MNG81001 Management Communication: Virtual Team Implementation at XYZ

This report analyzes the implementation of a virtual team within XYZ Company, addressing its potential benefits and challenges. It highlights the advantages such as cost savings, access to skilled employees from different global branches, and increased employee focus. The report also acknowledges potential issues including communication problems due to time zone differences, cultural conflicts, and technology costs. To mitigate these challenges, the report suggests strategies like scheduling meetings that accommodate all team members, providing cultural sensitivity training, and fostering informal communication to build trust. The report concludes that while there are initial costs associated with virtual team technology, the overall cost savings and increased productivity make it a worthwhile investment for XYZ Company, enhancing its performance and revenue.

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

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Persuasive memo
To: Mr X, the Marketing Director of XYZ Company
From: Mr Y, employee of XYZ Company
Date: 10/11/2018
Subject: Creation of a virtual team within the XYZ Company
As being stated by the Sydney headquarters, XYZ Company is planning to develop a
virtual team with team members located in Sydney, Beijing, New York and Mumbai.
Considering the fact that the company is establishing a virtual team for the first time, it can be
understood that the employees of XYZ organization is not accustomed to work in the virtual
team. Hence, several concerns are likely to be arrived from the employee’s side. In this memo,
the advantages that can be enjoyed by both the employees and the organization by implementing
a virtual team have been discussed. Along with that, the issues associate with the asynchronous
communication and effective ways to deal with the issues will also be discussed in the memo.
Considering the fact that the company is trying to enhance its performance and
productivity by creating a new marketing team, virtual team can be considered to be the best
option to meet the objectives. The biggest advantage of virtual team includes cost saving by
eradicating the huge expanses on real estate, gas, water and electricity expanses as well as
expanses caused due to travelling. This will also be beneficial for the employees of XYZ
Company since virtual team will provide them with the opportunity to work from the comfort of
home. Secondly, virtual team will allows XYZ Company to create a highly efficient team that
will be comprised of the mostly skilled employees located at different branches of the

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Organizations (Lilian 2014). This in turn, will help the company to enhance its revenue by
increasing the productivity and performance of the team. According to researchers, Members of
virtual teams tend to have higher focus on the task at hand (Gilson et al. 2015). Since this
demonstrate a well structured organizational structure, the virtual team members don’t have to
deal with unnecessary burocracy that slows down the decision making process. Moreover, all the
team members will be able to enhance their knowledge by active communication with the virtual
team mates. Finally, virtual team has the potential to create newer opportunities for the
employees who are hesitant to relocate due to family issues or physical inability to a new
location. With the help of communication technologies they will be able to explore perform to
the fullest of their opportunities.
While the above stated factors are few of the advantages of virtual team, employees of
XYZ Company may face several issue like communication problem due to different time zone.
Considering the fact that the team members of the virtual team will be located at different parts
of the world and in different time zone, it will be highly difficult for the team lead to arrange
meetings where the attendance of all the team members are required. Moreover, there also
prevails a risk of conflict due to lack of trust and collaboration in the virtual team. Since each
member of the team has different cultural origin, there prevails cultural difference between the
team members (Morgan, Paucar-Caceres and Wright 2014). Moreover lack of physical presence
and both informal and formal communication may lead to misunderstanding and mistrust.
Finally, virtual team has the potential to enhance the cost of technology of XYZ organization.
The working of virtual team requires efficient usage of multiple communication technologies
like video conferencing, instant messaging and others. The cost associated with the purchase,
installation and maintenance of these tools are on a higher side,.

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The issued discussed in the above paragraph can be eradicated with the help of active
corporation of employees with the management, in order to ensure that all the team members are
present during a crucial the team leader of the virtual team needs to arrange the meeting keeping
accordance with the shift timing of the employees. Active discussion and mutual agreement of
all th employees about the timings of the meeting should be conducted with the help of virtual
communication tools. Employees of the virtual team should be provided with effective training
and education so that they develop the capability to understand and respect other’s culture (Hoch
and Kozlowski 2014). Moreover, in order to enhance the bondage between the team members,
both normal and informal communication between them where they will be able to learn about
each other’ background and develop respect towards each other will be encouraged through
various ice breaking sessions (Erez et al.2013). For this purpose, the management of XYZ
organization will invest on high tech virtual communication tools. The issue associated with the
cost of virtual tool will be balanced since virtual team will reduce the overall cost of the
company by eradicating the huge expanses on real estate, gas, water and electricity expanses as
well as expanses caused due to travelling.

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Reference list
Erez, M., Lisak, A., Harush, R., Glikson, E., Nouri, R. and Shokef, E., 2013. Going global:
Developing management students' cultural intelligence and global identity in culturally diverse
virtual teams. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 12(3), pp.330-355.
Gilson, L.L., Maynard, M.T., Jones Young, N.C., Vartiainen, M. and Hakonen, M., 2015. Virtual
teams research: 10 years, 10 themes, and 10 opportunities. Journal of Management, 41(5),
pp.1313-1337.
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.
Lilian, S.C., 2014. Virtual teams: Opportunities and challenges for e-leaders. Procedia-Social
and Behavioral Sciences, 110, pp.1251-1261.
Morgan, L., Paucar-Caceres, A. and Wright, G., 2014. Leading effective global virtual teams:
The consequences of methods of communication. Systemic Practice and Action Research, 27(6),
pp.607-624.