtual team must
focus on boosting themselves by using different methods. There some situation when
members might lose their morale in the doing their work in this period it is very
crucial to take the enough time and look out the areas which are creating problems in
accomplishment of the task. By motivation themselves employees can find new
methods and tactics to execute the work competently. On contrary, it also enhances
the capability deal with complex issues and problems solving behaviour while
working in virtual team. A systematic development of daily routine will provide the
opportunity to evaluate other things during the working (Dong, Stephens, and Soares,
2022).
The common component of the success between virtual and traditional team is that it
requires an effective leader for the working of the business. Leader is the one who is liable to
provide all information to the employees about the work and roles which one individual has
to enact in a business institution. So, looking at this attribute of leader then it is
correspondingly crucial for the physical form of business and global virtual team. But in
virtual business leader have to focus on delegation of task to the subordinates in comparison
to traditional business. Likewise, a good leader, communication is also important for both
types of business facility, it helps in making the employees more informed towards each
other and acknowledged for their activities in the firm. With the help of good communication
skill, an employee can himself more effectively in respect to the ideas and aspects which are
needed for the success of both form of establishment. It also enhances the friendliness and
healthy environment among the colleagues that will allow the firm to function smoothly
without any troubles. In global virtual business, communication is quite necessary because
there are so many people who come together for the accomplishment of one goal. For this
purpose, members have to be more known about the behavioural and strategical aspect of
other people who are participating in virtual team. Apart form this companies have to focus
on giving the encouragement to the employees so as to motivate them to give the good task
and performance and improve their skills for the betterment of the organisation. These not
much different among the elements which drive the company and its working towards the

success but global virtual team needs more collaboration and coordination of employees
because of the improper mode of technique to reach them by the management (Brewer, and
Minacori,2018). For example, enhancement in the digital uses is more demanding in the
virtual team, because it is the one and only system which is used by the business for carrying
out their respective business activity. By bringing the more well-organized mechanism of
technology will support in the good operation of groups who are involved in the global
virtual team. So these are few commonness among the business which are operating with the
assistance of virtual team and traditional business.
Conclusion
The above given report went into a detailed discussion regarding the concept of global
virtual team which is presently used by many well-established companies in order to reach all
those people who very knowledgeable and have that capability to contribute in their success.
It allows the company to explore the different countries hire the employees from different
cultural backgrounds who have innovative ways and educational skills to solve the business
complications. But global virtual teams have some setbacks caused by inefficiency of the
company’s management itself or some external reasons. Company used the right techniques
and methods for the improvement in the utilization of this team such as providing the full
statistics about work protocols which are prevailing in an establishment and set of principles
which are necessary to follow by the virtual team members. In the conclusion of this report
the leader must understand the thing that either its normal business or global virtual team
both need equal amount of effort and support to present the best result of the group
functioning.

References
Books and journals-
Brewer, P.E. and Minacori, P., 2018. A Multi-Faceted Global Virtual Team Project Linking
Tech Comm Education in the US and France. In Multilingual Writing and
Pedagogical Cooperation in Virtual Learning Environments (pp. 55-81). IGI Global.
Dong, L., Stephens, R. and Soares, A.M., 2022. Changes in Global Virtual Team Conflict
Over Time: The Role of Openness to Linguistic Diversity. In International
Conference on Digital Economy (pp. 185-193). Springer, Cham.
Edsall, D.L. and Conrad, K.A., 2021. Virtual team member perspectives on personal
development: A sequential explanatory study. New Horizons in Adult Education and
Human Resource Development, 33(3), pp.3-27.
Eisenberg, J., Glikson, E. and Lisak, A., 2021. Multicultural virtual team performance: The
impact of media choice and language diversity. Small Group Research, 52(5), pp.507-
534.
Graham, C. and Daniel, H., 2021. Fault lines in virtual team leadership and team performance
in undergraduate virtual team short-term projects. International Journal of e-
Collaboration (IJeC), 17(1), pp.1-14.
Gupta, S. and Pathak, G.S., 2018. Virtual team experiences in an emerging economy: a
qualitative study. Journal of Organizational Change Management.
Jones, M.M., 2020, October. Leading Global Virtual Teams Beyond Known Levels.
In Proceedings of the European Conference on Management, Leadership and
Governance (pp. 175-180).
Swartz, S., 2022. MORE THAN THE TEXTBOOK TEACHES-CLIENT-BASED GLOBAL
VIRTUAL TEAMS PROJECTS. In EDULEARN22 Proceedings (pp. 2158-2158).
IATED.