The Raygen Company Slump, Case Study Example

The Raygen cross-functional virtual team appears to have slackened in performance over the years. This may be due to a number of underlying structural problems. The following is a recommendation on actions to take so as to ensure optimal virtual team performance.

Creating Accountability

It is important that all team members be accountable for their actions so as to foster dedication. In order to do this, it is essential that face-to-face meetings between the team leader and each of the individual team members be organized (Beyerlein, Beyerlein, Bradley, & Nemiro, 2010). These meetings will help each team member identify the areas of weaknesses within the team and their contribution towards these weakness. The team members will be allowed to highlight their strengths and value they add to the project while taking responsibility for their mistakes.

Internal Survey

To help management identify the weaknesses that have been identified by all the individual team members, the team leader would distribute an anonymous survey to collect all the information pertinent to the understanding of underlying problems. This data will then be analysed and logical conclusions drawn.

Team Members Commitment

It is essential that the team leader gets the team members to be committed to the cause, in realizing set deadlines and targets. Commitment can be achieved through the use of consultation, where the views and opinions the views and opinions of every team member are put into consideration where creating policy and changes that will affect the functionality and efficiency of the virtual team as a unit. This creates the ideology of their existence as stake holders and opposed to labourers of the company (DeRosa & Lepsinger, 2010). This is essential in creating a sense of ownership, obligation and duty in fulfilling their required tasks and responsibilities. This draws admiration and a sense of identity in the virtual team member. The team leader can call for consultations with the team member on how to monitor progress against goals.

Review Virtual Team Goals and Expectations

It is essential that the virtual team embers remind themselves of the organization goals. Each member is them to identify their role in achieving the organization and project goals. From this each team member can deduce their individual goals as pertaining to the set time deadlines and availability of resources.

It is also important that the team leader accesses their expectations from each team member. This will be essential in ensuring that all individual goals are aligned with the expectation for each member. It will help define the extent to which one individual is expected to commit to produce results that will help the organization realize desired goals and targets.

Recognition of Contributions

The team leader can take the opportunity to recognize past records of success and look on them as a gauge to the amount of effort required to realize optimal performance. It is essential that the virtual team leader develops a mechanism that allows him to identify the contributions made by each virtual team member (DeRosa & Lepsinger, 2010). By publicly acknowledging the effort given by a given virtual team member, the virtual team leader inspires and instils zeal into the recognized virtual team member and the other virtual team members as well. The prospect of recognition carries with it social status and respect amongst fellow virtual team members and the virtual team leader.

In conclusion, the team leader is required to create accountability amongst the team members and gaining their commitment through consulting them. By involving them in the decision making process, they become more accountable in their actions. It is also essential that the team leader recognizes the team members’ contributions in past instances of success. This will also help in identifying each team member’s expectations and goals.

References

Beyerlein, M., Beyerlein, S., Bradley, L., & Nemiro, J. (2010). The Handbook of High-Performance Virtual Team. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

DeRosa, D. M., & Lepsinger, R. (2010). Virtual team success : a practical guide for working and leading from a distance.San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Meister, J. C., & Willyerd, K. (2010, June 30). Leading Virtual Teams to Real Results. Retrieved from HBR Blog Network: http://blogs.hbr.org/2010/06/leading-virtual-teams-to-real/