Virtual Teams that Work (2003)

[amoralesg001]

This book has a lot of useful information on different topics of virtual teams. I have been reading parts of the book, and will post specific chapters down below that I found useful and informative.

[amoralesg001]

Virtual Teams that Work. Chapter 2: Knowledge Sharing and Shared Understanding in Virtual Teams (p21-37).

This chapter talks about knowledge sharing and knowledge understanding in virtual teams. Shared understanding is a collective way of organizing relevant knowledge that impacts how the team coordinates and performs. The problem many virtual teams face is whether the team came to a consensus and understanding. What most likely happens, is one or more members of the group interprets the information presented differently than other people in the group. As a result, when teams reach an agreement, different members view the consensus differently. This book gives the example of the Mars Climate Orbiter Project in which teams thought they reached a consensus on the unit of measurement to be used, but in fact was never discussed or agreed upon -- resulting in a huge failure. So, this simple misunderstanding shows how important shared understanding is in any team.

Benefits of knowledge sharing in virtual teams are team members ability to predict each others behaviors and the behavior of the overall group. As team members have a shared understanding of each other, they have more confidence on actions to take. This is because members all confirmed an understanding on goals and tasks needed to get done. It also makes it less likely for people to do the same work and not realize it. As stated in the book, "when all members of software development teams understand exactly what function is needed in the system, how the client will be using the system, and the time frame in which it needs to be build they are better able to focus their energy on building the requested system and believe that they are more likely to succeed. "

Ways to improve shared understanding in virtual teams can be facilitating conversations or shared places where team members can become aware of each others similarities (hobbies, books they read, experiences), learning about one another, and developing team spirit. "For example, Weisband found that teams that shared information about where they were and what they were doing performed better than teams that did not share that information." In a long-term project, these forms of information can help the success of a team since it builds awareness of each team member. As team members become more comfortable with each other and build trust, they're more likely to have informal discussions. Informal discussions are important and more difficult to be done in virtual spaces. When compared to a physical office, you are able to listen to informal talk with your teammates during breaks, and in the hallways. Incorporating more information on each member and who they are, could spark informal discussions virtually.

One of the questions that a virtual team needs to discuss with their members is how they will keep information flow regular and updated. I think each team varies on how they want to structure it, which could create creativity as they are able to discuss with their members how they would prefer to structure information sharing and updating knowledge.

[amoralesg001]

Virtual Teams that Work: Chapter 4 (pp.83 , Building Trust: Effective MultiCultural Communication Processing Virtual Teams.

This chapter looks at the different dimensions that might reduce communication and trust building in multi-cultural teams. Along with ways to improve those forms of trust and communication. The chapter has a lot of useful information which I will describe what stood out to me down below:

They're are two conditions of trust -- Risk and Interdependence. Risk is our "perceived probability of loss, as interpreted by the decision maker". I found this interesting because it shows risk as a factor that creates an opportunity for trust. There would not be a need for trust, if we were always confident and certain in the outcomes of each encounter we are introduced. Interdependence is the "degree to which one party depends on the actions of another in order to accomplish work". This involves how much we are able to predict the other persons behavior to accomplish tasks, their ability to get it done, and integrity.

These conditions of trust, can be become more difficult in multi-cultural teams. Viewing different cultures as different from our own, can create in-groups and out-group members. This can create huge problems, as members begin to view out-groups as less honest, reliable, open and trustworthy compared to in-group members. For example, members wouldn't want to admit mistakes to out-group members (a condition of taking a risk), but members would take the risk of admitting errors to in-group members. This creates uneven levels of trust within the team.

I found the universal's five phases of communication (1. message is constructed, 2. message is transmitted, 3. Receiver acquires, 4. Receiver interprets, 5. Receiver responds) and being aware of different forms of language in culture informative. Being aware that different people and cultures use either implicit languages or explicit languages in their communication, can help for members to frame and empathize with their communicator. You begin to learn how certain members convey a message. For instance, implicit language will have a lot more of words that use "maybe, perhaps, and somewhat", while explicit language will be more direct, without consideration of the message being harsh or negative.

The part of the chapter that involves communication strategies to improve virtual intercultural-teams, was informative as well. Such as supportive communication climate -- where people are able to share ideas freely, conflict resolution is open and viewed as fair, and the resolution are understood and accepted. Being an active listener as well and actively elaborating and clarifying when the message is unclear, can help too. Active listening can help improve communication styles, since people can observe how different members communicate.

Framing messages was another point that I liked, since you begin to learn how different members think and what they need and expect by understanding communicators Frame: "Research suggests that in message interpretation, a key method for avoiding intercultural miscommunication is framing… A member of Team Europe Connect mentioned the importance of this technique: ‘I would say that what I have learned is that you have to communicate information to designers in a completely different way than for researchers. I learned how they think and the kinds of information they need and expect. I certainly would do my work completely differently than I did before’ ". It also states that being involved and responding towards messages helps: “Responses to others’ messages are also critical (Jarvenpaa and Leidner, 1999). A response is an endorsement that another person is willing to take the risk of interpreting the first person’s message and, if necessary, supplying the missing elements to make it understandable. Because computer-mediated communication entails greater uncertainty than face-to-face communication, there tends to be an intense need for responses (Hawisher and Moran, 1993). Responses are trusting behaviors that indicate involvement, and involvement conveys attraction ”

Some technologies to help support virtual teams, are having a knowledge management system that stores conversations, documents and different sources of knowledge (such as this repo!), as well as a transitive memory system that has knowledge of who knows what. This can help so people can know where to get support, if needed.