Effectiveness of Management Communication in Virtual Teams at ABC

This report examines the effectiveness of virtual teams in the context of ABC Company, which operates across multiple global locations. It begins by highlighting the advantages of virtual teams, such as improved communication and broader idea generation, particularly in overcoming geographical distances and facilitating consensus. However, the report also acknowledges the disadvantages, including cultural differences that can impact communication and potential challenges in problem-solving compared to face-to-face interactions. The recommended approach suggests a hybrid model, combining traditional face-to-face meetings with virtual team settings to leverage the benefits of both. This approach involves integrating virtual participation from global teams during head office meetings to ensure comprehensive input and efficient communication. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of integrating both traditional and virtual settings to achieve organizational competencies, recommending that ABC continues its current face-to-face processes while incorporating virtual elements for global input.

Running head: MANAGEMENT COMMUNICATION
Management communication
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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Introduction
Effectiveness of the virtual team depends on the differences in the organizational affairs
and business environments. This is due to the fact that some business environments are suitable
for the initiation of the virtual teams while some others are not. Hence, it is important to
determine the suitability of the business and organizational factors and initiate the virtual team
accordingly (Hertel & Krumm 2013). In the case of ABC, they are having traditional face to face
interactions process between their operations in different cities across the world. However, this is
time consuming and is fairly difficult to accumulate all the employees from different locations.
However, on the other hand, there are number of limitations also be faced by implementing the
virtual team.
This report will discuss about the applicability of the virtual team in ABC and how the
maximum utility can be achieved by coordinating between the traditional and virtual team
settings. Both the advantages and the disadvantages will be discussed in this report.
Advantages of virtual team
One of the major advantages of having virtual team is the interactive connections
between all the stakeholders across the globe. ABC is having their operations in Bangalore,
Shanghai, Melbourne and Los Angeles. Thus, they are having the need for managing the
coordination and cooperation among all the operations. In the case of their existing face to face
team based in Melbourne, holistic engagement of all the stakeholders from different operations is
not possible and hence consensus in the decision making process is not also possible (Redlich et
al. 2017). However, with the help of the virtual team, these geographical distances can be
mitigated. Moreover, with the help of the virtual team, views and opinions of all the stakeholders

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can be gained, which will further help ABC in having larger sources of idea to deal with the
business challenges. However, it should also be noted that prior to the implementation of the
virtual team in the process, it is important to have the understanding about the limitations to be
faced.
Disadvantages of virtual team
One of the major disadvantages that will be faced by ABC is the cultural differences
between the employees from different operations. This is due to the fact that employees from
Bangalore and Shanghai are having different social and cultural preferences and these will have
impact on the communication process. In the case of the virtual team settings, these differences
are having the probability creating issues between the stakeholders (Morse 2014). For instance,
employees from Bangalore will have different strategic approach to that of the employees from
Melbourne. Hence, it can be concluded that even though initiation of the virtual team can help in
building consensus in the decision making process but the cultural differences should be properly
managed. On the other hand, problem solving process can be more effective in the face to face
interactions over the virtual settings (Carter et al. 2015). This is due to the reason that
communication effectiveness will always be limited through the use of technologies as compared
to dealing face to face.
Recommended approach
It is recommended that ABC should not have only traditional or virtual team settings only
rather they should have both properly complementing each other. This will ensure that the
maximum utility can be gained from both the settings. It is recommended to the marketing
director of ABC that they should continue their existing face to face team settings along with the

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adding the virtual settings with the head office (Lilian 2014). Thus, in the time of team meeting
in their head office in Melbourne, other employees from different operations will be added in the
process. This will ensure that advantages of the traditional process can be gained along with the
getting the inputs from the global workforce virtually. Building consensus will get easier with
this process.
Conclusion
This report concludes that both the traditional and virtual team settings are important for
gaining the organizational competencies and they are having both advantages and disadvantages.
Hence, it is not suitable to substitute one over another rather both the processes should be
followed in complementing each other. This report concludes that ABC should continue with
their existing traditional face to face process of team interactions and virtual settings should be
added in the process to get the inputs from others. Thus, the head office in Melbourne will host
the face to face meeting and employees from global operations will be able to put their inputs.
This will ensure that the entire team settings will be effective and efficient.

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Reference
Carter, D.R., Seely, P.W., Dagosta, J., DeChurch, L.A. & Zaccaro, S.J., 2015. Leadership for
global virtual teams: Facilitating teamwork processes. In Leading global teams(pp. 225-252).
Springer, New York, NY.
HERTEL, G. & KRUMM, S., 2013. Knowledge, skills, abilities and other characteristics
(KSAOs) for virtual teamwork. In The psychology of digital media at work (pp. 86-106).
Psychology Press.
Lilian, S.C., 2014. Virtual teams: Opportunities and challenges for e-leaders. Procedia-Social
and Behavioral Sciences, 110, pp.1251-1261.
Morse, K.O., 2014, March. International management virtual teamwork: A simulation.
In Developments in Business Simulation and Experiential Learning: Proceedings of the Annual
ABSEL conference (Vol. 29).
Redlich, B., Siemon, D., Lattemann, C. & Robra-Bissantz, S., 2017, January. Shared mental
models in creative virtual teamwork. In Proceedings of the 50th Hawaii International
Conference on System Sciences.