Human resources management has undergone some drastic changes in terms of team communication and cooperation. A few years ago, face-to-face interaction in a team was regarded as the most effective and productive way. Nowadays, however, with the ongoing development of globalization, virtual teams have become a widespread means of communication worldwide. The progress in technology development has also led to a greater possibility of virtual team management. The purpose of this paper is to define the critical points of the general shift to the virtual team management as well as to find out its impact on the workplace.
The latest achievements in the sphere of technology give managers a lot of opportunities on how to manage various types of project teams. Previously, finding team members, who are at least co-located geographically, was of crucial importance. Today, it is the quality and flexibility that outweigh other factors. Most teams dedicated to a project are nowadays distributed across the globe, and the views on such type of cooperation differ significantly. While some claim this approach to be beneficial because of its flexibility, others think that the spirit of collaborative work is completely lost due to the absence of face-to-face communication between team members. The supporters of the latter opinion are also afraid that geographical distribution has a negative impact on the workplace and quality in general.
Like every system of cooperation inside the project, virtual teams have their benefits and drawbacks. On the one hand, such groups are very flexible because they have to establish an agile framework due to the constant risk and lack of stability. The other positive aspect of virtual teams is the high probability of finding the right vendor because, quite often, professionals that are located nearby are already involved in a lot of projects. On the other hand, however, the negative aspects of virtual teams are as evident as the positive ones. First of all, creating a team distributed geographically is a considerable responsibility for a manager. Managers in these situations serve as binders between all the members, so they have to establish both formal and informal channels of communication properly. Secondly, the general atmosphere in a team should be equally appropriate for everyone, regardless of cultures or time zones.
As it was mentioned above, the central part of responsibility regarding communication in a virtual team depends on the project manager or any team leader. First of all, to train employees on how to adapt to new software or communication channel, the manager should get expertise in it as well. Secondly, leaders have to realize that the virtual teams differ significantly from the co-located ones, and hence, the follow-up of the workers should be explicit and frequent. The beginning of the project is crucial for the general workflow because team members can naturally have a lot of questions concerning team and work structure, and a manager cannot leave them unanswered. Last but not least, team leaders should realize that the most crucial drawback of virtual cooperation – the absence of face-to-face meetings – should be replaced by other types of communication. Even the most prolific team can fail due to not being on the same wavelength with each other and the management.
Conclusion
The general shift to virtual communication between workers has become a significant achievement in the management sphere. Being a revolutionary cooperation framework, the virtual team structure still causes a lot of misunderstandings concerning its correct usage. However complex the system may seem, there are a lot of communication channels and even Intranets nowadays that allow managers to establish a bond between employees all over the world. Furthermore, the global concern on how to create proper information flow inside the virtual team has also helped improve team communication even in co-located structures. So, while still having some drawbacks, virtual teams should not influence the general workplace and quality when used wisely.