• Identifying other textual and visual information that will support the final recommendations
I have found out that while continuing the work for the Freedom Consulting Services, I have to create a virtual work environment for the virtual team associated with the organizations. Outside Santa Fe, New Mexico, a smaller consulting organization is also acquired by Freedom Consulting that operates in UK, India and Brazil. Therefore, right now the organization has two primary offices in Santa Fe and London. To make all the teams working simultaneously irrespective of the time zones and remote locations, I have to create a specific logistics for making a work environment for the virtual teams.
For this I started consulting other textual and visual information work that specifies the recommendations of creating a virtual work environment for virtual teams. The textual and visual references have made me find out two relevant practices that would help the proper establishment of the virtual work environment and I would like to share that below:
Creating a predictable rhythm mimicking a workplace: I need to establish a set working hours and make the virtual team report to all the relevant works during that time only. The way by which this would work is by setting up of a proper log in and log out time with respect to the virtual team members. All members need to acknowledge all communication modes and be available only during the set working hours. Neither their queries would be entertained before or after the set working hours or they would be bothered with office related issues during that time.
Communicate or over-communicate: Communication is the key for any sort of work environment, be it physical or virtual. Therefore, it would not be regarded as excessive if there is over communication in the virtual work environment. I should ensure that the virtual team understands this including the perils of non-verbal communications. I would make them realize the negativity of non-verbal communication and how textual misunderstanding has the potential of breaking an entire organization. This is the only way by which organizational information can be seamlessly shared without a physical entity.
• Impact of proposed strategies on the organization
I believe that the proposed strategy would bring about positive impact to the virtual team established to handle the business through the two primary offices in London and Santa Fe. Since the acquired organization is a small scale business, it is not much of a difficulty in handling the works of the consulting organization from the two different sources. The number of employees for both the primary offices are low in number and so it would not be much of a difficulty in handling the business operations from the strategies specified in the entire plan for handling the virtual teams.
If the team follows a proper utilization of the virtual office environment by accepting the mimicking of a fixed office timing and being available only during the specific timings. On the other hand, the communication, even over communication would not do any harm to the organization but would actually help in feasible establishment of the information sharing within the organization. It is only going to work in the positive way for the Freedom Consulting Services since the virtual communication and working team depends upon the correct share of information. Information and the proper meaning of the shared information needs to be properly shared and for that, I believe that over-communicating would not do only harm but good.
• Ethical and moral consideration of the implementation of the proposed strategies
Ethical and moral considerations are the most
important aspects that I need to take care of for a proper implementation of
the virtual teams. This is because, the teams are going to be from two
different areas, Santa Fe and London. Both of these offices lie in two
different continents and of course the associated virtual team would have the differences
in culture between them. For this I need to ensure that I keep an open mind to
accept all the suggestions and communication processes that the virtual teams
deliver. I would ensure that the teams have an open mind throughout and
acknowledges the difference in culture between them as well as respect every
culture. The communication would be made as transparent and honest as possible.
It needs to be kept in mind about the organization and the people associated
with it. The Western and the Eastern culture needs to be understood in the most
compassionate way possible to let the virtual team work seamlessly.
Bibliography
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Davis, D. C., & Scaffidi-Clarke, N. M. (2016). Leading Virtual Teams: Conflict and Communication Challenges for Leaders. In Handbook of Research on Effective Communication, Leadership, and Conflict Resolution (pp. 196-209). IGI Global.
Dube, S., & Marnewick, C. (2016). A conceptual model to improve performance in virtual teams. South African Journal of Information Management, 18(1), 1-10.
Killingsworth, B., Xue, Y., & Liu, Y. (2016). Factors influencing knowledge sharing among global virtual teams. Team Performance Management, 22(5/6), 284-300.
Paul, R., Drake, J. R., & Liang, H. (2016). Global virtual team performance: The effect of coordination effectiveness, trust, and team cohesion. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 59(3), 186-202.
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