Communication and Virtual teams

Summary:

Communication is how the ideas are transmitted between people through different means. The most common and known communication way is the interpersonal communication, which is the base for building and maintaining relationships. There are four main elements for this type of communication: the communicator, the receiver, the perceptual screens and the message. In order to have a good communication, the listener must be reflective, and the characteristics of this type of listener are: pay attention to the sender of the information, giving an appropriate feedback and try to correct any mistake that occurs during this process.

The effective managers must communicate in a proper way to make them clear, that’s why they must be: expressive speakers and express openly in order to show what they want to achieve, empathetic listeners and being willing to listen, persuasive leaders and motivate other people to achieve goals and not just giving orders, sensitive to feelings and improve the self-esteem of the employees, and finally informative and provide the necessary information to the employees.

The main principles of an effective communication are:

• Clarity: to give an idea clearly.

• Objective: don’t take any side when giving the information.

• Understanding: to give the information completely and avoid missing any important detail.

• Consistency: to have the same position during the communication.

• Completeness: to include all the relevant information.

• Feedback: to return the message given in order to be sure that the information was well received.

• Time: giving the information in the time required.

There is a new practice called Virtual Teams in which members work in more than one physical location and is based on the use of technology as a communication mediator. There are some characteristics of the virtual teams that are relevant: they are geographically dispersed, are driven by a common purpose, are enabled by communication technologies, normally they are not big and requires workers with different and complementary knowledge. The use of virtual teams might be a solution to enhance the performance and competitiveness and can represent also opportunities for intellectual growth and the transfer of information.

Some advantages of using the virtual teams, such as:

• Relocation of time and costs.

• Time to market to be present where the market changes occur and improve coordination.

• Linking experts that could be difficult to communicate in a face to face situation and to increase the chances to communicate them.

• Productivity due to the short time to develop new products.

• Flexibility because changes are implemented easier.

Bibliography:

·         Communication and Trust in Global Virtual Teams. Sirkka L. Jarvenpaa, Dorothy E. Leidner. Organization Science. Vol. 10, No. 6, Special Issue: Communication Processes for Virtual Organizations (Nov. - Dec., 1999), pp. 791-815

·         Bridging Space over Time: Global Virtual Team Dynamics and Effectiveness. Martha L. Maznevski, Katherine M. Chudoba. Organization Science. Vol. 11, No. 5 (Sep. - Oct., 2000), pp. 473-492

·         Introduction to the Special Issue: Communication Processes for Virtual Organizations. Gerardine DeSanctis, Peter Monge. Organization Science. Vol. 10, No. 6, Special Issue: Communication Processes for Virtual Organizations (Nov. - Dec., 1999), pp. 693-703

·         Network Structure in Virtual Organizations. Manju K. Ahuja, Kathleen M. Carley. Organization Science Vol. 10, No. 6, Special Issue: Communication Processes for Virtual Organizations (Nov. - Dec., 1999), pp. 741-757