Managing Virtual Teams_Group-6

Summary:

Virtual is a misnomer for Dispersed Team, and virtual team is not only a
matter of degree but also a matter of kind.
Types of dispersed teams: Spatially, temporally, configurationally and
culturally diverse.
A research was conducted on 80 software development teams in 28 labs
worldwide including India.

Personal Experiences:
1. Prateek Khurana FT163068
I have a positive personal experience of the dispersed team. My team was
present in 3 locations i.e. Pune, Noida and Chandigarh, and it in fact helped in
sharing the load during network outages, if any at any particular location.
Eventually it led to more customer satisfaction and productivity.
2. Praveen Reddy FT163070
I never met my immediate manager as he was based at other location and
the only way we were connected was the mails and calls.
3. Priya Bhatia FT163071
My client was based in UK and I always wondered how he looked, because he
was sweet to me on status calls and I had to be in touch with him for all my
assignments.
4. Ravi Shankar FT163077
Our team was split in 2 locations and we always had communication issues
collaborating with them, probably they had different break timings and
working hours.
5. Suyash FT163096
I worked onsite with client and there were times when the client needed
report immediately and I had to convince my offshore team to leave other
work aside and work on the report.
6. Swetha FT163097
I worked for an automotive company and our country head was a German
and our whole team had difficulty interacting with him as he was not that
comfortable interacting in English and no one knew German among us.
7. Varun Maheshwari FT163101
In my team, 2 people were working from onsite and we had to wait for them
to come in office and give the handover before we leave for the day.
8. Yesha FT163103
My lead was never happy with my work and I couldnt resolve this issue with
my manager because he was at different location and he favored lead more.
9. Virinchi FT163104

Knowing or unknowingly there was a competition between our team present

in different offices for appreciation and awards and hence there was mistrust
between us.
10. Vignesh V FT163106
Very often there was a communication gap between my onshore lead and
offshore lead and it lead to me working for extra hours and it lead to
frustration.
11. Abhinav Raj FT164003
I used to act as a shift coordinator between of my team present in India and
some in UK. I had a good experience doing the same but I always felt that
people working in UK had more critical information with them probably
because working in proximity with the client and hence they were able to
outperform rest of us present in India when it come to business knowledge.
12. Akshay Kumar FT164010
Our manager used to sit in Bangalore and I was based in Pune. Although I
shared a good repo with him but when it comes to appraisal, Bangalore
people were always favored.
13. Anand Kurup FT164013
I had a wonderful experience working with my team which was based in 2
different offices in Pune. I had liberty to go and work in any of these as per
my convenience and my lead was very much ok with the same, until am
completing my work on time.
Key Takeaways:

Virtual teams can outperform collocated teams if managed properly through

task-related and socio-emotional processes.
The research showed that teams present in same city but in different offices
performs the best in terms of efficiency and effectiveness.
Many companies are putting extra efforts to design their offices in such a way
that more people can see each other, talk with each other, get along with
each other and hence maximize interpersonal interactions.