Question

Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of utilizing virtual teams.

Answer 1

A virtual team (also known as a geographically dispersed team, distributed team, or remote team) refers to a group of individuals who work together from different geographic locations and rely on communication technology such as email, FAX, and video or voice conferencing services in order to collaborate.

Advantages of utilizing a virtual Team:

• Active participation in decision-making as a result of cultural diversity
• Encourages creativity and creates conflicting viewpoints because of the different backgrounds and experiences of team members
• Physically disadvantaged employees are also able to participate more in teams where communication is virtual
• Virtual teams save travel time and cost, significant expenses for businesses with multiple locations or having clients located in multiple places
• Recruitment from a larger pool of employees as people are increasingly unwilling to relocate for new jobs

Disadvantages of utilizing a virtual Team:

• Cultural diversity may impair communication due to language barriers and cultural mismatches at the workplace
• Less job-satisfaction among the team members as compared to face-to-face teams
• Difficult to build trust due to lack of face-to-face communications
• Difficulty in coordination among the team members due to the different time zones
• senior members of the virtual team must make an extra effort to catch up to the younger generation and understand the new way of communicating