Virtual Team

Project management

Week 3 Hand-in Assignment - Virtual teams

2) Most academic writers underline the vital and critical importance of communication in project management; it is not different when managing a virtual team, but in some cases, keeping communication running and efficient might be a challenging job for manager of the virtual team.

Face-to- face communication is limited, but it has been claimed by researchers that such a personal interaction among team members is vital for the success of the team and the project, even though it can usually happen when team members meet up for a kick-off meeting when formally announcing the start of the projects, or before each major phase in large projects. (Duarte and Snyder, 1999; Gibson and Cohen, 2003, cited in Verburg et al, 2012, p. 3) Therefore it is important to arrange face-to-face meeting and facilitate relationship building (i.e. attending conferences, training and meetings), providing an opportunity to team members to meet up and see each other, as these personal interactions also promote the development of trust. (Oertig & Buergi, 2006, p. 25) Virtual communication is also challenging because of the possible different time zones, which makes coordination of work difficult, and PMs “need to keep finding new ways to communicate across time zones and work around geographical barriers.” (Oertig & Buergi, 2006, p. 29) Project managers have to understand the advantages and limitations of virtual communication, and choose the best suitable channel and method for the team, and as Grosse suggests (2002) the selected communication channels also have to consider the audience. Virtual communication has to encourage open and honest communication, and brainstorming, “share the responsibility and rewards of success”, problems and conflict should be addressed and solved together, and should “focus on the team, rather than the individual” using the “power of the team”. (Grosse, 2002, p. 27)

Mortensen, M., O’Leary, M....