Virtual team - Organizational Behaviour free essay sample

A virtual team is a team whose members operate across space, time and organizational boundaries, and are linked through information technologies to achieve organizational tasks. [1] With more and more corporations having their business operations going global and being enabled by the advancement of technology, virtual team becomes an emerging new-age trend. [2] Virtual teams offer several advantages and disadvantages to organizations that require exploration. [3] Advantages of Virtual Teams -Cost savings One of the advantages an organization would enjoy through creating virtual team is cost saving. The organization will be able to eliminate costs associating to office spaces, utilities, executives’ travels, co-locations of global teams. [4] -Improved productivity and customer service With the members of the virtual team spreading over the time zones, there could be people working on the same project or serving customers on a 24*7 basis. The project or the service keeps running without being interrupted when any team member needs to be off work for rest. We will write a custom essay sample on Virtual team Organizational Behaviour or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page This shortens the product development time as well as enables the firm to respond more quickly to the demands of customers in both global and local markets. [5] -Access to previously unavailable expertise and talents Virtual Teams allows organizations to look for expertise beyond their geographical locations of operation. This brings together the experts and specialists from across the globe to work together on the project. It also creates the opportunity for organization to hire talents who are less mobile and hesitant to relocate due to either family requirement or physical challenge. [6] -Knowledge sharing and transfer: Virtual teams represent a natural part of the organizational learning process because employees are encouraged to share and use knowledge where geography limits more direct forms of collaboration. Increased knowledge sharing and greater innovation happen as organization’s human capital share their understanding of global and local markets as well as best business practices. [7] Online meetings, remote computer access, wireless technology, and conferencing systems offer a way for participants to join a complex discussion from anywhere in the world. This benefit can enable most companies to compete on a global scale. [8] Disadvantages of Virtual Teams -Conflicts and collaboration issues Very likely, members of the virtual team come from different cultures, especially in big organizations. The cultural differences among virtual team members may create misunderstanding or even conflicts. If the lack of awareness towards culture differences goes on, the willingness among team members to collaborate with each other will be reduced. This could lead to mistrust and difficulties in team work which, however, is vital for the success of virtual team functioning. [9] -Communication deficiency: Another disadvantage virtual team may suffer from is the loss of efficiency in communication due to constraints in virtual communication mediums. People communicate better through face to face interactions primarily because it would enable them to read the sub-context through the non-verbal language such as facial expression, tones and body moves. Limited by the inherent nature of virtual interaction, teams will inevitably face challenges that the assumptions and judgment could be incorrect when messages are not laid out clearly. [10] -Leadership and management challenges: Poor leadership can result in the failure of any team, whether virtual or not; however, it becomes a much more prominent problem in virtual teams. As members of the virtual team can be based out of everywhere and across different time zones, the manager of team may face huge challenges in order to provide sufficient level of supervision towards team performance and offer appropriate support and counseling advice to individual team member when needed. [11] -Social Isolation Many members of virtual teams are adversely affected by the lack of physical interactions as most of the communications in virtual environment is task-oriented. Lack of social interaction with colleagues who very often become friends gives people who work in virtual team a not-so-good feeling of social isolation. This in turn counter-effects productivity as well as leads to stress. [12] Factors for Virtual Team to be successful: Face-to-face meeting early in the team development process It helps with team building and also contributes to form the team trust through creating opportunity for people to get to know each other [13] -Sufficient structures: Shared operational objective, work processes, clearly defined roles and responsibilities A team is more likely to be effective with shared goals as it enables greater collaboration, communication, and a greater degree of unity. Shared goals also create a culture of accountability, which encourage teams to take a public position and motivate one another to fulfill their promises. [14] Clear definition for each team member’s roles and responsibilities are also crucial. Each team member knows exactly what he/she is expected to perform. It will, to a great extent, avoid the situation that some people are extremely busy in the team while some others are idle, which may eventually result in complains, distrust and conflict -Good communication technology skills, strong self-leadership skills to motivate and guide each team member’s behaviour without peers or bosses nearby [15] -High emotional intelligence People can decipher the feeling of others from email and other limited communication media, able to sense and identify the early risks associating with culture/ background difference [16] -Efficient communication mechanism and the freedom to choose the best communication channels [17] -Culture for cooperation, trust and respect [18] -Effective team leadership -Clear criteria for measuring both individual member’s performance and team success 2. Describe the kinds of behaviours that individual team members can engage in that positively impact overall team effectiveness. (10 marks) There are certain behaviours that would positively impact the team effectiveness: -Demonstrate ownership mentality Instead of only taking assignments and completing them without a thought as to how individual efforts impact the success of the business, virtual team members, when have ownership mentalities, enthusiastically give the extra effort and choose strive for bigger and better results [19] -Highly motivated to team activities [20] -Self- Disciplined and self-reliance If every individual of the virtual team walks the talk and never fails to meet any commitment, people then know they can count on each other during the course of pursuing team success [21] -Ability to tolerant ambiguity Virtual team inevitably faces ambiguity as many other types of teams do. High tolerance of ambiguity allows people to absorb large amounts of disruptive change while showing a low level of dysfunctional behavior which may significantly detract individual or team from quality and productivity [22] -Openly communicate but meanwhile maintain respects to individual and cultural difference Expressing ideas in a direct but respectful way and treating other people with consideration and courtesy will significantly reduce the conflicts in the team and help create a healthy working environment -Offer support to others Providing support through offering positive feedbacks, and helps when needed contributes to a healthy team environment and improves the team efficiency 3. Describe the kinds of behaviours that individual team members can engage in that negatively impact overall team effectiveness. (10 marks) There are also behaviours adversely impact team effectiveness: -Avoid accountability When team members aren’t accountable for their own actions, they hurt their own performance. And when they duck responsibility for calling out other team members for their behaviours, the performance of the whole team suffers [23] -Focus on personal agenda rather than team objectives The shared objective among team members helps to create a synergy effect within the teams. An individual though can accomplish much by acting alone, but a group of people acting together in a unified force can accomplish more. If people focus more on their personal agendas, synergy then no longer exists. The competitive advantage obtained through teamwork goes away [24] -Not consistent between words and deeds Repeatedly fail to deliver on promises and commitments eventually lead to distrust among members in a virtual team. A team without members trusting each other dooms to failure. -Stingy to share important information -Passive-Aggressive Behaviors Behaviours such as making chronic excuses for lack of follow-through or poor performance, or being unresponsive or non-communicative to avoid discomfort or conflict will inevitably lead to tension, depletion of energy and conflict in the virtual team and hence result in deficiency of the team work [25] 4. Outline how you intend to approach participation in your group project, explaining how your plans for participation will likely impact your project team. Include an analysis of your results from the Group/Team Skills activity you completed from the Module 6 reading. (10 marks) To participate in my group project, I will: -Actively participate to group discussion -Make efforts in team coordination -Seek first to understand, then to be understood (7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Steven Covey) -Provide constructive feedbacks to other team members and meanwhile be open to others’ comments -Do exactly what I commit to -Offer helps to others when needed I would anticipate that my plans for participation would positively contribute to build team trust and cohesion. As it is a newly established project team, there may be a certain level of trust. However, it is very fragile and could be easily broken if any of the team member drop the ball or demonstrate the social loafing behavior. The consequence of working in the project team without trust is that the efficiency of the team is significantly handicapped. Besides, I would anticipate that my behavior would help me build rapport with other team members, which, in turn will establish the emotional tie within the team and contribute in team cohesion. Good team cohesion will enhance the performance of the team too. Results of Group/Team Skills Activity Skill Area ItemsAssessment – Dimension Scores Developing and Maintaining Rapport1-524 Listening to others6-1028 Displaying Sensitivity to Others’ Needs11-1528 Eliciting Ideas, Feelings and Perceptions16-2030 Presenting Feedbacks21-2526 Total Scores135 According to the result of this activity, I scored high in ‘listening to others’, ‘displaying sensitivity to others’ needs’ and ‘eliciting ideas, feelings and perceptions’, however, my score was comparably lower in ‘developing and maintaining rapport’. It indicates that I tend to be open to ideas and maintain sensitivity to others’ needs. However, it also indicates that I tend to build up relationship with others more slowly, which might be relating to my personal characteristics. According to the MBTI result, my profile is INTJ and my profile with DISC is High D, High C, above average S. Introverts might take longer time establishing rapport with others. Moreover, the ‘J’ in MBTI and ‘D’ in ‘DISC’ both indicate that I am a result-driven person. In the team setting, I may want to take the lead to drive for final result which can be an advantage but also be the potential area of improvement that I should be aware of. Sometimes I might seem to be pushy and overconfident of my judgment, which could cause problems when working with others.

Southern Horrors and Other Writings essays

Southern Horrors and Other Writings essays What is mob violence? Well, nowadays, mob violence differs in comparison to mob violence in the nineteenth century. In the years following the Civil War, there was a lot of mistreatment of African Americans. Ida B. Wells, a young African American journalist, investigated and accounted for the violence acted upon the African Americans during the Post-Reconstruction period. Wells wrote about her investigations because she belied it was the " first step to tell the world the facts" and to make lynching "a crime against American values"(27). In the book Southern Horrors and Other Writings, Royster discussed the mob violence of the lower South and the steps that Wells took to end this violence. During the nineteenth century, a lot of different acts of mob violence were done to the African Americans in the South. Wells focused on lynching of African Americans by the mob. The reasons given for lynching were "allegations of murder, burglary, arson, poisoning water and livestock, insulting whites, being insolent, and other perceived 'offenses,' and sometimes they were lynched on no charges at all"(29). These reasons were not very legitimate. The lynchings could have been handled in a different way as in a court and jury, not by a mob. The mob violence really attacked the African Americans to a point where they had no say in the doings. The people that were mistreated were men, women, and children. Ida B. Wells reported in A Red Record that "during a single year, 1892, 241 men, women, and children across 26 states were lynched. Of the 241, 160 people were identified as African Americans, which represented an increase of 200 percent over the ten-year period since 1882"( 10). This shows that at the time of Reconstruction, violence toward African Americans increased rapidly. Often, African Americans were lynched for odd reasons. Many African American men were lynched for alleged rape of white women even though they had been in a...

American History Since 1900 assignment four Essay

American History Since 1900 assignment four - Essay Example This of course leads to abuses against due process that is guaranteed in the constitution. The idea that someone is innocent until proven guilty was perverted by the weight of congressional hearings during the McCarthy Era. If a person chose to refuse to incriminate himself or herself by claiming their 5th amendment rights, they would be viewed as guilty. On the other hand, if they chose to testify on their own behalf, then they could be forced to incriminate others. This placed citizens accused of un-American activities in an unjust situation. One Hollywood personality that chose to testify was Edward Dmytryk. He naively thought that if he testified, the public would back him and the left-leaning friends he had would come to his rescue. He attempted to testify and he was made to appear guilty. He lost many friends and his job as a result. Lillian Hillman refused to testify by invoking her 5th amendment rights. Many thought this would only serve to make her appear guilty, but she rep orts hearing individuals in the audience making positive comments about her willingness to stand-up to the congressional committee. Vietnam was another country in Asia that was under pressure to become a Communist country. President Kennedy described the countries falling in Asia as dominoes. If one falls then another will follow. America tried to create a government in the south to withstand Communist pressure from the north. This failed so the United States chose to escalate the war through a campaign of bombing. Ground troops were added but proved largely ineffective. America divided between supporters and protestors of the war in Vietnam. President Nixon finally got the Vietcong to come to the peace table. The war was a defeat for America. With the election of President Reagan in 1980, America took a large turn towards becoming a more conservative nation. President Reagan worked hard to incorporate a new conservative agenda into domestic policy. Government funding of abortions t hrough Medicaid was banned. Many gains for gays and lesbians at the local lever were overturned and the overall size of government was reduced. Taxes were cut because Reagan believed that free enterprise was the best way to grow an economy. Spending on the military was increased in an effort to out-produce the Soviet Union. This resulted in the Soviet Union failing eventually, but also made government deficits. Richard Nixon’s political strategy reflected the racial and radicalism of his era in several ways. He ran on a strong platform of law and order. He wanted to show America that the hippies and their kind were actually the minority of people in America, not the majority. The complete chaos created by rioting minorities in urban areas and the debacle of the Democratic convention in Chicago played into Nixon’s hand. Many Americans actually expressed their view that the students at Kent State deserved to get shot. This need for law and order is what Nixon was able to tap into. He was easily elected as President. The main causes of the Watergate Scandal were the illegal and unethical methods that the Nixon administration were employing to find out about their Democratic challenger’s strategy. They hired individuals to steal secrets and the thieves were caught. What added to the scandal was the fact that Nixon denied that