Strengthening a Virtual Team

Research has shown that the development of personal relationships between virtual team members is an important factor for working relationships (Pauleen & Yoong, 2001). Stronger relational links have been associated with higher performance (Warkentin & Beranek, 1999). Team building in a virtual team is made complex by technology, differing cultures, languages, time zones as well as distance. In my opinion, the team building of a virtual team should not be the responsibility of the project manager. This role should be fulfilled by a dedicated individual (virtual team change manager) as it is just an important a role as the management of the project will contribute to the team’s success.

According to Pauleen and Yoong (2001), there are at least 3 types of boundaries that a virtual change manager has to facilitate i.e.

Organisational – this type of boundary would occur for instance in a merger. When two organisations become one, it is the fusing of different work styles. Therefore it is the change manager’s role to bridge this gap between the team members and create a cohesive team with a single style of work (which all teams are satisfied with). In this case, change managers have to employ formal methodologies on how this can be achieved.

Cultural and Language – this type of boundary would occur in a global team which spans different countries. Culture has effects on how team members relate to each other. Miscommunication can occur if team members interpret conversations according to their own cultural programming. In this instance, the change manager has to design creative strategies to cross this boundary. An example of how this can be done, is educating the different cultures represented in a team about each other; teaching a word or sentence from each culture etc.

Time and Distance – this is a classic boundary that a virtual team has to overcome. The effect of distance on relationship building strategies is proportional to how far the team members are from each other (Pauline & Yoong, 2001). Since virtual teams rely on technology, this type of boundary would restrict the kinds of communication channels available to the change manager. Thus the change manger has to take into considerations these types of restrictions when building team building strategies.

In my view, team building in a virtual team is not an impossible task, but it is certainly challenging. Virtual team managers have to assess potential obstacles before creating relationship building strategies. With the right technology, training, experience and organizational support, these boundaries can be crossed.

This post references the following authors:
- Pauleen D.J. & Yoong, P. 2001. Relationship building and the use of ICT in boundary-crossing virtual teams: a facilitator’s perspective. Journal of Information Technology. Vol.16
- Warkentin, M. & Beranek, P.M. 1999. Training to Improve Virtual Team Communication. Information Systems Journal. Vol.9