Virtual Teams Management: Advantages and Disadvantages Essay

Summary

Remote work has become widely prevalent with the emergence of a global pandemic, forcing the various corporation to quickly adapt to the new realities. Supporting teams in a different location may posses certain challenges for inexperienced companies, whereas others take full advantage of the opportunity to develop software to support global talent. Virtual teams provide a global overview of the market, allowing the business to grow without attaching to one site. It is critical to assess all benefits and challenges of operating a virtual team to aid the enterprises in taking advantage of cultural expansion.

Issues IT department faces when it comes to supporting virtual teams

Supporting virtual teams, especially in the beginning stages, may enable several challenges for the IT department. Structuring the work processes in the virtual mode may become a significant difficulty in terms of tracking the tasks. Providing with correct, up-to-date tools is another responsibility of an IT department. Updating the software of each worker may become an issue due to their inability to correctly operate the computers.

Management of such operations may become an issue in virtual team support. IT departments must establish a feasible system for online meetings and continually manage it to ensure the correct department work. The hardware and software actuality is another issue for IT departments, getting in the way of the remote process. Lastly, ensuring the online-security is a critical issue, the lack of which may jeopardize the company’s reputation.

Advantages and disadvantages of using virtual teams for the organizations

Working with virtual teams allows for global reach, having various benefits to such conduct; however it possesses challenges across multiple dimensions. Among the advantages of working with remote employees are cost-reducing on office maintenance and services, more access to international marketing without adapting to time zones, which leads to higher productivity and company expansion (Bakken, 2018). Moreover, virtual teams allow for leveraging global talent beyond their country of origin, create new opportunities for less advantaged societies.

The disadvantages of such a work model include technology cost for developing and providing employees with hardware and software, as well as higher management of cybersecurity. Communication establishment and lack of trust may become significant issues among remote workforce organizations (Bakken, 2018). Social isolation and no face-to-face interaction may negatively influence the productivity of many employees, reflecting on business’ development.

Challenges imposed by IT/IS national standards

National IT standards are set to ensure the adherence of priorities to the US social and political values. Among the most prevalent challenges in meeting the policy requirements, which include efficient time management for mobile and wireless computing, usability, and quality. To overcome the issues, IT/IS national standards must be carefully reviewed, consequently enabling organizational changes to correspond to the policies.

Procedures on virtual teams and propose how they could be handled or resolved

Procedural challenges are also highly important to resolve in virtual team management as they can initiate significant communicational and structural issues. Among the highest-priority issues is a selection of an effective leadership style and the establishment of operational communication. To prevent such problems, leaders must foster a culture of communication during the onboarding period (Bakken, 2018). Leading by example and giving explicit tasks will eliminate procedural matters.

Compare and contrast of virtual and traditional teams

Traditional and virtual teams have significant differences across all operational segments. Virtual teams’ communication requires more effort to manage, as it is conducted online, compared to daily face-to-face interaction of conventional units. Virtual teams entirely rely on technology in their work process, which includes bugs and glitches that interfere with daily tasks. Traditional businesses mostly rely on physical communication in their job function. Having a remote team allows for broader diversity and extensive cultural experience, while old-fashioned conduct depends on one-on-one location, which deprives of the possibility to globally develop.

References

Bakken, R. (2018). Challenges to Managing Virtual Teams and How to Overcome Them. Harvard Division of Continuing Education. Web.