assignment

Step 9: Training and Technology Needs

After reading up on how to make decisions as a group, your next step will be to identify training opportunities. To identify those opportunities, complete the following tasks:

• Identify optimal information and communication technology (ICT) (team communication/collaborations) to facilitate communication, collaboration, and decision-making.

• Identify necessary training for virtual teams and consider the pros and cons of the CEO’s preference to conduct the team training online rather than with a preliminary face-to-face meeting.

• Include a cost-benefit analysis that helps the CEO understand the pros and cons of her preference for virtual teams. Refer to the Michel and Oliverio (2007) article on cost-benefit analysis you read when working on Project 2.

Team Communication

Virtual teams—such as the ones that are the focus of your project—require technology solutions to help them communicate, form effective working relationships, and make good decisions. Broadly defined, information and communication technology (ICT) is the transmission of ideas using technologies and systems to create, store, retrieve, and share information. Considering and planning for the integration of telecommunications (wireless networks, multimedia, telephony), hardware, software, and storage, as well as infrastructure systems, will give your teams the tools they need to access, store, and transmit information. Keep in mind that the methods and approaches you will use for ICT will evolve as technologies evolve and advance. Your task is to try to figure out the optimal solutions for your particular virtual teams.

As you prepare to do your research you might want to consider drafting a plan to cover topics such as these:

• goals for your use of ICT;

• what you think you will need to execute your plan (hardware, software, human and financial resources);

• vendors and procurement process;

• proposed budget and timeline;

• list of any potential risks; and

• overall schedule, roles, and steps for implementing the plan.

The Resources section below contains two articles to get you started with your research for this topic. You will find more information in the journal literature

As you undoubtedly realize, when planning to create and use teams in general and virtual teams in particular, it is important to do what you can to ensure the team and its members are well-prepared for their work together. More often than not, teams are created quickly, with the only (or primary) focus being on ensuring members have the technical knowledge and skills to complete the assigned work. The underlying assumption is that members will figure out how to work together or, in some cases, that they come well-equipped with team knowledge and skills. Little or no attention is paid to whether there should be support or training to help the team with communication, conflict resolution and management, decision making, weak or noncontributing members (social loafers or free riders), external relationship management, project planning, and so on.

When the decision is made to create and use geographically distributed multicultural virtual teams, further potential challenges are added. As you already may have discovered in your research for this project, this type of team is increasingly found, especially in large companies (Germain, 2011; Rosen, Furst, & Blackburn, 2006). One problem is figuring out how to manage times for synchronous meetings so those in one time zone are not always at a disadvantage. Then there are the various problems that can arise because of differences in language (Klitmøller & Lauring, 2013), cultural values (Goodman, 2012), appreciation of diversity and commitment to inclusion (Derven 2016), standard business practices, and individual preferences. Another problem that can arise with a virtual team is that it can be easier for a member or members who are not happy with the way things are going to seem to disappear (stop participating) even when in a synchronous meeting. The absence of nonverbal cues can increase the potential for misunderstandings, conflict, and misperceptions (Germain, 2011).

One thing you will read about when conducting research on this topic is that trust is likely to be a major issue for virtual teams. Germain (2011) discusses some of the reasons for assuming this will be the case. An implicit assumption is that trust is possible in onsite teams because nonverbal communication cues are more readily available. The ability to see and hear members using web meeting software may be sufficient to alleviate this concern. Of course, we should also question the assumption that face-to-face interactions increase trust between individuals.

Training may not be the best way to help teams address the problems they will encounter, but It is one that should at least be considered (Martinez-Moreno, Zornoza, Orengo, & Thompson, 2014; Rosen, Furst, & Blackburn, 2006; Salas, DiazGranados, Klein, Burke, Stagl, Goodwin, & Halpin, 2008). However, just giving the team extensive upfront training may not be an optimal approach. Sometimes training combined with coaching—or even coaching alone—is a preferable solution. Just trusting that the team will figure it out is usually not advisable, especially when the stakes are high and the consequences of failure are grave.

Your task is to agree on the best approach to training for this project scenario. Both the cost and benefits of training and/or coaching certainly need to be considered. Speaking of costs, travel and accommodation for an onsite meeting may be prohibitive, so it is important to examine this option critically. You will read in some work on this topic that it is important for virtual teams to be able to spend some preliminary onsite time together. Typically these articles were written years before geographically distributed multicultural and multi-organizational teams were commonplace and before the development of WebEx and other technologies that support real-time audio, video, and text-based communication. Quite often, a review of the so-called experts’ backgrounds reveal little or no personal experience working in a virtual team. Thus, it is important to approach all prescriptions critically. Those members who have worked in virtual teams may bring important insights to this task.

In addition to the earlier work you have read, and the work cited here, your team will want to explore the literature to find the current thinking about the best practices in preparing a virtual team to work together effectively.

References

Derven, M. (2016). Four drivers to enhance global virtual teams. Industrial and Commercial Training,48 (1), 1-8. http://www.emeraldinsight.com/action/showCitFormats?doi=10.1108%2FICT-08-2015-0056

Germain, M. (2011). Developing trust in virtual teams. Performance Improvement Quarterly, 24(3), 29-54. doi:10.1002/piq.20119 http://ezproxy.umuc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=66793697&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Goodman, N. (2012). Training for cultural competence. Industrial and Commercial Training, 44(1), 47-50. 

Cost-benefit analysis is used for determining which alternative is likely to provide the greatest return for a proposed investment. Sometimes referred to as cost-effectiveness analysis, it is relevant to businesses as well as to not-for-profit entities and governmental units.

A business might find it helpful to use cost-benefit analysis to determine if additional funds should be invested in a facility in the home country or in another country. A community not-for-profit organization that provides a variety of programs for children might use cost-benefit analysis to assist management in determining which activities will provide the most services for the costs specified. A federal governmental agency might use cost-benefit analysis to determine which of several projects planned for the national parks is likely to be most used by interested citizens, given the costs.

Because resources such as money and time are limited, an organization usually cannot undertake every project proposed. To decide whether to undertake a project, decision makers weigh the benefits from the project against the cost of the resources it requires, normally approving a project when its benefits exceed its costs. Cost-benefit analysis provides the structure and support for making such decisions.

Benefits increase the welfare of the organization. Some benefits are monetary benefits, such as the dollar amount of cash inflows from additional sales of a product or the saving in cash outflows that a project enables. Other benefits are important but harder to quantify. For example, a project may increase customer satisfaction; increased customer satisfaction may increase future sales, but the exact relationship between sales and satisfaction is often hard to specify.

Costs are the outlays or expenditures made in order to obtain a benefit. Many costs are measured monetarily, such as the cost of buying a new machine or of hiring an additional employee.

A cost-benefit analysis is straightforward when all costs and benefits are measurable in monetary terms. Assume that Company A must decide whether to rent an ice cream machine for the summer for $900. The ice cream machine will produce additional cash inflows of $1,000 during the summer. The benefit of additional cash inflows ($1,000) exceeds the additional cost ($900), so the project should be undertaken. Not all cost-benefit analyses are this simple, however. If the benefits and costs occur in different time periods, it may be necessary to discount the future cash flows to their current equivalent worth.

In another example, cost savings is a benefit. Assume that Company B makes about 100,000 photocopies a year. Company B does not have its own copy machine and currently pays 4 cents per copy, or $4,000 a year, to Copy-cat Copiers. Company B can lease a copy machine for $2,500 a year. It must also pay 2 cents per page for paper for the leased machine, or $2,000. In this example, the cost of leasing the machine and buying paper ($2,500+$2,000=$4,500) exceeds the benefit of saving the $4,000 normally paid to Copycat Copiers. Company B should continue to use Copycat Copiers for its photo-copies. However, Company B must have a pretty good estimate of the number of copies it needs to be comfortable with its decision. If Company B needs 150,000 copies this year instead of 100,000, the cost of the leasing the machine and buying paper ($2,500+$3,000=$5,500) is cheaper than the $6,000 (150,000×$0.04) savings in fees to Copycat Copiers.

A third example involves a project with benefits that are difficult to quantify. Assume that Company C is deciding whether to give a picnic costing $50,000 for its employees. Company C would receive the benefit of increased employee morale from the picnic. Better employee morale might cause employees to work harder, increasing profits. However, the link between increased morale and increased monetary profits is tenuous. The decision maker must use his or her judgment to compare the nonmonetary benefit to the monetary cost, possibly deciding that increased employee morale is worth the $50,000 cost but would not be worth a $100,000 cost.

In the preceding examples, cost-benefit analysis provided a framework for decision making. The range of objectivity related to measurement of the factors is typical. Techniques used in business as a basis for determining costs and benefits, such as return on investment, are generallyPage 168  |  Top of Articlequantifiable and thus appear to be objective. However, it is not uncommon for qualitative factors to enter into the decision-making process. For example, providing a product that individuals with limited incomes will be able to purchase may not provide the highest monetary return on investment in the short run, but might prove to be a successful long-term investment. Careful decision makers attempt to deal with a difficult-to-quantify factor in as objective a manner as possible. However, cost-benefit analysis in most situations continues to introduce measurement problems.

Cost-benefit analyses are also common in nonbusiness entities. Boards of not-for-profit organizations establish priorities for their programs, and such priorities often specify desired program outputs. For example, assume a not-for-profit organization is interested in reducing the level of illiteracy among the citizens of a rural community in a state that has one of the lowest per-capita incomes in the United States. As alternative programs for those who need to learn to read are considered, there will be cost-benefit analyses that focus on a number of factors, including the extent to which a particular program can attract those who are illiterate. A program in the downtown area of a small town might be considered because a facility is available there at low cost, and that low cost is appealing. Focus on cost is not sufficient, however. When benefits are considered, it might become clear that those who are eager for such a program do not have cars and that there is no public transportation from where they reside to the center of the small town. Further consideration of relevant factors and of alternatives, undertaken in good faith, should result in cost-benefit analyses that provide valuable information as the agency makes decisions.

At all levels of government in the United States, cost-benefit analyses are used as a basis for allocating resources for the public good to those programs, projects, and services that will meet the expectations of citizens. For example, decision makers at the federal level who have policy responsibility for environmental standards, air-quality rules, or services to the elderly often find information from cost-benefit analyses to be critical to the decisionmaking task.

As possibilities for the use of funds increase, there is motivation for better measurement of both costs and benefits as well as for speedier ways of accomplishing analyses for alternatives that are appealing. All types of entities, including businesses, not-for-profit organizations, and governmental units, strive to improve the measurements used in cost-benefit analyses. The capabilities of electronic equipment provide promising assistance in accumulating data relevant for analyses. Wise use of resources is an important goal in every organization; cost-benefit analyses make a key contribution to this goal. Therefore, attention is given to improving both the effectiveness and efficiency of such analyses.

Step 10: Team Management

Finally, after completing all the previous steps, you should have some recommendations for team management, one of the most important elements of any work team.

• Identify and analyze the options for managing these geographically dispersed multinational and multicultural virtual teams.

• Prepare recommendations that will help the CEO make the best decision about how to do this.

You’re nearly done with this project, but after surveying your results, you and your teammates agree that you have to address one last issue: cost, though important, shouldn’t be the only determining factor in the decision to implement virtual teams.

• Identify other advantages and challenges the organization is likely to confront when making this strategic change to virtual, cross-site, global teams.