Lesson 5: Teams and Leadership

Identify a team in which you have had many opportunities to participate, observe, and interact. This team does not necessarily need to be from industry; however, please review the concepts below that you will be required to discuss prior to selecting the team you wish to cover. The list of concepts may help you select or eliminate certain teams. The team you choose should have been in existence over a reasonable period in order for you to discuss team development and to have specific examples to support your conclusions.

If you have never personally participated in a team suited for this activity, you may select a team in which you were not a member and interview two (2) or more team members. In your interviews, you should focus on each of the concepts below that will then be developed into an essay. You should not simply ask, “What type of team is this?” because many people are not familiar with the terms you have learned in this course. Rather, you should ask more general questions such as, “Are each of the team members in the same department, or are they in different departments? Are all members in one location? Do team members meet in person, or is their communication only via e-mail, voicemail, or teleconferencing?”

After identifying a team, write an essay describing that team with the concepts presented in the text. The objective of your essay is to demonstrate that you understand the concepts and that you can apply them to a real-world situation; therefore, you should discuss/explain each of the following five (5) concepts and then relate your team to each concept using examples. Provide two (2) or three (3) examples for each concept.

1. Type of Team: functional team, cross-functional team, self-managed team, virtual team, or global team

2. Team members’ characteristics, including expertise and functional experience

3. Team culture and how it affects their ability to implement employee participation

4. Team challenges: developing groupthink, presence of free-riders, negativity, and lack of trust

5. Team leadership and how it affects employee participation

Activity 5: Team Essay

Name

Department/Institution

Course

Instructor

Due Date

Activity 5: Team Essay

Teams and Leadership

Type of Team

Virtual team. A virtual team, which is also known as a geographically dispersed or a distributed team, refers to a team or group of people who work together on a project or group activity from different geographical locations. These types of teams depend on communication technology such as fax, email, voice and video conferencing, and telephone to collaborate and interact. A virtual team may also be a group of people working together across organizational levels. Ale Ebrahim et al. (2009) define virtual teams as “small temporary groups of geographically, organizationally and/or time dispersed knowledge workers who coordinate their work predominantly with electronic information and communication technologies to accomplish one or more organization tasks.”

Team Members’ Characteristics

A virtual team has an executive support system that ensures that all team members perform their roles and functions as assigned. Executive support provides the team with direction and assigns tasks to the team. The team members use various technological communication channels for purposes of interaction and information exchange (Ale Ebrahim et al., 2009). A communication channel has to be always present and online at all times to ensure that the team members can deliver their completed assigned tasks, submit progress reports, and communicate with each other. The communication channel may be email, voice conferencing, video conferencing, video calls, fax, or any other form of technological communication. The team members of a virtual team are people with diverse skills. These skills are valuable for the team since they result in the acquisition of a competitive advantage in the market. this is important since most virtual teams are used when organizations are undertaking projects such as product development and marketing campaigns. These diverse skills also ensure that the team can complete all assigned tasks effectively.

The members of a virtual team enjoy mutual respect and leadership is within the team. The team leaders are strong and well respected by the other members of the team. Also, the members of a virtual team engage only in meaningful communication with each other. They understand the importance of engaging in meaningful communication. Therefore, they establish and maintain proper standards of communication, work diligently on their tone when communicating, and learn how to be more perceptive of the emotions and non-verbal cues of the messages communicated. This is important as it eliminates miscommunication. The members have a positive work attitude. This is often indicated by their willingness to work together and find solutions whenever a problem arises. A virtual team has a strong conflict management mechanism (Ale Ebrahim et al., 2009). This ensures that when conflicts among team members arise, they are quickly and effectively resolved. Unnecessary confrontations are avoided this way. Lastly, members understand the importance of attentiveness during visual and verbal interactions. Attentiveness ensures effective communication and eliminates miscommunication.

Team Culture

Virtual teams have a market culture where members are focused on the completion of work to satisfy the customer while meeting the goals of the company. The primary focus of the team is the customer. Also, virtual organizational teams strive to develop the best services and products for the customers. The members of a virtual team normally adopt a culture of openness that facilitates trust amongst them (Workman, 2005). Trust is built between team members by demonstrating integrity in their actions and exceptional competence in individual abilities. Dependability is key since members are expected to show commitment and fulfill the roles assigned to them. A culture of openness and trust facilitates good personal relationships between members and ensures that members work together effectively. It also encourages participation to ensure that all the members contribute and share their ideas and expertise to realize the best possible outcome during projects and work.

Team Challenges

Lack of trust is one of the most common challenges for virtual teams within organizations (Lipnack & Stamps, 2000). This arises since there is no close relationship and communication to ensure that work is done effectively. Physical communication, which boosts trust and understanding, is absent in the communication and interaction of virtual teams. This often results in the development of poor relationships and working environment. Lack of trust results in poor work quality and conflict. Virtual teams also suffer the challenge of poor communication as a result of misunderstandings, miscommunication, and incompatible communication channel preferences amongst members. Other challenges that virtual team may face include differences in work ethic amongst members, frequent second-guessing, lack of role clarity and direction, lack of adequate sense of ownership and commitment, difficulty with the delegation of duties, inability to ask the right questions, incompetence of members, suspicion, mismatched skills, lack of personal connection, poor leadership, and lack of empathy (Lipnack & Stamps, 2000).

Team Leadership

The role of a virtual team leader is to sensitize the members to work together in the best interest of the company. The leader has to be compassionate and must have the ability to motivate members (Bolman & Deal, 2017). The leader has to understand the members and listen to their contributions and concerns to encourage participation. Lastly, the leader of a virtual team has to understand the cultures and diversity within the team, which may pose challenges for the team. This way, the leader will equip themselves with the necessary information and tools to ensure the effectiveness of the team.

References

Ale Ebrahim, N., Ahmed, S., & Taha, Z. (2009). Virtual R&D teams in small and medium enterprises: A literature review. Scientific Research and Essays, 4(13), 1575-1590.

Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2017). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership. John Wiley & Sons.

Lipnack, J., & Stamps, J. (2000). Virtual teams. People working across boundaries with technology (2. edition). John Wiley.

Workman, M. (2005). Virtual team culture and the amplification of team boundary permeability on performance. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 16(4), 435-458.