MNG81001 Management Communication: Maintaining Virtual Workforce

This report addresses the challenges of establishing and maintaining a virtual marketing team at Sydney HQ, with members located in Sydney, New York, Beijing, and Mumbai. It highlights concerns such as time zone differences, language barriers, lack of face-to-face contact, and cultural differences. The report emphasizes the importance of strong leadership in implementing strategies to mitigate these issues, including resource development, improved communication through frequent video conferences, and fostering cultural knowledge among team members. It also discusses the advantages and disadvantages of synchronous and asynchronous communication methods, suggesting a balance through overlapping work schedules. The report references key literature on virtual team management, focusing on building trust and effective communication to ensure team engagement and productivity. Desklib provides access to this and other solved assignments for students.

Key strategies to maintain virtual
workforce
Sydney HQ marketing team perspective

Key strategies
 Detail reading of Ford, Piccolo and Ford (2017) suggests,
a strong relevance of virtual teams can be found in
today’s global business scenario.
 Issues are widely recognised by the managers and they
have effective strategies planned for that as well.
 As described in Hoch and Kozlowski (2014), the role of
the managers or leaders is crucial in the implementation
of strategies to mitigate the issues.

Strategies to operate virtual
teams Managers should learn the market environment first
then they can go for development of the resources
according to that.
 Suppose, a change is required in the areas of
technological infrastructure or employees need more
guidance to execute the job via electronic space. Then
leaders should acknowledge the issue and take the
necessary actions of resource development.

Key strategies
 However, problem occurs when
employees do not feel engaged
with the objective of the project
due to lack of communication.
 In order to improve that, as
described in White (2014), if
possible frequent face-to-face
meetings or conducting video
conference instead of chats or
sending email can be helpful to
establish the relationship of trust as
far as improvement of interpersonal
skill is concerned (Pinjani and Palvia
2013).
 Employees should develop more
cultural knowledge to understand
their language and work process.
 Apart from that, managers should
propose the practice of over
lapping work schedule; means
three to four hours in a day, most
of the members of every team
have to stay online at the same
time.

Synchronous communication
Advantage
 Physical presence of the
instructor makes the
communication easy.
 It take less time to
communicate.
 Clear perception of the work
process cab be achieved.
 Employees feel more engaged
with colleagues because of
daily social interaction.
Disadvantage
 There is a trend of seeking
global approach via electronic
space among the business
organisation. So, the concept of
virtual team is more relevant.
 Synchronous method has been
found as traditional mode
communication where
technology has hardly anything
to do.

Asynchronous Communication
Advantage
 Organisations can approach
internationally via advanced
technology and internet.
 Scope of dealing with
worldwide customers.
 Worldwide business network
influences the economy of the
countries.
Disadvantage
 Lack of social and cultural
integrity among the
practitioners.
 Flexible employee profile does
not mean working in two
different time-zones. Yet, they
are obelized sometimes.
 Balance of time zones and
working hours is a myth.
 Misinterpretation, conflict and
confusion are general parts of
it.

References
 Ford, R.C., Piccolo, R.F. and Ford, L.R., 2017. Strategies
for building effective virtual teams: Trust is key. Business
Horizons, 60(1), pp.25-34.
 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.
 Pinjani, P. and Palvia, P., 2013. Trust and knowledge
sharing in diverse global virtual teams. Information &
Management, 50(4), pp.144-153.
 White, M., 2014. The management of virtual teams and
virtual meetings. Business Information Review, 31(2),
pp.111-117.