Case Study Analysis: Virtual Team Management and Leadership Challenges

This case study analyzes the challenges faced by a team leader, Rebecca, in managing a virtual team. The analysis addresses issues such as lack of communication regarding sales pipelines, team member absenteeism, and cultural differences among team members, specifically highlighting the hierarchical preferences of a Korean colleague and the data privacy concerns of a Japanese colleague. The analysis emphasizes the importance of effective communication, cultural awareness, and tailoring team strategies to individual working styles and cultural preferences to enhance team effectiveness and productivity. The analysis also explores the need for virtual leaders and members to exercise cultural competence and coordination to create a successful team culture. The case study provides practical insights into managing diverse and dispersed teams in a globalized business environment, focusing on leadership strategies and communication techniques to overcome challenges and achieve team goals.

Running head: ANALYSIS OF CASE STUDY
ANALYSIS OF CASE STUDY
Name of student
Name of university
Author’s note:

1ANALYSIS OF CASE STUDY
Questions:
1) What did the team leader notice during the team meeting (calls) and what did she tried
to do to enhance the situation?
During team meeting, virtual team Rebecca noticed some issues while employees
were attending calls for this meeting. One of such issues was regarding sales pipeline.
Although it was agreed that employees would regularly share their sales pipeline, it
was identified that no employees were sharing details regarding sales pipeline during
calls. It was even noticed that some team members were skipping calls and some
members were not that confident in speaking during team meeting through phone
calls.
In order to enhance this situation, Rebecca tried to lighten mood of the meeting, she
tried to apply some humor to encourage team members to speak in this meeting and
she thought some team members were nervous as well.
2) What should Rebeca had to do for each virtual worker and why?
While working with virtual team, it is important to identify their working culture and
working style to work with them better, especially in a virtual work environment.
Although Rebecca set some ground rules for working with virtual team, she had to
communicate with team members on one-to-one basis. It would have provided her
some information regarding how team members prefer working while identifying
working style and working needs of each team member and it would have helped him
managing this team better.

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Therefore, it is important to interact with each team member and identify their
working culture and working style for ensuing that virtual team is effective and
efficient as well.
3) What were the special situations with the Korean and the Japanese workers?
Woo-jin, Korean colleague of Rebecca, preferred working in a strict hierarchical
office environment where in order to clear most of his work related decisions, he
needed to talk with his direct supervisor before he would send anything to her. Woo-
jin thought that Rebecca had this information, but Rebecca did not know this. Along
with this, Kamiko who is belongs to a team from Japan did not share pipeline
information for strict laws in Japan to ensure security and privacy of information as
well
4) What the virtual leaders and the virtual members need to exercise?
In designing an effective virtual team, it is important to assess cultural preference and
integrate that into team culture as well. In this context, the virtual leaders and the
virtual members need to exercise cultural awareness along with cultural competence.
It will enhance cultural coordination and work with each other better for creating an
effective team culture to ensure team success as well.
5) How can the virtual teams be as effective and productive as their traditional
equivalents?
In order to ensure that virtual teams are equivalent to traditional teams in terms of
effectiveness and productivity, it is important to ensure that these teams are managed
effectively. One of the most important aspects of managing a virtual team is proper
communication. If communication is not proper then information related to work is
not shared properly and it affects productivity of team. Along with this, integrating

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cultural preferences and working style of each team member with culture of virtual
team is another important aspect for enhancing effectiveness and productivity of
virtual team as well.