The focus of this week is on leading distributed and virtual teams. Such teams are unique organisational structures that are tentative in nature and usually assemble for the specific purpose of a project. Distributed teams interact in different ways than co-located teams where hierarchical relationships persist and instead rely heavily on peer-to-peer interactions that usually result in a more decentralised and flat management structure The challenges of such teams arise from a multitude of factors including the level of virtuality, emerging technologies, project complexity, member mobility, team adaptation, transition processes, planning, mediation and moderation and of course leadership among others. In this week's Collaboration and Key Concept Exercise you analyse characteristic elements of distributed and virtual teams and discuss the ways traditional leadership needs to adopt in effectively addressing the needs of such teams.
Learning objectives
The learning objectives for this week are:
• Analyse the characteristics of distributed and virtual teams
• Analyse leadership best practises and behaviour for distributed and virtual teams
• Evaluate methods to address challenges in managing distributed teams
• Compare organisational cultures, structures and teams
• Recommend changes to organisational structure and culture
Leading distributed and virtual teams
Write a 500-word analysis on the characteristics of distributed and virtual teams and the leadership behaviour and practices that are most appropriate for project managers in such cases. Your analysis should include references to the key literature in the area and a critique based on further reading and your own experience.
Resources:
Northouse, P.G. (2013) Leadership: theory and practice. 6th ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
• Chapter 6, ‘Contingency theory' (pp.123-135)
Gundersen, G., Hellesøy, B. T. & Raeder, S. (2012) ‘Leading international project teams the effectiveness of transformational leadership in dynamic work environments', Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 19 (1), pp.46-57.
Iorio, J., & Taylor, J. E. (2015) ‘Precursors to engaged leaders in virtual project teams', International Journal of Project Management, 33 (2), pp.395-405.
Tyssen, A. K., Wald, A. & Spieth, P. (2013) ‘Leadership in temporary organizations: a review of leadership theories and a research agenda', Project Management Journal, 44 (6), pp.52-67.
Verburg, R. M., Bosch-Sijtsema, P. &Vartiainen, M. (2013) ‘Getting it done: Critical success factors for project managers in virtual work settings', International Journal of Project Management, 31 (1), pp.68-79.
Ahrend, G., Diamond, F. & Webber, P.G. (2010) ‘Virtual coaching: using technology to boost performance', Chief Learning Officer, 9 (7), July, pp.44-47.
Daim, T. U., Ha, A., Reutiman, S., Hughes, B., Pathak, U., Bynum, W. &Bhatla, A. (2012) ‘Exploring the communication breakdown in global virtual teams', International Journal of Project Management, 30 (2), pp.199-212.
Gilson, L. L., Maynard, M. T., Young, N. C. J., Vartiainen, M. &Hakonen, M. (2015) ‘Virtual teams research 10 years, 10 themes, and 10 opportunities', Journal of Management, 41 (5), pp.1313-1337.
Weimann, P., Pollock, M., Scott, E. & Brown, I. (2013) ‘Enhancing team performance through tool use: How critical technology-related issues influence the performance of virtual project teams', Professional Communication, IEEE Transactions on, 56 (4), pp.332-353.