Managing Virtual Teams

Managing virtual(prenominal) Teams 1. Introduction Virtual teams moderate emerged to mitigate the ch every(prenominal)enges of managing teams that argon distributed cross personal manners various regions, and are a sustainable component of international business. A project manager managing a virtual(prenominal) team would piss to integrate communication strategies, project management techniques including human and social processes in order to support the team, (Kimball, 1997). The author is a project manager charge to lead a virtual team of 300 volunteers located crosswise the globe to learn recommendations for regulating carbon emissions in the world.As indicated Kimball (1997), this kind of a virtual team usually supports people charming in the aforementioned(prenominal) professional field and most of the duration focuses on learning. 2. The best way to structure this large virtual team The project would be dissever into tasks and responsibilities. The team would be divi ded into sub-teams basing/depending on the regions where the individuals come from, and let these sub-teams gain in isolation to deliver their completed task of the project at heart the stipulated time frame.It is very important that the tasks and responsibilities are evenly distributed amongst the sub-teams to clear the feeling of fairness among team members, (Edwards & Wilson, 2004). Sub-team leaders brook hold a face-to-face go outing in the same location with the author at the start and at the end of the project. 3. Important issues that the author foresee in managing this team a) Different time for interaction Communication across time zones as indicated in OB Week2 Lecture Notes (2013) would be a disturbing issue because there might be a difference of 10-12 hours between working days of regions where team members are based.In situations where the author request for urgent response on a particular issue, the study may be sent to the location at a non working time thusl y causing delay. To solve this problem, the author would adopt a 24-hour working as outlined in Defencom case study, (Edwards & Wilson, 2004) so that individual sub-teams muckle work on the recommendations during their working day. This would minimize the crossing of time zones and the process discount increase team effectiveness.The author, as a project manager can establish a common time to interact face-to-face by means of video conferencing. b) Different cultural and language issues Working with 300 individuals from across the globe requires a project manager to be aware of different cultural and language issues. These individuals would have different ways of working, thinking and in like manner reporting differently. Integrating the work that has been submitted would be a challenge as there will be no time to develop a common language.In order to solve this issue the team needs to develop an open culture so that everyone can openly share information and non tolerate a blam e game. c) Learning the new technology It will be a problem if team members do not understand the virtual working process, which can hinder communication and so affecting team relationships. Team members must be oriented to the virtual working process before the project commence so that they have enough time to ask.The author should develop a support appliance for the team to use when experiencing difficulties. 4. Motivating individuals to archive the project goal These volunteers can be motivated by highlighting to them that, this is an opportunity for them to sharpen their skills and friendship through experience of this new working strategy where they will meet different people with different experiences. The author would create a chopine for social interaction to speed-up teamwork and create access rights for each of hem to be aware what others are doing. The author would make time to interact with all team members during the project and make sure that they have clear soul of goals and objectives, also finding out if they are happy. 5. References Edwards, A. & Wilson, J. R. (2004) Implementing virtual teams a tend to organizational and human factors, University of Liverpool Online Library Online. Available from http//site. ebrary. com. ezproxy. liv. ac. uk/lib/liverpool/docDetail. action? ocID=10048150 (Accessed 14th February 2013). Kimball, L. (1997) Managing Virtual Teams text of speech given by Lisa Kimball for Team Strategies Conference sponsored by Federated Press, Toronto, Canada Online. Available from http//www. groupjazz. com (Accessed 15th February 2013). University of Liverpool/ honorable Online Education (2013) Lecture notes from organizational Behavior and People Management week 1 online. Available from University of Liverpool/Laureate Online Education (Accessed 07 February 2013)