RESEARCH METHODS FOR MANAGERS - Assignment Example

Download file to see previous pages The ability to form teams virtually that will operate across the limitations of time, distance and organizational boundaries have proven to be the successful for the organizations. These teams use electronic collaboration technologies and other techniques to lower facility and travelling costs, reduce project schedules and improve decision making communication and time. Since companies are more focused on foreign markets for expanding their base of customer, they are also looking at lowering costs or exacting effectiveness by tapping the foreign labor pool. For this purpose, outsourcing and off- shoring have become very prevalent. The result is that firms are able to achieve substantial cost saving and decrease their time to market when building software solutions, offering services, manufacturing products since additional risks are managed effectively (Gruhn, Volker, Schope & Lothar, 2002, P. 254). Today the management desires to establish international presence by exacting operating efficiencies and reducing costs of distributed teams created by mergers, acquisitions, technical specialization and downsizing. Organizations that do not use virtual teams effectively have difficulty in competing in the global, competitive and rapidly changing markets. Those organizations that will succeed in finding ways of working across boundaries like systems, technologies, people and procedure. Literature Review Managing virtual teams can be more complex than managing traditional teams, however. First, virtual teams primarily communicate and collaborate by using technology such as e-mail, groupware, etc. Virtual teams exclusively depend on software and technology tools to collaborate and communication, whereas the teams that are traditional can always abandon technology and software tools in favor of face-to-face communication and collaboration. Secondly, boundaries were crossed by virtual teams in relation to organization, distance, and time. This raises the need of attention towards the issues of collaboration and communication ...Download file to see next pagesRead More