Assignment:
1. In order to effectively manage a virtual team, managers must establish expectations and occasional hold face-to-face meetings. As technology evolves, more businesses are resorting to virtual teams and virtual meetings to conduct daily business operations. Although employees who telecommute to work are more productive, they lack creativity as discussed in one article in this week's reading (Miller & Rampell, 2013). In recent years, I have hosted and been a part of several virtual meetings. I am involved in five committees related to the water industry. Since the committee members are only able to meet face-to-face annually at a national conference, we meet virtually once every month. The two methods used to communicate each month are by telephone and GoToMeeting. Both means of communication are viable for what each committee is trying to accomplish.
The steps that I would take to manage a virtual team who telecommutes for work would be to first establish a frequency of face-to-face meetings if possible. If the team is in the same locality, I would create monthly meetings. If the team was spread out, I would create an annual face-to-face meeting. As discussed in one article, there is nothing more that strengthens virtual teams than face-to-face meetings (Goman, 2012). Secondly, I would establish cross-cultural awareness among the team. I think that it is important to be culturally aware of our colleagues. If all work is completed over email, we can easily lose touch with the cultural differences that make us all unique. Since culture has a lot to do with our work ethic, it is imperative to infuse a sense of culture into our daily work and the occasional face-to-face meetings can assist with this endeavor.
The platform that I would use to manage virtual teams would likely be GoToMeeting since I have the most experience with its capabilities. GoToMeeting is user-friendly and provides capabilities such as screen-sharing and verbal communication. The meetings can be recorded for future use and the platform allows for face-to-face interaction via webcam. I would require people to log in and attend daily, weekly and monthly meetings to ensure that the team is communicating effectively with one another. Lastly, I would measure performance against the reasonable expectancies that are predetermined for each particular job function. Since it is virtually impossible to effectively manage without measures in place, I would hold either biweekly or monthly performance meetings with each team member to review their job performance.
References:
Goman, C. K. (2012). 5 tips for virtual collaboration. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolkinseygoman/2012/06/05/5-tips-for-virtual-collaboration/2/#3f7b2e001806
Miller, C. C., & Rampell, C. (2013). Yahoo orders home workers back to the office. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/26/technology/yahoo-orders-home-workers-back-to-the-office.html?_r=3&pagewanted=all&
I need a 300 word response to each of the following two forum post:
2. Although virtual teams are becoming more prevalent, there have been mixed reviews on their effectiveness. Read "The Best Online Platforms for Virtual Meetings," "5 Tips for Virtual Collaboration," and "Yahoo Orders Homeworkers Back to the Office." Discuss the steps you would take to manage a successful virtual team (be sure to discuss how you would choose a platform to use and guidelines for monitoring virtual team performance).
3. Although virtual teams are becoming more prevalent, there have been mixed reviews on their effectiveness. Read "The Best Online Platforms for Virtual Meetings," "5 Tips for Virtual Collaboration," and "Yahoo Orders Homeworkers Back to the Office." Discuss the steps you would take to manage a successful virtual team (be sure to discuss how you would choose a platform to use and guidelines for monitoring virtual team performance).