What "Virtual Teams" Are

It was tried to find out “’how leadership carried out linguistically through email interaction”. The communication style of the “agenda leader was informal, personal and emotional” with her team members. This showed that the author used prolix skills to communicate with the “in-group and out-group” members. Mostly she adopted an “informal” communication style and avoided categorizing leadership styles while communicating with in-group team members. Besides, in written messages a leader must adopt a “formal” style of communication. These entire activities of the leaders are based upon “trust”. In case of virtual teams the “leaders” have to take care of all the functions in an interrogative manner. The conditions are more challenging in virtual teams because here people do not have a “face-to-face contact”. (Karianne Skovolt, 2009)

On of the component of “virtual leaders and computer mediated networks is that boundaries are permeable, interactions are with divers others, connections switch between multiple networks, and hierarchies can be flatter and recursive. The community exists more in the informal networks than predefined work-groups. Rather than fitting into the same group as around them, each person has his own personal community”. (Karianne Skovolt, 2009)

Today, “virtual teams” are essential and indispensable constituent of several organizations. As the members of virtual team are not congregated at on particular place but are instead distributed and scattered at different places therefore such teams are dependent upon electronic devices to communicate and to complete their work. This distance among team member are challenging and have created a new field of leadership. It has become problematic for the leader to deliver appropriate “structures” due to “cultural, geographic and time constraints”. (Surinder, Jerry, Suling, Bruce, 2000)

These variables also make restrict the leaders from evaluating the “performance” of their “followers”. Similarly the leaders have been limited from inspiring and developing their followers, and from making their followers capable of being identified with the organization. It is highly beneficial for the workers of the virtual leaders to understand its importance and the importance of technology to control and maintain the “leader-follower interactions”. (Surinder, Jerry, Suling, Bruce, 2000)

Today, virtual leaders have emerged as a significant “work structure”. In fact, virtual teams are usually group of people arranged together to perform certain activities despite being physically apart. Only few researches conduct in field to about the virtual leadership show that effectiveness of virtual leaders can only be maintained by adopting an attempt to mentor the characteristics of both “transformational and instrumental leadership”. However, one but be little warned the outcomes of the field study of virtual leadership is not quite statistically valid because mostly the teams are students are used to collect data rather than “organizational teams”. (Surinder, Jerry, Suling, Bruce, 2000)

Most of the work done on virtual leadership is done by using students virtual teams for data collection. The members of the virtual teams usually belong to divergent “organizations and cultures”. Admittedly, the virtual teams depend upon the “electronic communication and informational technologies” to fulfill their work. They provide a large number of advantages “for the organizations”. (Surinder, Jerry, Suling, Bruce, 2000)

The work that cans me done in future upon the virtual leadership and virtual teams is focused upon the “examining the effects of specific leadership behaviors”. This behavior must be of the type to mould a unique and different style of leadership. It will provide a help to develop quit limited, in focus and important assistance to take forth virtual teams. The combination of “transactional and transformational leaders” should be done to maintain such behaviors. “Individual and collective” leadership should be examined in the “virtual teams”. It should be noticed the methods of “examining the tasks, operating conditions, technology features, any interact with leadership pin virtual teams to influence group process and outcomes”. (Surinder, Jerry, Suling, Bruce, 2000)

The conclusion of the study suggests that “competition, off shoring of work and the growth of internet and similar globally linking technologies are contributing to an increase in the use of virtual teams”.  The virtual teams are expected to become more noticeable in the coming world. However, today, more attention is given to the idea of developing strong virtual leader and enhancing their virtual leadership skills. Research done till now suggests that the leadership style of “traditional leaders” is different from those of virtual leaders. (Surinder, Jerry, Suling, Bruce, 2000)

The “context” of the operation of the leaders also maintains certain leadership activities and opportunities are available in the market to avail. Virtual leaders possess certain behaviors which are more significant than others. It is leading a new “leadership behaviors to change their effects”. (Surinder, Jerry, Suling, Bruce, 2000)

Today, it is believed that leaders serve as the coordinators and the handlers of the “emotional tone of virtual team”. It is important for the members of the virtual teams to adopt an automatic style of handling all types of tasks whether they are important or not. Therefore the leader is required to pay more attention towards the maintenance of “team work”.  The numbers of leaders are not limited to one in virtual teams. Researches have proved that virtual teams can functions even with more than one leader. The reason for this is that the parts of the people are many and each must be adopted by one another. “Team members consider perceived amounts of communication, intelligence and encouraging and authoritarian behaviors to identify emergent leaders”. Only few researches conduct in field to about the virtual leadership show that effectiveness of virtual teams can only be maintained by adopting an attempt to mentor the characteristics of both “transformational and instrumental leadership”. (Surinder, Jerry, Suling, Bruce, 2000)

However, one but be little warned the outcomes of the field study of virtual leadership is not quite statistically valid because mostly the teams are students are used to collect data rather than “organizational teams”. Most of the work done on virtual leadership is done by using students virtual teams for data collection. However, these teams are usually regarded as not being completely virtual rather they possess some attitudes of virtual teams. (Surinder, Jerry, Suling, Bruce, 2000)

A study was conducted by Alex to find out the confirmation of virtual team structures, trainings of different leadership styles and the complexity of tasks upon the consequences of virtual teams. Most of the researches on the virtual leadership style are done side by side. Most of these claim the success and effectiveness of transformational leadership rather than transactional leadership. However, adaptation of “transformational leadership style” is not appreciable and suggestible in case of virtual communication with the help of computers. (Alex J. Barelka, 2007)

The “structural configurations, leadership styles and task complexity” of different teams will be influenced by the “quantity, quality and leader centrality”. This in turn will serve as a mediating agent and will affect performance of the team and will affect the outcomes of the teams affecting the satisfaction of the leaders. “Information Technology” has shifted the teams to move from their former traditional existence of “face to face” to the electronic groups. And have given opportunity of communicating with each other via “video teleconferences, e-mails and mobile cellular phone conversations”. (Alex J. Barelka, 2007)

Virtual teams can occur at remote areas because they do not need to maintain a union. Virtual team provides the “organizations” with an opportunity to become more flexible and combine the sharp people together to perform the duties of the organization in a cheaper and quicker manner. Most of the studies conducted in the favor of virtual teams are upon similar to the researches conducted under other studies It is important for the organizations operating at the international level to maintain their branch office abroad. They can “integrate” easily in the form of virtual teams by utilizing the information technology. In this way they will take benefit of the “global marketplace” more easily and in a more coordinative manner. (Alex J. Barelka, 2007)

Virtual leadership can be comprehended via aspects

• It is significant to understand the impact of “change in collectedness” upon the “team processes”.
• It is crucial to take in to consideration and study the impact if different types of leadership.
• To understate what leads to the change in the “perceived leadership effectiveness in a virtual team” in a situation when the task is complex. (Alex J. Barelka, 2007)

Most of the studies conducted in the favor of virtual teams are upon similar to the researches conducted under other studies. The “behaviors and traits” of leadership that are not the same for the “virtual environment”. Three areas were examined by Alex these are “The implications of different types of virtual structures on effectiveness”, “the impact of the task complexity in both collocated and virtual team configuration and it will examine the impact of different types of leadership behaviors on effectiveness”. (Alex J. Barelka, 2007)

Laura conducted a study the cause of different styles of leadership and “communication media on team processes and outcomes”. The data was collected using “face to face and text based chat” processes. The purpose of the study was to find out how transformational and transactional leadership affects the interacting styles of virtual leadership an the consequences of this interaction was also analyzed it consisted of “team cohesion and task performance”. The results of the study showed that the different styles of leaderships do not have any impact upon the interacting styles of team members or the results of such interactions. The results showed that interactions in case of face to face communication is higher as compared to video conferencing and “chat teams” but in case of “video conferencing” the interaction was much higher than the “chat teams” however, such type of communication was not very much important maintaining good “task performance”. However it was also found that virtual teams work as effectively and cohesively as do the traditional teams. (Alex J. Barelka, 2007)