Dear All,
During my MBA I practiced working with Virtual Team. The following is waht I encountered as step 1:
Virtual Team Development Project
GRBA 851
(Steps: 1-5)
For:
Dr. Bruce J. Avolio
Dr. Surinder Kahai
Exercised By:
Mershed Abu Rajab
MBA ? ALJ2
GRBA 851 ? Virtual Team Development Project/Paper
Step - 1
Virtual Team Project
Abstract summarizing the nature of my virtual team
A Virtual Team ? also known as Geographically Dispersed Team (GDT) ? is a group of individuals who work across time, space, and organizational boundaries with links strengthened by webs of communication technology. They have complementary skills and are committed to a common purpose, have independent goals, and share an approach to work for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.
My virtual team is composed of myself as a leader of this virtual team, and the members of this virtual team are three Parts Managers and seven Parts Supervisors who manage many other employees working under their supervision. We are working in different branches (centers) which are located in different cities in the Eastern Region (ER) of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). We are professional in TOYOTA spare parts business, and we are working together in order to deliver excellent sales and profit and other Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
Virtual team members:
1- Mershed Abu Rajab ? Regional Operations Manager - Parts (Leader),
2- Abdul Raziq Abdul Moniem ? Parts Manager (Member),
3- Farouq Sharawi ? Parts Manager (Member),
4- Abdullah Abdul Rahim ? Parts Manager (Member),
5- Omar Thodika ? Parts Supervisor (Member),
6- Ali Al Turaiki ? Parts Supervisor (Member),
7- Raed Al Habib ? Parts Supervisor (Member),
8- Afzal Khan ? Parts Supervisor (Member),
9- Zakeer Parambil ? Parts Supervisor (Member),
10- Ateeq Ahmad ? Parts Supervisor (Member),
11- Minalla El Agib ? Parts Supervisor (Member).
What makes this team virtual?
Virtual teams are groups of people who work interdependently with a shared purpose across space, time and organization boundaries using technology to communicate and collaborate. (Bradley L. Kirkman et al (Management executives, 2002 Vol. 16 No.3) Virtual teamwork emphasizes solving customer problems. For virtual teams to be successful they must collaborate to accomplish important organizational tasks.
For this team, the important organizational task is achieving different key performance indicators (KPIs) like sales, profit, stock efficiency, service rate and many others. We use emails and telephone calls in communicating all results, and we solve many problems related to this in the same manner.
Choice of virtual team members
Members of this virtual team were appointed long time ago by the top management based on experience and length of service. But we will set a standard and a method of selecting and entering new members who may help us is achieving our goals.
We met face-to-face many times, but maybe we meet for two times in this year to ensure our vision and mission.
Since many of team members are expatriates from different countries, and at this time of a year, they are getting their annual leave. Therefore, we are going to conduct our next face-to-face meeting after all of them are available which might be at the end of August. (We met already some with members who were able to come and communicated the minutes of this meeting with other members who failed to come and explained to them that we have to communicate virtually all business results and any others issues).
Project Mission
Recently there is a big competition in sales between four regions in Saudi Arabia. Our mission is to be No. 1 (Benchmark) region among the different regions. We have to be No. 1 in achievement of parts sales; in addition to that, we will try to be No. 1 in all Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) like, Guest Delight Index (GDI), Gross and Net Profit, Stock Efficiency, Service Rate, Toyota Service Marketing re-certification (TSM), and Toyota Way Implementation (at least the 5S principles).
Project Measurable Objective
The success of the project will be measured in terms of net sales achievement against target (sales budget) for the eastern region as a whole and for each center (branch) separately. Some centers were doing very well while others have less than 100% achievement. Therefore a long with my team will do our level best to achieve the region sales by 100% achievement by pushing bigger and stronger centers to deliver more sales in order to cover deficit which comes from weak centers.
Project Plan (Deliverable and time line)
The project plan balances between the actual business scenario and MBA assignment on Virtual Team Leadership Program. Briefly it is given below:
No Phase Deliverable Who By When
1 Meet and form the Virtual Team (first meeting) Define our mission, set Project outcome which can be measured. Mershed 1st week of Sept 06 (Completed)
2 Rules of Engagement (first meeting) Set Team Compact Mershed and Team Members 1st week of Sept 06 (Completed)
3 Measure our Project Mission Establish baseline and performance measures Mershed and Team Members 1st week of Sept 06 (Completed)
4 Analyze (virtual - 1st meeting) List down the root causes and countermeasure Mershed and Team Members 7th Sept 06
(Completed)
5 Conduct 1st AAR virtually List down what worked and what didn?t Mershed 7th Sept 06
(Completed)
6 Improve phase (virtual meeting) List down possible solutions and select best Mershed and Team Members 16th Sept 06
(Completed)
7 Conduct 2nd AAR virtually List down what worked and what didn?t Mershed 16th Sept 06
(Completed)
8 Conduct 3rd AAR virtually List down what worked and what didn?t Mershed 28th Sept 06
(Completed)
Roles of the Team Members including mine:
S.N. Name Position Role
1 Mershed Abu Rajab Regional Operations Manager - Parts Project leader, I will be with team all the time to ensure success of this project.
2 Abdul Raziq Abdul Moniem Parts Manager ? Dammam Center In charge of his own center results and act on my behalf to support the team.
3 Farouq Sharawi Parts Manager ? Jubail Center In charge of his own center results and support the team with successful ideas since he is the eldest member.
4 Abdullah Abdul Rahim Parts Manager ? Hofuf Center In charge of his own center results and support another two small outlets in his city.
5 Omar Thodika Parts Supervisor ? Hafr Al Batin Center In charge of his own center results and support team with inventory control if needed.
6 Ali Abdullah Al Turaiki Acting Parts Supervisor ? Khafji Center In charge of his own center results and support team in general.
7 Raed Al Habib Parts Supervisor ? Qatif Center In charge of his own center results and support team in general.
8 Afzal Khan Parts Advisor ? Khudariya Shop In charge of his own shop results and support the team.
9 Zakeer Parambil Parts Advisor ? Thouqba 1 Shop In charge of his own shop results and support the team.
10 Ateeq Ahmad Parts Advisor ? Thouqba 2 Shop In charge of his own shop results and support the team.
11 Minalla El Agib Parts Advisor ? Hofuf Sina?iya Shop In charge of his own shop results and support the team.
How the team will be led:
As a leader of this team, I will be leading them team virtually supplemented with personal visits. It will be more that of collaborative nature, assuring of team?s consensus on course of actions, however there will be no comprises to any integrity issues.
Technology to be used to interface:
The technology that we will be using with this team is email and telephone calls.
Literature Review:
What is a virtual team leader?
A virtual team leader leading an entire project from a distance and interact with team members solely through information technology (IT) in a wired organization, and is a leader who can bring the necessary skills to lead in a virtual environment:
? Ability to facilitate meetings (face-to-face, on-line, video, audio).
? Ability to coach and mentor team members (face-to-face, on-line, video, audio); gives specific feedback regarding performance vs. generalized comments like ?good job!?
? Ability to align team initiatives with organizational needs; tie in virtual team?s contributions to important organizational values and objectives.
? Ability to access, analyzes, and manages data.
? Ability to manage by commitment; focus on results, schedules, and budgets.
? Understand and facilitate virtual team development stages and dynamics.
? Models behaviors such as working across boundaries and cultures; optimizes cultural differences.
? And most important: Can identify early signs of team dysfunction and take corrective action.
? Provide timely and specific feedback to all team members.
? Review update / status process for validating progress on deliverables / milestones to ensure adequate checkpoints are set up and agreed upon.
How do you lead and decide at a distance?
A participative e-leader sets formal and informal communication channels to solicit opinions from members of a global virtual team before making any final decision. To ensure that members have been heard, the leader may enable anonymous input in the communication. In the instances where the team faces a controversial issue, such as a controversial strategic initiative, the leader may conduct an electronic poll to find out how willing the members are to support a certain position on the issue. These tools are necessary to lead and make decisions at a distance.
How do you build cohesion and trust?
Many technologies can prove to be damaging for the leader and the organization when they are inadvertently exposed or ordered to be exposed. If a leader is inconsistent with his actions and his words, he can never recover the trust with his followers. Hence leaders and followers need to adapt to this new nervous system? being configured within and across organizations. The nervous system offers leaders tremendous power to reach out and touch everyone in an organization. The leaders can use positive messages and sharing information to inspire people and build greater coherence around the organization?s mission and purpose. Obviously, what comes with this power to reach out and touch everyone is the need to be aware of potential downsides of the new nervous system and to use the power afforded by it wisely. Rumors can quickly spread like viruses through organizations, just like positive news. Conflicts can escalate rapidly when people argue with each other without having to stare each other in the eye. If these are taken care in a virtual environment, trust and cohesion could be built.
E- Leadership vs. face to face: What is the difference?
E- Leadership is to take the relationships among organizational members defined by an organization?s structure and enhance them. The key difference with face to face is, e-leadership takes place in a context where work is mediated by information technology. In such a context, not only may a leader leader?s communication with followers takes place via information technology (IT), but the collection and dissemination of information required to support organizational work also takes place via IT. The leader is participating with followers through technology in order to inform them and to be informed.
Like traditional face-to-face leadership, e-leadership too can be inspiring. This occurs when the leader communicates via e-mail or other electronic means his pride in the accomplishments of various teams, his excitement about new emerging markets that the organization is about to enter, or his compelling vision ? reinforced periodically by stories shared electronically throughout the organization. The leadership mediated by information technology can exhibit exactly the same content and style as traditional face-to-face leadership. The critical differences may be in what is meant by ?feeling the leader?s presence,? as well as the reach, speed, permanence, and perception of a leader?s communication.
How does technology disrupt or enhance human interactions?
The failure rates for implementing technologies are hovering around 70% and in other instances, it has revolutionized the way we do business, making it possible for a company to have direct contact with customers ?24/7.?
Technology is power because it alters the patterns of how information is acquired, stored, interpreted, and disseminated ? and that, in turn, alters how people are influenced and how decisions are made in organizations. Today, if an employee is not satisfied with a manger?s action, he can take action that was not possible earlier. With a touch of a button, he can contact the top management team, send an angry message to an entire workforce or contact the editor of a local news show with a story about the incident. Also with the touch of a button, leaders can have contact with everyone around the world. Although he may be respected around the globe by employees, there will be times when he will be perceived as speaking just like a ?Westerner? and his employees will not have a clue about what he just said. Technology has provided customers with the means to build community and gain power, thus altering the balance in the ?leader-follower-customer? equation. Hence it has become imperative to use the technology in a right way without affecting human interactions.
What role does culture, language, and time differences play in the dynamics of leading virtual teams?
Organizations oftentimes respond by linking people across different time zones, cultures, and even competing organizations to complete projects or to provide support within very short time periods. In such organizations, an employee can pose a question to a global workforce and expect attention 24/7.
Today?s leaders are expected to lead in this global maze of interconnections that cross various time zones, national boundaries and cultures. In virtual teams, which consist of members from different time zones, nations, and cultures, the picture may be complicated by the sharing of leadership at different points in the team?s life cycle, depending on what the team has to accomplish and deliver. Literally from moment to moment, team members of a virtual team may move between being a leader and a follower.
What role does organizational context (e.g., culture, rewards, etc.) play in the dynamics of leading multi-organizational virtual teams?
Organizations create structure that defines the relationships expected among people who work there. A hierarchical organizational structure defines who should be reporting to whom, the boundaries of accountability and discretion, and how decisions are to be made. The leadership system in hierarchical organizations builds on the structure by enhancing the relationships that exists between leaders and followers. Leadership can be directive, in which case it takes the procedures and rules that go along with a hierarchical structure and makes sure they are properly and fairly administered. Leadership can also be participative offering opportunities for people to dialogue about directives, and be more involved in decision-making. Of course, the leadership system can drag down the organization if it creates inconsistencies, mistrust, and loss of energy, does not provide clear direction, and shows a lack of concern for employees. Here technology can simply accelerate misunderstandings, conflict and mistrust.
Can we build a strength-based virtual leadership team & how can you leverage strengths in developing a virtual team?
Yes, we can very well build a strength-based virtual leadership team. And this is also crucial for an organization to tap the talent dispersed geographically by virtual techniques. The virtual leader can cite success stories to virtual team telling what lessons are important for the team and how to incorporate them. This is how we can leverage the talents of others.
What is the impact of virtual interactions on ethical decision making?
As an extreme case of how power afforded by IT can be abused, think about what a despotic dictator might do, in terms of using information technology to constrain and control people?s opinion. A charismatic e-leader may have far greater opportunity than ever before to lure unsuspecting followers into cults and clans that do no good, except for the leader. Rapid dissemination of bogus information, like a virus, to serve the purpose of an unethical leader, who now has morphed into an unethical e-leader, will not simply go away. Being immoral or unethical has not changed, but the leader?s ability to influence followers has certainly changed with the introduction of IT.
I recently posted an article about businesses struggling to manage their stay-at-home workers. If lack of face time with individual staff members is difficult, then imagine having to lead a team of workers who live in different cities, perhaps even different countries, and have never met in person. How do you turn these remote employees into a cohesive team?
