Growth in Popularity of Virtual Teams
“More and more … work is becoming something you do, not a place you go.” The workplace Woody Leonhard described in his 1995 book, The Underground Guide to Telecommuting, is quickly becoming the norm.1 Leaders worldwide agree that virtual collaboration is critical for success in today’s global business environment, and the likelihood that you will participate as part of a virtual team is almost certain. From 2005 to 2012, the incidence of telecommuting grew by nearly 80 percent, and nearly half of all U.S. companies currently use virtual teams. Of the more than 5,000 information workers surveyed in a recent study, 66 percent work remotely at least once per month and nearly one-half are involved at least weekly in virtual work.2 Virtual work completed “anytime, anywhere” included that done by people who worked from home on a scheduled basis, those who worked on the road, and those who worked from home occasionally.3
Virtual teams, as defined by the Society for Human Resource Management, are groups of people who work across time, space, and organizational boundaries and who interact primarily through electronic communications. Not surprisingly, organizations with multinational operations are more than twice as likely to use virtual teams as compared with those having U.S.-based operations.4 Virtual teamwork is critical to the success of organizations that establish and maintain strategic operations across the globe and that face a rapidly changing competitive environment. The implementation of virtual teams can minimize the inconvenience of bringing team members to a single location, cut costs, and attract scarce talent. As a result, many organizations are emptying their cubicles in favor of a virtual workplace that is radically different from that of just a few years ago. The following significant facts summarize the current trend toward the virtual workplace:5
In today’s complex organizations, having 50 percent or more of employees working on virtual teams is not uncommon. Currently, workers spend more than 80 percent of their time working collaboratively, often across 10 or more virtual teams.6
The power of information technology and the speed and reliability of communications networks have made it easier for organizations to organize, motivate, and manage remotely located employees. Managers report that the greatest successes that emerge from team interaction include brainstorming solutions for problems and issues, setting goals for team activity, and developing plans for team initiatives and projects. Various technologies are used to assist team members in sharing their wealth of knowledge and expertise and communicating with one another to find solutions.
Teams differ in their degree of “virtuality.” Most face-to-face teams communicate virtually at times, and many virtual teams are not 100 percent virtual. Rather than involving a single type of interaction, virtual team communication can be achieved in several ways that generally fall into one of four categories:7
Not so many years ago, the common view was that effective teams rarely had more than 20 members. However, a recent study of virtual team behavior at 15 multinational companies revealed that many complex tasks involve teams of 100 or more members. Research has also shown, however, that as the size of a team increases beyond about 20 members, the tendency to collaborate typically decreases.8 As the number and size of teams increase, companies will clearly benefit from investing in virtual team development and training.
Advantages of Virtual Teams
Virtual teams have been made possible by advancing technologies. In today’s global environment, work team members may never meet in person. Such teams are made up of people who are geographically dispersed to varying degrees and who communicate with the aid of technology. As international business activity increases, more and more work is done by virtual teams with culturally diverse members. Virtual teams offer definite benefits:
Virtual Team Challenges
Despite all the inherent advantages, teams face real challenges that organizations must address if they are to succeed at going virtual. While technology can present its own set of problems, the commonly held view of experts is that virtual team success is due 10 percent to technology and 90 percent to people. Some challenges can be anticipated and mitigated before they occur, while others must be dealt with as they arise.
Lack of Nonverbal Cues
An obvious challenge inherent in some virtual communication methods is the lack of nonverbal cues such as facial expressions, gestures, and voice intonation. This void can complicate and confuse team member interactions. The use of audio and video technologies, such as webcams and Skype, can enrich the impersonal environment associated with text-only exchange. While synchronous exchange more closely mimics the face-to-face process of communicating, asynchronous methods allow participants to avoid interruptions and think more carefully about their responses.
Isolation
While some people enjoy the freedom of working in their pajamas, others experience loneliness and disconnection when working remotely. These workers can feel “socially unemployed” without others in close proximity to provide support and development and to manage their performance.9 Camaraderie and meaningful relationships are harder to develop without in-person social exchanges that typically occur over shared meals, in informal hallway conversations, and in face-to-face meetings.
Lack of Cohesion
Virtual teams can lack cohesion, as relationships are harder to form in the sterile environment of cyberspace. The absence of actual physical contact makes interpersonal communication challenging, and the lack of nonverbal communication forces more dependence on words. The obvious objective of both face-to-face and virtual teams is to achieve their task goal—that is, successful attainment of their assigned outcome or challenge. However, to experience high performance and task achievement, teams must succeed in its maintenance goal—that is, the ability to get along and sustain long-term interaction. While not always recognized and articulated by the participants, the maintenance goal is critical to team survival. Team members must be able to maintain sufficient relationships with one another so they can work together effectively. If the maintenance goal is not achieved, the team will fall short of its task goal as well.
Cultural Complications
Cultural understanding is an obvious requirement for global collaboration. Culture affects the way people approach work, demonstrate commitment and collegiality, and establish expectations for effective teamwork. Obviously, the challenges of time zones and language are issues for virtual teams, as are varying views on leadership and business protocol. We will consider ways to deal with diversity challenges in more detail in Chapter 2.
Absence of Essential Behaviors
High-performing teams, regardless of their purpose, task, and mode of operation, exhibit common behaviors, which can be identified as the four Cs:10
The lack of any one of the four Cs will almost certainly spell failure for a team or, at the minimum, result in a less-than-optimal performance level. Research and reported experiences both indicate that the establishment of the four Cs is often more difficult in virtual teams than in face-to-face interactions. One reason is that virtual team members tend to share less information with one another initially, though disclosure typically does tend to expand over time.
Lack of Coordination
Coordination of work is more challenging in virtual teams, as team roles do not emerge as easily as in face-to-face situations. Needed task roles will vary with the assignment. Maintenance roles are also needed, such as members who serve as harmonizers when tension mounts, those who record and report, and those who help facilitate discussions and meeting progress. Effective leadership and efficient planning and communication are essential if a virtual team is to succeed.
Ineffective Leadership
Virtual teams require exceptional leadership. An effective virtual team leader must be able to skillfully leverage team talent, include all members, provide the team with clear work goals and other necessary information, promote trust, encourage healthy discussions and human interaction, and manage conflict. Successful teams frequently are characterized by distributed leadership, relying on various team members to take on leadership responsibility proactively as required.
You will explore these challenges and consider ways to deal with them as you progress through this book.
Case 1.1: AppendTo Seeks the Best and Brightest, No Matter Where They Live
While only a few years old, web development company appendTo lists its clients as including Celebrity Cruises, Time.com, Lenovo, Pearson, Purdue, Microsoft, and Blackberry. Although the company has a physical office in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, its operations occur remotely from around the country. The company’s website describes the firm’s operations as 100 percent distributed. From its beginning in 2009, appendTo’s staffing philosophy was to hire the best and brightest, no matter where they live. In fact, the ability to work from anywhere is one of the company’s core values. Staff members are encouraged to work from the locations that best foster individual creativity and productivity. While geographically dispersed, the staff engages regularly in chat conversation and other virtual shared experiences to stay connected to one another.
According to appendTo CEO Mike Hostetler, the key to making geographic dispersion a success has been the company’s perspective of translating the normal human interactions they find in a physical office into the virtual environment.
One of the simplest habits we train every employee on is the Office Door Effect. When you work in a physical office, depending on the layout, humans observe when others enter or exit the building. We replicate this by asking everyone to drop a message into a chat room when they arrive for work, when they leave, or when they briefly step away.
This practice leads to a chat room with many small comments such as “Good morning” or “Stepping away for a moment.” The chat provides an easy and asynchronous way to discover where people are when they don’t immediately respond to a chat message. Hostetler adds that the staff has a special “heads down” status that typically means someone is online for “emergency” purposes, but otherwise should not be disturbed while concentrating on a particular task or problem.
Virtual companies such as appendTo are finding that when people are comfortable in their personal environment, they are more productive and efficient in their job performance. Strategies can be devised to build a sense of community and sharing that might otherwise be lost in the virtual environment.11
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Reynolds, B. W. (2015, March 30). 76 virtual companies and distributed teams. Retrieved from https://www.flexjobs.com/blog/post/76-virtual-companies-and-distributed-teams/
Select five of the featured companies and prepare a presentation on the common behaviors and strategies that lead to success in virtual environments.
Case 1.2: Johnson & Johnson Puts a Face on Virtual Team Members
Karan Sorensen, former chief information officer and vice president for information management for Johnson & Johnson’s pharmaceutical research and development, understood the importance of uniting virtual teams and had firsthand experience in helping her teams overcome the cultural and psychological hurdles of remote electronic communications. She knew that one’s cultural group has a significant impact on how the individual views his or her work and interaction with others in a work situation. Cultural differences occur not only among teams with wide geographic distribution but also in teams with diverse backgrounds and experiences. For example, occupational groups, such as engineering, purchasing, or marketing, also have their own cultures, and people carry these multiple identities with them when they join virtual teams.
During a global infrastructure project, Sorensen first brought her team together for a face-to-face meeting so everyone could get to know one another. Early on, the members set up rules of engagement—each person’s preferred mode of communication and cultural expectations about leadership and status, appropriate work practices, communication with superiors and subordinates, meeting participation, the use of time and definition of what constitutes a deadline, quality, decision making, and problem solving. Call times were alternated so certain people were not always stuck dialing in at midnight.
Development of an e-mail etiquette guide helped everyone manage expectations, and during virtual meetings, the team referred to photos of their team members. A testament to Sorensen’s leadership, the project came in under budget and ahead of schedule, saving Johnson & Johnson over $200 million over a three-year period.13
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Develop an e-mail etiquette guide for your organization’s virtual teams.