Starting and Maintaining Virtual Teams ETM5110/MSIS5600 Managing Virtual Project Teams

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Starting and MaintainingVirtual Teams
ETM5110/MSIS5600Managing Virtual Project Teams

• Nicholas C. Romano, Jr., Ph.D.
• Nicholas-Romano_at_mstm.okstate.eduPaul E.
  Rossler, Ph.D., P.E.
• prossle_at_okstate.edu

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Overview

• What is the process of forming a virtual team?
• What knowledge, skills, and abilities should
  virtual team members possess?
• How do these competencies differ from those
  required in face-to-face team settings?
• What types of interdependencies are found in
  virtual teamwork?

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• What are the key roles played by the team leader?
  
• How should performance appraisal be conducted?

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Slow starters?

• Research and experience suggest that virtual
  teams often take longer to get started in
  meetings and produce results than many
  traditional teams do
• Match technology to task, type of team, team life
  cycle, team members backgrounds
• Often need help in evaluating technology and
  facilitating meetings

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Steps for starting a virtual team

• Identify team sponsors, stakeholders, champions
• Develop a team charter
• Select team members
• Contact team members
• Conduct team-orientation session
• Develop team processes

Duarte, D. L., Snyder, N. T. 2001. Mastering
Virtual Teams (2nd Ed.). San Francisco
Jossey-Bass.
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Selecting sponsor, stakeholder, and champion
based on requirements

• Can remove roadblocks
• Has cross-cultural experience
• Is respected across functions or organizations
• Organization has stake in outcome of teams work
• Can provide relevant technical or political input

Source Duarte, D. L., Snyder, N. T. (2001)
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Eliciting support early in the teams life cycle

• Review mission, purpose, goals
• Share understanding of roles
• Identify potential risks and risk mitigation
  strategies
• Develop preliminary schedule and establish
  milestone review
• Agree on methods for sharing

Source Duarte, D. L., Snyder, N. T. (2001)
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Identifying and selecting three types of team
members

• Core
• Accountable for direct task output
• Extended
• Provide expertise and advice when necessary
• Ancillary
• Review and approve teams work and deliverables

Source Duarte, D. L., Snyder, N. T. (2001)
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Knowledge, skill, and ability requirements
(traditional) teamwork

• Interpersonal
• Conflict resolution
• Collaborative problem solving
• Communication
• Self-management
• Goal Setting and performance management
• Planning and task coordination

Source Stevens, J. and M.A. Campion, The
knowledge, skill, and ability requirements for
teamwork Implications for human resource
management. Journal of Management, 1994. 20
(Summer) p. 503 ff.
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KSAs for virtual teamwork

• Project management
• Networking
• Use of technology
• Self-management
• Boundary management
• Interpersonal awareness

Source Duarte, D. L., Snyder, N. T. (2001)
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KSA relationships

• Project management
• Networking
• Use of technology
• Self-management
• Boundary management
• Interpersonal awareness

• Interpersonal
• Conflict resolution
• Collaborative problem solving
• Communication
• Self-management
• Goal Setting and performance management
• Planning and task coordination

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Establishing contact with team members prior to
initial meeting

• Call or visit each team member personally
• Provide mechanism by which team members can find
  out about one another
• Send all team members information about the team
• Make certain a forum exists for answering
  questions
• Find out who has hardware or software
  availability or compatibility problems

Source Duarte, D. L., Snyder, N. T. (2001)
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Meeting face-to-face is best for orientation
session

• Orient everyone
• Review and discuss charter
• Review team members expertise and
  accountabilities
• Develop list of team norms, technological plans,
  communication plans
• Engage in team building

Source Duarte, D. L., Snyder, N. T. (2001)
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Establishing team norms (and culture)

• Virtual meeting etiquette and management
• Guidelines regarding timeframes for returning
  calls and e-mails and use of voice mail and
  pagers
• Guidelines about using e-mail
• Which meetings must be face-to-face, which can be
  missed

Source Duarte, D. L., Snyder, N. T. (2001)
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• How work will be produced, reviewed
• How decisions will be made, how problems will be
  solved, how conflicts will be resolved
• Procedures for scheduling meetings using
  group-scheduling systems
• Types of technological applications to be used

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Example framework for prioritizing problems or
solutions
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Technology selection is driven by decisions on
how to work

• Types of Work
• Parallel
• Sequential
• Pooled Sequential

• Technology
• Simple
• Sophisticated

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Traditional project management techniques help
manage the process

• Templates
• Scheduling, assigning tasks, reporting status,
  gathering data
• Review points
• Milestones, plans, problems
• Documentation
• History, progress, how shared

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Myths regarding virtual teams

• Virtual team members can be left alone
• Reality Time and space do not alter the
  fundamental principles of team output and
  accountability
• The added complexity of using technology is
  greatly exaggerated
• Reality Complexity of communicating over time,
  distance, and organizations causes unique
  problems, not easily solved

Duarte, D. L., Snyder, N. T. 2001. Mastering
Virtual Teams (2nd Ed.). San Francisco
Jossey-Bass.
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• The leader of a cross-cultural virtual team needs
  to speak several languages, have lived in other
  countries
• Reality What is required is a sensitivity to
  other cultures and an attempt to learn how to
  communicate with team members

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• When you cant see people on a regular basis,
  its difficult to help them
• Reality Virtual environment doesnt change the
  fact that the leader must plan for team members
  next assignments, career progression
• Building trust and networking are relatively
  unimportant
• Reality Trust is the foundation for performance
  in a virtual setting

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• Every aspect of virtual teams should be planned,
  organized, and controlled
• Reality Managing a virtual team with rigid
  controls and plans often erodes the teams
  ability to experience breakthrough performance

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A key challenge in virtual teams

• Balancing coordination and collaboration with
  autonomy
• Also present in traditional teams

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Individual appraisal or team appraisal or both?

• Individual level appraisal helps reduce social
  loafing
• But ignores interaction and synergy that
  characterize excellent team performance
• Team performance assessment provides useful
  information
• But can ignore individual contribution, leading
  to freeloading

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Other key questions

• What is rated?
• Behavior, competency, outcome, or all three?
• Who provides the rating?
• Manager, project leaders, team leader, other team
  members, customers, self, coworkers
• How is the rating used?
• Development, evaluation, self-regulation
  (self-control)

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Team type influences performance appraisal
Scott, S. G., Einstein, W. O. 2001. Strategic
performance appraisal in team-based
organizations One size does not fit all. Academy
of Management Executive, 15(2) 107-116.
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Appraisal methods
Source Scott, S. G., Einstein, W. O. (2001)
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Summary

• Starting and maintaining virtual teams is a
  process, albeit a labor-intensive one
• The team leader plays a key role in establishing
  this process
• The process used influences alignment, team
  culture, and ultimate performance results