Sunday, March 21, 2010

Chapter 11: Virtual Teams

Chapter eleven discusses developing and leading effective teams. In the business world, it is highly unlikely to avoid working with teams and being involved in projects. Especially in today's society, the markets are enlarging through globalization making teamwork important. However, as firms become globally connected, it becomes harder to communicate. Thankfully, virtual teams were created in order to sustain a consistent way of communicating with other partners around the world. In the book, virtual team is defined as information technology allows group members in different locations to conduct business. On the other hand, the book also mentions the negative side of virtual teams as "lacking face-to-face interactions [that] can weaken trust and accountability (323). It is also said that working through the interest is less effective than actually going to the office or work site.

Being an international business student, I find it important to know how to communicate through the web and technology. So, I researched online to find out more about virtual teams pros and cons, and I came across a simple site that mentions a few points. Pros would include less travel, bigger markets, and synchronized schedules and time frames. The cons consist of needing all workers to know certain "techonoliteracy " in order to communicate clearly through the web, hiding through technology and not working as efficiently as being in the same location, attention may not be given fully to online meetings/discussions, figuring out a time frame that compromises each time zone, and communication without nonverbal behavior. There are definitely good and bad sides to virtual teams, but as time goes on and as technology becomes more innovative, it should improve a lot in the future.

site: http://www.virtualteamworks.com/96.htm

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