Professional Challenge: Building Trust, Essay Example

In the modern conditions of leading business and managing personnel a lot of managers and entrepreneurs face the problem of coordinating the work of virtual teams. From one point of view virtual teams provide great benefits for the companies, enabling them to hire a team of specialists that is able to pursue the same goals and to meet common obligations and deadlines while being scattered across various geographical locations. From another point of view management of virtual teams may become a real problem due to the distance that separates team members. I think that the major professional challenge in this case turns out to be building a community in virtual teams. The main aspects of such a challenge include obtaining and maintaining trust among the members of the team; understanding cultural differences of specialists who are working together as one team, what benefits can be obtained from these differences and to what types of conflicts they may lead; and also generating the sense of fairness and equality among the members of the group. So to sum up all of the above statements it seems to me that the main professional challenge in building and managing virtual teams is the need to establish trust and community within such a team.

In their article Bell and Kozlowski (2002) presented theoretical aspects of how virtual teams operate from inside and how they can be understood. “Despite their growing prevalence, relatively little is known about this new form of work unit” (A Typology of Virtual Teams, p.15). At the same time Bell and Kozlovski provide practical implications for the leadership of virtual teams. The article is also useful because it gives a classification of different types of virtual teams and distinguishes key characteristics and features of each type. Thus having this information and knowing how to apply it in the creation and management of a virtual team, it becomes much easier for the managers to face the professional challenge of building trust within different types of virtual teams and to solve a number of problems connected with virtual teams. For instance, managers are able to identify the complexity of tasks that can be assigned to the team on the whole and to each of its members in particular; to identify whether there is a real team sense and synergy between the members of the team; and many others factors that may turn out to be crucial for the effective operation of the virtual team.

One of the key problems that occurs while managing a virtual team is the need to build trust among members of that team and therefore to find the right way for the team members to communicate with one another. In their research Hambley, O’Neill, & Kline (2007) outlined three main communication medias that can be used by virtual teams. “Teams communicate through one of the following three ways: (a) face-to-face, (b) desktop videoconference , or (c) text-based chat” (Virtual Team Leadership, p.6). Authors of the article not only provided the description of each media, but they also studied effects of the chosen communication media on team’s interaction style and outcomes of their work cooperation. Results of this research showed that “the mean constructive interaction score was higher in FTF than videoconference and chat teams, but not significantly higher in videoconference than chat teams; and that teams working in richer communication media did not achieve higher task performance than those communicating through less rich media” (Virtual Team Leadership, p.9). So the final conclusion was drawn that even though the choice of a communication media is important, it doesn’t have the most crucial influence on team’s cohesion and mutual understanding in the team.

The effect of communicational choices for virtual teams was also studied in the article of Ahuja and Carley (1999), but the greatest emphasis in this article was made on the importance of communicational structure and hierarchy within the virtual team. They also researched what type of relationships exists between task routines, organizational structure and performance in virtual teams.  In this research it was found that in virtual teams task-structure fits predicted perceived performance, but at the same time task-structure and communication structure don’t fit predicted objective performance. In other words it was suggested that the achievement of team’s objectives and goals isn’t always based on the communicational structure and hierarchy that is used in a virtual team.

Thus different researches showed ( which didn’t turn out to be a huge surprise) that one of the most important aspects in achieving a successful management of virtual teams and building community in them turned out to be the recognition and overcome of the cultural, geographical and generational differences of the team members. “The concept of virtual implies permeable interfaces and boundaries; and individuals with differing competencies who are located across time, space and cultures” (Jarvenpaa & Leidner, 1999). In the virtual team as in a traditional team members’ relations play the main part in group performance and team members satisfaction. Thus the need to build a healthy working environment and to create a positive relationship (which includes trust and equality) between virtual team members stays one of the most crucial factors, as stated by Lurey & Raisinghani (2001).

So I can draw a conclusion that the professional challenge of building a community and trust within the virtual team can become a real problem for the company, and the company may have to spend a lot of time, money and resources to solve this problem and to achieve an effective virtual team leadership. Experts say that in virtual teams, as well as in traditional ones, one the main elements of effective and successful operation is the recognition and abolition of cultural, generational and geographical differences that exist between the members of virtual teams. This can be achieved in a number of ways, for example: 1) through the application of a clear system of tasks disposition; 2) through usage of an appropriate communicational structure and medias of communication between the members of the team; 3) through establishment of a clear hierarchy and fair reward system; 4) by providing equal conditions of work; etc. So, there might be a number of important issues and problems connected with the management of virtual teams, but still such benefits as responsiveness, flexibility, lower costs, and improved resource utilization in virtual teams may become crucial points in achieving company’s goals, competitive advantages and successful realization of company’s strategic and operational plans in terms of highly dynamic and turbulent global business environments.

References

Bell, B.S., & Kozlowski, S. W. (2002). A Typology of Virtual Teams: Implications for Effective Leadership. Group & Organization Management, 27 (1), 14-49. Retrieved March 11, 2009, from Sage Journals database.

Hambley, L. A., O’Neill, T.O., & Kline, T.J. (2007). Virtual team leadership: The effects of leadership style and communication medium on team interaction styles and outcomes. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Process, 103 (1), 1-20. Retrieved March 11, 2009, from ScienceDirect database.

Jarvenpaa, S. L., Leidner, D.E. (1999). Communication and Trust in Global Virtual Teams. Organization Science, 10 (6), 791-815. Retrieved March 11, 2009, from JSTOR achieve for scholarship.

Lurey, J. S., Raisinghani, M. S. (2001). An Emperical Study of Best Practices in Virtual Teams. Information & Management, 38 (8), 523-544. Retrieved March 11, 2009, from ScienceDirect database.

Ahuja, M. K., Carley, K. M. (1999). Network Structure in Virtual Organizations. Organization Science, 10 (6), 741-757. Retrieved March 11, 2009, from JSTOR achieve for scholarship.