Managing Conflicts & Communication in Virtual Teams

Managing Conflicts & Communication in Virtual Teams

Virtual Teams

Today it is easy to figure out where we are going with the growing trends of globalization, progress in technology, communication, which all guide us to developing universal virtual teams. Geography, communication, time management, are all factors that needs to be taken into consideration for global virtual teams, without too much added conflicts. Of course conflicts will occur depending on improper communication not just technical but verbal as well. Depending on the job difficulty, resolution methods can be used to tackle conflicts that may arise virtually. Proper communication plays a very important role as well where technology has to be functioning and individuals have to have the language necessary to be able to communicate with different countries. Many team leaders and managers “Will strive to avoid relationship conflicts where changes reveal in perspectives relating to team tasks,” (Thompson, 2011, p.183).

It is always a challenge to keep up with new technologies. They have to be obtainable at an affordable cost for companies and be attainable in the marketplace. Businesses have to invest not only in technology, but in training and development, language, as well as working relationships, ethics, and research. Diversity, experience, values, beliefs, all have to be taken into consideration when forming virtual teams since individuals all come from different backgrounds. It is also important to consider the consumers since as well they come from diverse places, needs and tastes and with proper training companies can avoid complaints or any issue that may arise.

For the technology, there should be a buildup of technology based on the needs of groups. Making sure there is enough access for everyone is important. Knowing the availability of technology within the countries of the different members will be a first step. Costs can be compared to the cost of travel within the group if necessary and those costs will show a savings at some point. Making sure information management is secure is another issue and controls will have to be in place before the organization can actually form groups or provide access.

Structures of Virtual Teams

Companies strive in excellence in productivity that is based on efficient project teams, thus, today's global business environment encourages virtual teams to meet and set objectives. Virtual teams are work teams where each employee contributes a skill or knowledge that can improve the project scope initiatives within a virtual environment. Some virtual teams are conducted on an Adobe Connect meeting site or other live streaming venues for teams to work from all over the world. Most human resources personnel that hire and or set up teams use Adobe Connect and a telephone conference dial in number for successfully conducting a virtual meeting. Adobe and Cisco are one of many companies providing virtual tools to effectively manage and connect with others on a business objective to be more productive. Virtual teams are vital for large or mid-size companies to enforce business continuity. In today's global enterprise, the usage of advanced technology to connect teams by virtual means produces higher productivity, leading to profitability no matter what type of project. Virtual work teams are more in line to working positively together to achieving the projected goal through virtual communication, i.e. a business expansion in a foreign country. More companies are adapting towards tele-presence for a more productive virtual team to connect, inspire, and produce creative solutions for business challenges or pitfalls by learning curves to know how to work the virtual technology that uses up current productivity time. Try and think of how a virtual team's sole mission is to accomplish the business goal or tasks to be more proficient in completing tasks and deliverables to finish the project. Each virtual team member's skills are evaluated to decide on whom to successfully complete the deliverable, thus, the virtual technology provides a positive platform for communicating.

Management will need to establish training in diversity where standard evaluation will have to be done to evaluate new acquired knowledge from all employees. Corporations will have to put in place conflict resolution procedures for everyone to resolve conflicts. Procedural application and its assessment, to keep on promoting diversity in the workplace whether physically or virtually will need to be evaluated in a regular basis to keep conflict as well as cost down and manageable. Nevertheless, “Task conflict can be very effective in motivating