Team vs. Virtual Team

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The classical characteristics of a team are in the same time the ideal requirements:

Task related:

  • Challenging and complex tasks
  • Tasks that create interdependence

Structural:

  • Stability of the team
  • Size – small is beautiful
  • Expertise that fits the needs
  • Physical proximity
  • Rules and procedures
  • Diversity
External support related:

  • Training (technical, social skills, business understanding, etc)
  • Team-based rewards

A virtual team (Geographically Dispersed Team – GDT) – is a group of individuals who work from different spaces and on different time schedules linked by communication technology.

Virtual teamAdvantages of a virtual team:

  • The global workday is 24 vs. 8 hours – a global team has no time constraints
  • Access to talent everywhere – your best employee might be on a different continent
  • A flexible organization is more competitive and responsive to the marketplace
  • A “high trust” culture based on teamwork and collaboration

Risks of a virtual team

  • Miscommunication
  • Members must be more adaptive and face changes in assignments and tasks during the life-cycle of a project
  • A virtual team must have the ability to change membership often without losing productivity
  • If norms and role expectations are not expressed explicitly to new members, they will not adapt

Types of virtual teams

  • Network team – a group of individual that work in a collaborative manner for a common goal with no fixed membership
  • Parallel Team – a team formed only for providing recommendations on a modification of a process or system
  • Product-Development Team – project based
  • Production Teams
  • Service/Action Team – support role for customers or response in emergency situations

Incoming search terms:

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