Virtual project teams have become increasingly important, and they deliver many benefits to organization. However, there are difficulties associated with virtual project teams that managers need to be aware of. These revolve around communication issues, including trust, information flow, communication styles and sociological issues such as personal culture and the political nature of communication. It is recommended that managers develop a keen understanding of the differences between virtual team communication and conventional business communication. In addition, managers need to be clearer with respect to responsibilities, time frames, types of information that should flow and other aspects of team management. In general, virtual team management needs to be more regimented than conventional team management in order to be effective and deliver to the organization the benefits that virtual project teams promise.
Background
The information superhighway has allowed for the emergence of virtual project teams as a viable means of bringing together the knowledge and experience within an organization. That projects no longer need to be completed by people working at the same site results in new opportunities for organizations, but the rise of virtual project teams also presents some challenges as well. This paper will outline the nature of virtual project teams, the opportunities and challenges associated with this new form of workplace collaboration and will attempt to outline some of the best practices associated with virtual project teams.
A traditional project team was a group of people that had been brought together physically to work on a project. A virtual project team performs the same function, but without being brought together physically (Bryce, 2006). Communication technology such as email, online chatting, video chat and other electronic communication methods are used to facilitate communication among team members. As the Internet has facilitated the rapid transmission of complex documents, the use of virtual project teams has exploded. The primary difference between a virtual project team and a conventional project team, therefore, rests with the differences in the methods of communication that are used.
The major issues with respect to the implementation of virtual project teams, therefore, revolve around issues of communication and trust. Communication styles and forms function differently in a virtual environment than they do in person. Non-verbal communication in particular is often missing from the virtual project team. In addition, managerial oversight of virtual project teams is made more difficult by the barriers to communication that are inherent in virtual project teams.
The benefits of virtual project teams are clear. Virtual project teams lower the costs of putting together a team; they allow talented people who would be otherwise unwilling to relocate to work with one another; they allow for certain functions to be offshored, and VPTs allow for a greater range of expertise to be introduced to the project. Virtual project teams are often considered to be more responsive as well, since information travels faster than people do (Bergiel, Bergiel & Balsmeier, 2008).
Analysis
Jarvenpaa & Leidner (1998) identify communication and trust as central issues that arise with the increased use of virtual project teams. Teams interacting primarily through electronic means often do not communicate as often, and at times they do not communicate as clearly as they would if they were working in person. It is argued that the sociology of organizations is not congruous with virtual project teams. Interpersonal interaction takes different forms; as most organizations are designed around in-person interaction, virtual interaction is not as neatly compatible.
Chen, Yuh and Hui (2008) elaborate that trust is a central issue. Trust, they argue, is something that humans inherently have more of in their dealings with one another when those dealings are conducted in person. In a virtual project team, it is therefore more difficult for team members to build trust with another. Trust is essential for virtual project teams because it facilitates better sharing of information, stronger...
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