Effective Strategies For Managing Virtual Teams: A Case Study Of Souq.com

Souq.com: An Overview

Souq.com is the online marketplace of Middle East. The website was created in the year 2005 and was initially designed to be an auction site that was associated with the internet portal Maktoob. In the year 2011 it adopted an online marketplace similar to that of Amazon.com. It also provided a platform that showcased all the retail items for sale. The company takes great pride in its achievement to connect people and products efficiently, with the assistance of smart technology that customizes customer experience which means that the power of choice has been given back to the consumers on a global scale. This has been evidenced by the company’s great success in the Middle East hence its expansion into the United States Marketplace. The report will therefore highlight the strategy that will be formulated and implemented by the Global Marketing Manager of the company. This strategy will also take into account the demographic and competitive environment difference as well as some of the political and cultural difference (Christin, 2013).

Considering the location of the new office in the United States of America in comparison to its parent headquarters in Dubai the distance is very vast therefore efficient and effective communication channels will have to be established. Information of vital nature and otherwise from headquarters will have to be transmitted quickly and efficiently throughout the entire system both nationally and internationally. Proper conflict management procedures and team management policies will have to be developed taking into consideration the new American culture. The law that governs employer and worker relations will also have to be taken into consideration (Applegate et al, 2006).

Emails are not enough to manage the virtual teams. Below are some of tools that a global manager can employ in order to manage the virtual teams;

This is a strong contact management system, ideal for small enterprises. The system enables the organization to arrange notes and e-mail chats, follow up on offers and deals, the system empowers the manager by enabling him to follow up on conversations across the teams (Paul et al, 2004).

This is a very prevalent social network for companies. Some of its important attributes include microblogging, private and group messaging, file uploading and strong security. It provides a platform where virtual teams can associate in an atmosphere similar to that of social media platforms like Facebook. This platform has been use by large online market place such as eBay which is a very big brand in the United States.

Strategy Formulation and Implementation by Global Marketing Manager

This system allows virtual teams to meet on a regular basis to share ideas and training. This system allows the manager to host an online meeting with as many as 15 people. The system also has a web conferencing function, which allows the team members to share applications via the computer in real time. The system also has a save option that allows any team member to save sessions for future reference. GoToMeeting enables the abroad team to collaborate and interact with the team at headquarters anytime through the use of mobile phones and computers (Kirkman et al, 2004).

This tool facilitates the easy access of documents by the team members since all documents, photos and videos can be dragged and dropped into one shared folder. From this single folder all employees irrespective of their geographical location will be able to access the documents anywhere there is an internet connection (Carley and Prietula, 2014).

Minimum overhead cost- virtual team means that the organization saves on all the expenses associated with leasing or renting an office. The organization does not need to shoulder the cost of buying new real estate or paying for monthly utilities like water and electricity.

Access to Global talent- virtual teams enable an organization to identify new talent beyond the borders of the parent country. This links experts and professionals from all over the world on a single project. Enhanced sharing and better innovation lead to increased knowledge and understanding of global markets as well as local markets in which the employees reside in.

Better productivity and profits- The participants of these virtual teams are not influenced by bureaucracy of the country of origin which at times may lead to delay in decision making. Therefore this translates to higher production which means more profits.

Provision of new opportunities- virtual team have created an environment of new prospects for people who due to family situations or physical ailments cannot relocate to a new countries for work. This has led to the creation of jobs which can be done off site as long as the task does not require the individual to be there physically, this has greatly been supported by the improvement of communication methods and channels.

Higher scalability- with a physical office, any move to increase the number of staff will lead to a remodeling of the entire office to increase space or the leasing or purchasing of new office space. All this activities are expensive. On the hand with a virtual team there is no worry or additional when increasing employees since different team members will work from their locations.  

Tools for Managing Virtual Teams

Cultural conflicts- naturally people from different background during the course of their interaction conflict will emerge as a result of difference in opinions. If not properly managed it can lead to disruption of work flow. Therefore management needs to set up policies and guidelines that will govern the interaction of this two different teams.

Cost of technology- the success of a virtual team is determined by the efficiency as to which communication between the team is conducted. Communication between the two teams can take place via phone call, phone conferencing or video conferencing. There is no tool that comes preinstalled all this features, therefore further installation will need to take place and this is a bit expensive. This is an unavoidable expense that will need to be incurred by the organization.

Social isolation- most members of the virtual team are seriously influenced by the deficiency of physical connections. And considering majority of the communication is too task-oriented increases stress upon the employees. This in turn leads to poor productivity. The virtual manager can organize and facilitate the setting up of community blogs where employees can interact under a less formal environment (Bergiel et al, 2008).

 Considering the vast distance between Dubai- United Arab Emirates and USA the most appropriate method of communication between the virtual team located in this two regions would be video conferencing, phone call, phone conferencing. Dubai is nine hours ahead of the United States, therefore proper coordination between the two teams is vital. If the team in USA sit for meeting at 8am with the team in Dubai, it will be 5pm in UAE. This is an acceptable bargain since it will be within working hours. A translator will have to be hired by the USA office so as to interpret the Arab language to the American employees. All the items and agendas discussed during the meeting will at all times be recorded and approved by the members present at the meeting. All virtual team members will at all times use a polite tone and language so as to maintain order and develop respect (Gibson and Cohen, 2003).

It is integral to build a firm working relationship with the manager in charge of the outsourced project. This relationship can only be developed through consistent communication via telephone calls, e-mails and phone or video conferencing. During this communication sessions reports from the project manager can be presented to the manager. In order to improve moral communication can also be informal so as to make the outsourced employees feel more appreciated and welcomed (Siakas and Siakas, 2008). As the manager I will have to take into consideration the laws within the country that govern the outsourced company. This is important in the preparation of a statement of work (SOW) which explains the work that needs to be done as well as what is expected after the contract is serviced. It is important to consider the country’s laws since anything not complying with the country’s laws is not enforceable by outsourced country’s laws (Chow et al, 2009).

Advantages of Virtual Teams

Conflict is a natural outcome between individuals, an individual and a group or a one group and another during their daily interaction due to difference in opinion in regards to something that affects both parties. In the traditional business the manager could easy handle this conflicts by asking the two parties to sit down together and discuss the issue that is bothering them in order to find a solution. However in virtual teams this not possible due to the geographical locations. Therefore the only method of mediating conflict between two virtual teams is through phone calls or phone conferences. The manager needs to set rules that will be followed during the communication between the conflicting groups, such as; requesting both parties not to interrupt each other while they are talking and no raising of voice while discussing issues. The manager can also take a more proactive measure by making sure there is open and clear dialogue between virtual team members concerning the current state of affairs. Conflict is a risk if not proper managed and an asset if proper managed, study found that minimum level of conflict is important for keeping a group vibrant and creative. If a virtual team member refuses to correct or change their disruptive behavior after all methods of correcting them fails the manager has to let them go in a private and respectable manners so as to maintain the confidence of the other team members (Jordan and Troth, 2004).

With the ever developing technology it is important to keep up with any current development in technology especially communication technology since it is the most used within the organization. Efficient and effective communication is essential to the success of the virtual team located in the United States. The Global manager also needs to make sure there is general and complete inclusion of the team members, this is achieved by maintaining frequent communication with the virtual teams. Proper conflict management and resolution policies and procedures should be availed to members of the virtual teams so that they all can be made aware of how they are expected to behave as members of the virtual team.

Conclusion.

The world has been made a global village by the availability of cheap transportation and the presence of fast internet connection. Companies in this century need not invest large sums of money in the purchasing of massive real estates for the building of offices to house employees or warehouses to store products. With the availability of fast communication infrastructure in place a company can have multiple employees working from remote locations or a single satellite office. This assures the company of a 24/7 labor force while subsequently significantly reducing the overhead cost (Martins et al, 2004). The company however needs to make sure there is proper communication amongst the virtual team members and the team manager. This enables the company to keep track of what is happening and to check the productivity of the teams. This can be achieved by using various tools of virtual team management such as Dropbox.

Disadvantages of Virtual Teams

References.

 Applegate, L. M., Austin, R. D., & McFarlan, F. W. (2006). Corporate information strategy and management. McGraw-Hill/Irwin Custom Publishing.

Bergiel, B. J., Bergiel, E. B., & Balsmeier, P. W. (2008). Nature of virtual teams: a summary of their advantages and disadvantages. Management Research News, 31(2), 99-110.

Carley, K. M., & Prietula, M. J. (2014). The” virtual design team”: Simulating how organization structure and information processing tools affect team performance. In Computational organization theory (pp. 19-36). Psychology Press.

Chow, R., Golle, P., Jakobsson, M., Shi, E., Staddon, J., Masuoka, R., & Molina, J. (2009, November). Controlling data in the cloud: outsourcing computation without outsourcing control. In Proceedings of the 2009 ACM workshop on Cloud computing security (pp. 85-90). ACM.

Christin, N. (2013, May). Traveling the Silk Road: A measurement analysis of a large anonymous online marketplace. In Proceedings of the 22nd international conference on World Wide Web (pp. 213-224). ACM.

Gibson, C. B., & Cohen, S. G. (Eds.). (2003). Virtual teams that work: Creating conditions for virtual team effectiveness. John Wiley & Sons.

Jordan, P. J., & Troth, A. C. (2004). Managing emotions during team problem solving: Emotional intelligence and conflict resolution. Human performance, 17(2), 195-218.

Kanawattanachai, P., & Yoo, Y. (2007). The impact of knowledge coordination on virtual team performance over time. MIS quarterly, 783-808.

Kankanhalli, A., Tan, B. C., & Wei, K. K. (2006). Conflict and performance in global virtual teams. Journal of management information systems, 23(3), 237-274.

Kirkman, B. L., Rosen, B., Tesluk, P. E., & Gibson, C. B. (2004). The impact of team empowerment on virtual team performance: The moderating role of face-to-face interaction. Academy of Management Journal, 47(2), 175-192.

Martins, L. L., Gilson, L. L., & Maynard, M. T. (2004). Virtual teams: What do we know and where do we go from here?. Journal of management, 30(6), 805-835.

Paul, S., Samarah, I. M., Seetharaman, P., & Mykytyn Jr, P. P. (2004). An empirical investigation of collaborative conflict management style in group support system-based global virtual teams. Journal of Management Information Systems, 21(3), 185-222.

Siakas, K. V., & Siakas, E. (2008). The need for trust relationships to enable successful virtual team collaboration in software outsourcing. International Journal of Technology, Policy and Management, 8(1), 59-75.

Xue, Y., Sankar, C. S., & Mbarika, V. W. (2005). Information technology outsourcing and virtual team. Journal of Computer Information Systems, 45(2), 9-16.

Zakaria, N., Amelinckx, A., & Wilemon, D. (2004). Working together apart? Building a knowledge?sharing culture for global virtual teams. Creativity and innovation management, 13(1), 15-29.