MNG81001: Analyzing Virtual Teams in Global Marketing - Report

This report examines the implementation of virtual teams within a global marketing department, specifically focusing on a team distributed across Sydney, New York, Beijing, and Mumbai. It justifies the use of virtual teams by highlighting potential gains in productivity through flexible working hours and the elimination of commuting time, as well as the benefits of knowledge integration, where team members can share expertise and enhance their skills. However, the report also addresses challenges such as the lack of mutual trust among team members due to the absence of face-to-face interaction and potential cultural differences. The report concludes that the advantages of virtual teams outweigh the disadvantages, provided that proper decision-making and strategies are implemented to mitigate potential challenges, ultimately contributing to the organization's success. The attached presentation slides provide a visual summary of the key points discussed in the memo.

Running head: MANAGEMENT COMMUNICATION
MANAGEMENT COMMUNICATION
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

Part 1: Memo
To: The Marketing Director, XYZ Company
From: Name of the Student
Date: 10.10.2018
Subject: To determine the advantages and disadvantages of working as a virtual team in
different geographical regions
Introduction
A virtual team refers to a group of individual who work together as a team from
different geographical locations and depend on different forms of communication tools such
as e-mail, voice conferencing, video conferencing and FAX in order to work and collaborate
with each other (Ford, Piccolo & Ford 2017). The headquarters in Sydney wants to establish
a new virtual team for the marketing departments with team members who are situated in
different locations such as Mumbai, New York, Beijing and Sydney. The virtual teams will
help the organisation in different ways which needs to be identified and also the issues that
would come across during the implementation of virtual teams. The report will aim at
justifying both the negative and the positive aspects of virtual teams and the impact that it
would create on the organisation.
Justification for the implementation of virtual teams: Greater productivity
Virtual teams are used to connect people over different communication tools where
the team members are focused towards one goal and purpose which they achieve with
collaboration and understanding without working face-to-face. According to Gera et al.
(2013) virtual teams help in working productively and efficiently by connecting different
people from different geographical areas. This is because when team members work from

home they are able to reduce and eliminate all the distractions that are normally present in an
office surrounding. Moreover, the time that is normally taken by the employees to travel to
and from their offices are also eliminated and they can find more time to work on their
projects. The working hours will be flexible according to the employee and this incurs more
productivity. This is because working from the comfort of the home generally makes the
employee work better and harder since they are able to work at their own will. They also
work in a cycle of 24 hours which strengthens the base of the business and gets the complete
skills, knowledge and strength of several employees altogether.
Justification for the implementation of virtual teams: Knowledge integration
Knowledge integration is also a major factor in virtual teams which become beneficial
for the organisation and the team. Pinjani and Palvia (2013) implies that virtual teams help in
the sharing of knowledge among the team members which increases the intellectual power of
the team. The expertise of the different team members contribute a lot to the efficiency of the
team which helps the team members to perform efficiently and develop their own knowledge
base which can be helpful in their current job as well as their future endeavours. The team
members can utilized the knowledge that they have incurred from others and integrate it with
their own knowledge and skills to get better results in their work. The knowledge integration
and sharing of knowledge can happen in the team when joint training is provided to them
which will be helpful in self-development of the team members and they will be to gain
knowledge for better problem solving and decision making.
Justification against the implementation of virtual teams: Lack of mutual trust
One of the main factors of a team performance is mutual trust among the team
members which is necessary to work together in one setting. Lilian (2014) argues that mutual
trust is a major issue in the virtual team environment. If such a setting arises it might not be
possible for all the team members to work productively since trust is the major factor missing

among them. This is because the group members are connected virtually and do not have
complete knowledge of each other. This may give rise to uncertainty which becomes an
obstacle for the members to see each other’s strengths. Virtual teams are often developed on
project basis and from people of different geographical areas which makes it impossible for
the team members to know each other deeply and hence they might not be able to depend on
each other. If this happens then the plan to develop the virtual team would be a failure which
would affect the marketing operations and the operations of the organisation as a whole.
Conclusion
Hence, it can be said that the implementation of virtual teams will be a beneficial
factor for the organisation and their growth. Even though virtual teams have certain
challenges which might hinder the progress of the team and the operations of the
organisation, it can be overcome with proper decision making so that the challenge can be
eradicated. The benefits of virtual team will overlap the challenges and therefore, its
implementation will help the organisation to build a strong team which will contribute to the
betterment of the organisation.

References:
Gera, S., Aneeshkumar, G., Fernandez, S., Gireeshkumar, G., Nze, I. & Eze, U., 2013.
Virtual teams versus face to face teams: A review of literature. IOSR Journal of Business and
Management, 11(2), pp.1-4.
Lilian, S.C., 2014. Virtual teams: Opportunities and challenges for e-leaders. Procedia-Social
and Behavioral Sciences, 110, pp.1251-1261.
Pinjani, P. & Palvia, P., 2013. Trust and knowledge sharing in diverse global virtual
teams. Information & Management, 50(4), pp.144-153.
Ford, R.C., Piccolo, R.F. & Ford, L.R., 2017. Strategies for building effective virtual teams:
Trust is key. Business Horizons, 60(1), pp.25-34.

Part 2: Presentation
Slide 1
Slide 2

Slide 3
Slide 4

Slide 5
Slide 6

Slide 7