Management Communication Memo: Virtual Team Challenges and Solutions

This assignment is a memo analyzing the challenges and solutions for managing virtual teams. The memo addresses the importance of transparency in defining roles and responsibilities, accessibility of resources through technology, and the selection of efficient team members. It emphasizes principles of engaging team members, fostering strong bonds within the team, and securing supportive attitudes from management. The memo further highlights the significance of strong HR policies, effective leadership, and proactive training to ensure the success of virtual teams. The document also references relevant literature to support its arguments, providing a comprehensive overview of the key factors in virtual team management within a global context.

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

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Memo
A virtual team is regarded as the as a group of certain people working together in order to satisfy a
common goal. Strong virtual teams plays a very significant role in the way of strengthening the bottom
line of a business. However, it is important to align the business process properly to help the virtual
teams to perform their duty with utmost proficiency (Kim et al. 2016). There are certain factors, which
are needed to be considered while managing and leading a virtual team. Subsequent discussion will help
to understand the critical factors of dealing with a virtual team.
 Transparency in defining roles and responsibility- It is imperative for the team leaders to
define the fundamental objectives of the team members. This will help the individual team
members to understand their roles and responsibility. Realistic goals must be established to avoid
any kind of negative vive among the team members (Dulebohn and Hoch 2017). It is the prime
responsibility of team leader to set a comprehensive project charter by integrating project
milestones along with realistic timeline.
 Accessibility of resources- In the era of high-end technology, the organizations must be
committed towards investing advanced technological tool. Such technological tool will help the
virtual teams to cope up with the process properly. The tools such as e-mail, instant messaging
and video conferencing must be adapted to support the team members to be connected with each
other (Charlier et al. 2016). It is imperative for the team leaders to ensure that these
technological tools are available for team members from different time zone.
 Selection of efficient team members- Skill and competency among the team members play a
very significant role in running the team in an effective manner. It is imperative for the team
leaders to select highly skilled members. As a virtual team often faces certain challenges.
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Therefore, they require certain unique knowledge and skill such as trustworthiness, technical
expertise, excellent communication skill and self-motivation to amplify the productivity (Pozin
et al. 2016).
 Principles of engaging team members- It is the prime responsibility of team leader to provide
the team leader with regular feedback. This is one of the major ways of ensuring that the team
leader are engaged and working in accordance with the shared goals and objectives. It is vital to
encourage the team members to share their personal opinion which will help them to take part in
decision making process (Ehsan 2016). It is the role of team leader to provide regular update
about the team progress. This will help the individual team members assess the project and thus
assess the extent to which the project is running according to the predetermined objectives.
 Strong bond inside the team- Healthy relationship in between the team members is highly
required to complete a project in a collaborative manner. Therefore, a robust foundation of trust
must be established among them which is the key of strengthening social ties in between them.
This is the way, through which they can feel confident towards each other and with the
assistance of such confidence level, a collaborative environment inside the team can be created.
Additionally, strong trust among the team members also helps to generate constructive behavior
among them.
 Supportive attitude by the management- The higher authority of XYZ Company must show
supportive attitude towards the virtual team members. Flexibility must be maintained. Proper
freedom must be given to the team in order to take part in organizational decision making
process.
 Strong HR policy- HR policies of an organization plays a pivotal role in addressing the
challenges related to working environment and competencies of staffs. It is imperative to
consider fair promotion and career growth opportunities as a part of reward and recognition
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program [5]. A performance metric must be set and the performance level of individual team
members must be measured accordingly. It is imperative to design the HR policy in such a
manner which will help the virtual team members to access the training and development
program. ICT tool and training database must be introduced to provide training to the virtual
team member working overseas.
 Effective leadership- Proactive leadership is one of the most important factors in strengthening
the ambience of virtual team. Therefore, the leaders must provide extensive training to the team
members in order to make them more dynamic. Any kind of conflict and cross-cultural issues
from the team must be handled to create a positive environment inside the team. The leaders
must generate enthusiasm among the team members. The leaders can use multiple
communication channels to monitor the performance level of individual team members (Jimenez
et al. 2017).
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Reference List:
Charlier, S.D., Stewart, G.L., Greco, L.M. and Reeves, C.J., 2016. Emergent leadership in virtual teams:
A multilevel investigation of individual communication and team dispersion antecedents. The
Leadership Quarterly, 27(5), pp.745-764.
Dulebohn, J.H. and Hoch, J.E., 2017. Virtual teams in organizations. London: Routledge
Ehsan, S., 2016. Design and Implementation of a Virtual Team Collaboration System. London: CRC
Press
Jimenez, A., Boehe, D.M., Taras, V. and Caprar, D.V., 2017. Working across boundaries: Current and
future perspectives on global virtual teams. Journal of International Management, 23(4), pp.341-349.
Kim, J., Keegan, B.C., Park, S. and Oh, A., 2016. The proficiency-congruency dilemma: Virtual team
design and performance in multiplayer online games. In Proceedings of the 2016 CHI conference on
human factors in computing systems (pp. 4351-4365).
Pozin, M.A.A., Nawi, M.N.M. and Romle, A.R., 2016. Effectiveness of virtual team for improving
communication breakdown in IBS project delivery process. International Journal of Supply Chain
Management, 5(4), pp.121-130.
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