Self-Reflection of Leading Virtual Teams

Please read the article noted below and answer the three questions provided.

The Article Malhotra, A., Majchrzak, A., & Rosen, B. (2007). Leading virtual teams. Academy of Management Perspectives, 21, 60-70. doi: 10.5465/AMP.2007.24286164.

1-In your own words, describe how the authors collected their data from virtual team members and leaders.  

The researcher has collected data from the virtual team members, their sponsors, and leaders through conducting surveys and interviews. They began their research by following a team at Boeing Rocketdyne throughout its project life cycle. Furthermore, they interview the team members, leaders, and sponsors. They attended the meetings of 55 successful virtual teams from 33 companies to observe the challenges that are faced by virtual team leaders.

The research team collected the data in two phases. The first phase involved the data collection for one virtual team Boeing-Rocketdyne. The second phase involved a thorough inspection of the virtual team leadership practices in the industry by following 54 virtual teams for six months. This team was selected for their success. The success was measured by an Executive who was familiar with the team, but not a part of it. The Executive was asked to rate teams in the context of their outputs, efficiency, innovations, and adherence to budget and schedule. The 54 selected teams belonged to 33 companies. The data collection started by interviewing the team leader and then leading on to asking the team members to complete a web-based survey. The data collected from the interviews and the survey was regarded as research data.

2-In your own words, summarize each of the six practices the authors identify as key to successfully leading virtual teams.

The six leadership practices identified by the researchers to be crucial to the success of the virtual team leaders are;

1. Establishment and maintenance of trust by using technology for communication. Leaders were able to do this by focusing on the ways the information was to be communicated. They revised and adjusted the norms of communication in virtual get-togethers. Equal suffering was made possible in the geographically distributed world.
2. The leaders ensured diversity in their teams and made sure that it is understood, leveraged, and appreciated. The use of skills matrix and the team expertise directory is one example of such efforts. The rotation of sub-members and sub-teaming to make sure that diversity is made a priority while making teams
3. The management of the virtual work-cycle is also one of the main factors in the use of idea convergence, and conflict resolutions in the virtual meetings made it possible. The virtual meetings were used to build social relationships as well.
4. Team progress is monitored through technology utilization. The use of electronic threaded discussions and instant messaging is instrumental. Using a balanced scorecard measurement to make progress explicit and post it in the team workspace (virtual).
5. The improvement of external visibility of the team and its members using frequent report-outs in front of the steering committee.
6. The assurance of individual benefits of participation in the virtual teams is another factor as it was backed by virtual reward ceremonies, recognition at the start of each meeting.

3-What do you think is the take-home message from this article?

The key takes away from the case would be that any team to become successful needs a successful relationship between the teams. This can be assured by making the working relationships feel free to share their ideas, anticipate one another’s actions, have confidence and trust in all the members, and make a considerable contribution to the team and be proud of it. Virtual team members are more critical of overcoming all the coordination and communication barriers while working across time and distance. There should not be any members feeling of isolation, and the team should be built upon norms of collaboration, motivating each other, knowledge sharing, and commitment to the team mission. For this, it is needed that the leaders are well equipped with the skills needed. In a virtual team, it all goes down to communication. The main job of the leader is to communicate, and it becomes more difficult in a virtual team. It shows that the leader should know how to communicate a clear, concise, and equally passionate message to its members to make them stay committed to their jobs (Malhotra, Majchrzak, & Rosen, 2007).

References

Malhotra, A., Majchrzak, A., & Rosen, B. (2007). Leading Virtual Teams. Academy of Management Perspectives, 21(February), 60-70.