Business Decision Making (Team Work) - Essay Example

Building a Virtual Team Building as well as managing a virtual team is quite a challenging task that requires a holistic approach.Basically, interdependence as well as synergy of efforts is very important in as far as teamwork is concerned. The objective of team building is to improve the coordinative efforts of team members which will result in increasing the group’s performance (Robbins, 1993). When building a virtual team, there are quite a number of elements that ought to be considered. Even though people may work far from each other, coordinated efforts have to be implemented in order to build an effective team that is geared towards the attainment of the desired goals.

Essentially, activities considered in team building include goal setting, development of interpersonal relations among the team members, role analysis to clarify each member’s roles and responsibilities (Robbins, 1993). In spite of the fact that members of a virtual team do not work in a face to face contact, it can be noted that team goals should be clearly defined so that each person is aware of the tasks he or she is expected to perform. There are several advantages that can be derived from teamwork when managing a project.

The efforts of the team members are synergised so that they are directed towards the attainment of the desired goals and objectives. The combined effort of team members is likely to produce positive results compared to individual effort. Basically, team building attempts to use high interaction among group members in order to increase trust and openness (Robbins, 1993). This entails that communication is mainly used in the team building process. However, communication across cultures can be challenging in a virtual team.

In a virtual team, effort should be made to ensure that people from different backgrounds share a common understanding towards something. Korac-Kakabadse, Kouzmin, Korac-Kakabadse, & Savery (2001, p.5) posit to the effect that the “major reasons for difficulties encountered in cross-cultural communication stem from the fact that actors from different cultures have different understandings regarding the interaction process and different styles of dialogue.” In a virtual team, efforts should be made to ensure that people from different cultures should interact by way of communication where they are in a position to share the established pattern of behaviour as well as meaning of the organizational context.

Lin & Miller (2003) also suggest that when people conduct business across borders, they bring to the negotiation table different cultures. These cultural aspects need to be taken into consideration when building a virtual team. There are various stages involved in team building. According to Tuckman-Jensen model of group development of 1965, the following stages are involved in team development: forming, storming, norming, performance and adjourning (Schultz, 2003). This model can be used in the development of a virtual team.

The forming stage is the foundation stage and it is usually characterised by uneasiness given the members are still new to each other. In order to avoid the negative factors that can affect team development, the leader should act as unifying force among all members of the team. The storming stage is quite challenging since people often misunderstand each other given that their behaviour and culture are not uniform. However, dialogue can be used to solve this particular challenge. In theory, people’s behaviour is not uniform so it should be changed in this case.

The norming stage is concerned with assigning roles and tasks to different team members. This is quite easy if all team members have agreed on the goals. Performance and adjourning stages are quite simple since everyone would be aware of what would be expected from them. However, the leader should carefully guide the team members through different stages of team development in order to build a strong team. According to Mills (2002), team leader credibility can be achieved if the leader strives to treat his followers as important.

If one is a leader, he or she should behave in a unique but admirable way that is adored by the followers so that mutual understanding in the team can be created. A leader of a virtual team should make an effort to ensure that all the team members are given the opportunity to contribute towards the decision making process so that they can develop a sense of belonging to the team. When establishing the goals of a virtual team, it would be advantageous to begin by having the team members attempt to suggest or define their preferred goals and priorities of the group since this will enable them to share similar perceptions about their main purpose.

It also becomes easier for the leadership to assign different tasks and roles if the employees are aware of what is expected from them. ReferencesKorac-Kakabadse, N., Kouzmin, A., Korac-Kakabadse, A., & Savery, L. (2001) ‘Low- and High-Context Communication Patterns: Towards Mapping Cross-Cultural Encounters.’ Volume 8 Number 2 2001.Lin, X & Miller, J.S. (2003). ‘Negotiation approaches: direct and indirect effect ofnational culture, International Marketing Review, Vol. 20 No. 3, pp. 286-303.Mills, D.H. (2002). Essentials of leadership.

Accra: Parchment House.Robbins, S.P.C. (1993). Organisational behaviour: Concepts, controversies and applications. 6th Edition. Englewood Cliffs. NJ. Prentice Hall.Schultz, H. (2003) ed. Organisational behaviour. Pretoria. Van Schaik Publishers.