Online Relationships - Essay Example

In fact, virtual teams have become so important that many companies cannot do well without them because of the fact that some of the most brilliant ideas tend to come from such teams. The heavy reliance of these companies on the virtual teams has come to make them indispensable and because of this, they have come to attract dynamic groups of individuals from all over the world and this has enabled the development of ideas at a grand scale since they are a merger of ideas from diverse cultures.

As a result, virtual teams have become essential in the modern economic world and it is most likely that they are here to stay. Working in virtual teams can be said to be a way through which employees of some organizations or institutions are allowed to work away from a centralized workplace, using available information technologies. In such cases, these individual do not have to go to work, and instead, they send and receive whatever assignments they have online, and this ensures that they are able to work from the comfort of their own homes and at their own time.

Such working arrangements involve individuals within the virtual team working at a place, which is convenient for them. This may include at home, or at a coffee shop and this trend can be said to have been growing for more than thirty years and it is increasingly becoming popular especially because of the fact that many companies have little office space to spare. Virtual teams have been taken advantage of by many companies because they not only save on office space, but they also allow these companies to get more work done by having more employees without having to create space for them to work.

In addition, because of the global availability of the internet, it has become easier to employ individuals from all over the world irrespective of their nationalities or cultural backgrounds. When working within virtual teams, the home might up becoming the workplace of those individuals involved in them and to make it more of a comfortable working environment, such an individual will always equip with the necessary accessories. Even if the individuals in the team work at the office, on the other hand, it also gives them the ability to be able to collaborate with others on the same field not only in writing but also in the development of projects that come from the different ideas from the various members of the team.

Since most of the individuals who work in virtual team can work from anywhere, either in their homes or at their offices, the differences between home and work eventually become blurred, and the privacy, which the home previously provided, is lost. This means that the home is no longer seen to be a refuge from a hard day’s work, but an extension of the workplace and it is possible that such situations may be problematic for some of these individuals because it leads to an increase in work related stress.

In addition, the traditional way through which people worked and interacted at the office is lost, since the close proximity and interpersonal interactions, which could be achieved at the workplace, is lost. Virtual teams encourage the isolation of an individual from any form of social life and this may be detrimental to their mental health. In conclusion, it can be said that virtual teaming is a growing trend