Virtual teams less productive: HR Research Findings
Stumble It!The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) reports in a “Meta Analysis of Virtual Teams” that virtual teams are less productive and demonstrate worse judgement that ‘face to face’ teams but there are ways to improve things.
Top Challenges facing virtual teams
- Virtual teams consistently take longer to complete tasks than face-to-face teams
- Complex judgment tasks resulted in the lowest performance for virtual teams versus face-to-face teams
Top Opportunities for virtual teams
- If team members are familiar with each other prior to becoming part of the team, they are able to perform almost as effectively as face-to-face teams
- Virtual team communication improves when meetings are synchronous allowing a continuous exchange of information
The article also briefly discusses the implications of these challenges and opportunities
It worth noting however that some of findings are at odds with other research I have seen.
The reader will have to decide for themselves which research they choose to trust in these contentious areas.
Perhaps some more research is required!
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Bioteams Books Reviews
Team member responsibility problems
One of the main dilemmas for team leaders and members is the thorny issue of responsibility. We often fixate on the problem of leaders and members not taking enough responsibility but according to Dr Scott Peck they can also do damage if they try to take too much!
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