Comparison Between Virtual Teams and Face-To-Face Teams Research Paper

Comparison Between Virtual Teams and Face-To-Face Teams - Research Paper Example Workers like to interact in teams through teleworks, and flexibility in terms of time is often their top most priority (Kortez, 1999). Social media networks and online calling services have made it all the more convenient to do business through virtual teams. The constraints of distance and time have been minimized to a large extent. While virtual teams are very beneficial for the members in many ways, there are also certain unfavorable outcomes associated with working in this way. For example, employees who have never seen their employers are at risk of losing their jobs anytime. There is often no accountability. Employees have limited access to the company’s resources. This means that more power is assumed by the employers than what they have in the face to face teams. This paper explores several aspects of teamwork in virtual and face-to-face style. II. Building effectiveness a. Managing a virtual team â€Å"Dispersed teams can actually outperform groups that are colocated . To succeed, however, virtual collaboration must be managed in specific ways† (Siebdrat, Hoegl and Ernst, 2009a). ... This provides team members with opportunities to interact face to face and understand one another’s psychology so that when they interact virtually, they are able to draw only true meanings from the conversation. Frequent face to face meetings also allow the members to settle the intercultural differences and reach a culture of respect and harmony for maximal utilization of their potential. b. Member selection â€Å"[T]eams are usually made up of members from different national backgrounds, meaning the members come from different national cultures, possibly speak different languages, and were raised in different countries that may have different value systems† (Staples and Zhao, 2006, p. 389). Member selection in virtual teams is more complicated as a process than it is in face to face teams. This is due to the fact that communication in virtual teams is already affected by lack of face to face meetings and the presence of a medium of communication i.e. technology. Comm unication in virtual teams becomes even more complicated if the members are from different cultures and speak different languages. For virtual teams, it is advisable for the management to recruit only local employees so that all team members speak the same language and can converse with one another without experiencing linguistic barriers. In the face to face teams, management can broaden the criteria for selection and can also welcome foreign employees as body language plays a very important role in face to face meetings and the influence of linguistic barriers is minimized anyway. c. Team process Principles of effective teamwork in virtual teams include but are not limited to realignment of the reward structures, identification of innovative ways to