|
Virtual Teams
Recent developments in communications
technology, such as email, web pages and video conferencing
are allowing the formation of teams with
geographically distributed members.  Labelled
virtual teams, they represent an important emerging
organisational structure which facilitates collaboration
between team members located almost anywhere in the
world.
The implementation of a virtual
team structure has been shown to produce many benefits
to organizations across a wide variety of situations.
Some of these benefits include:
· reduced real estate expenses
· increased productivity
· access to global markets
· environmental benefits
Virtual teams are becoming increasingly
popular with workers who want to work at home, which
can increase employee satisfaction as well as reduce
the organization's real estate costs. Productivity
may increase because team members do not have to
travel as frequently, which may take considerable
time, cause stress as well as cost the organization
a great deal of money. Reduced travel (such as to
and from work, nationally or internationally) also
creates environmental benefits through reduced
pollution. Furthermore, as a result of using appropriate
communication media, a virtual team is not limited
to members from the same physical location or organization
and as such, team members can be assembled according
to the skills and backgrounds required, from anywhere
in the world.
If a virtual team is comprised
of members from different countries, it may also enable
the organization to become more flexible and
to compete globally. Another benefit of virtual teams
is that when they draw upon global resources, they
can typically work twenty-four hours a day instead
of eight or nine hours a traditional team typically
works.
Al Jury, Executive Director of
Alfresco Design has extensive practical and theoretical
experience in this area, including PhD research in
effective leadership in virtual teams.
Contact
Alfresco Design to find out how to implement a
virtual team structure in your organisation.
|
