4.+Management+of+Virtual+Organisations+and+Employee+Motivation

=Managing member organizations =

A virtual organisation (VO), like any other organisation, must be managed. The fact that it is “virtual”, that it is a group of independent organisations acting to achieve a common purpose, has implications for VO management. According to [|Nick Lethbridge (2001)] these implications are:


 * A core organisation may exist
 * VO members may be replaceable
 * Planning (when and where is it done)
 * Customer contact
 * Categories of information flows
 * Management must suit each member

So there may be a “core” organisation, one with a particular management role within the VO. The core organisation may drive the VO purpose or it may perform an essential part of the purpose. If a core organisation exists it may be difficult to replace (see next paragraph).

VO member organisations may be replaceable. They may be replaceable in the sense that there may be more or less members with no effect on the overall purpose of the VO. Or they may be replaceable in that a different organisation may be brought into the VO to replace the specific function of a member that is to be removed.

Strategic planning for the VO is essential. Planning will involve different members of the VO depending on the VO structure. The timing of planning (before or during normal operation) will also be affected.

The customer should see only one “virtual” organisation. How well this works will depend on the VO structure. Depending on the structure there may be only one, several or all members in regular contact with the customers of the VO.

Three categories of information flow are used. Identification of the VO structure leads to understanding of necessary information flows. This in turn leads to a better understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of each possible structure.

VO management must suit each VO member. One member may have (or may take) extra power within the VO. This may allow it to dictate some management decisions to other members. Nevertheless, each member is an independent organisation, with its own internal management rules, regulations and management requirements. Each member must operate as both a member of a VO and as an independent organisation.

=Leadership of virtual teams =

 <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: justify;">Given the importance of leadership to traditional teams it would be <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5; text-align: justify;">expected that leadership is also a critical factor for virtual teams. <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5; text-align: justify;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5; text-align: justify;">[|Gibson et al (2003)]prepared a detailed and exhaustive study about the role of leadership in virtual teams, which was designed to help to explore four important questions:
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: justify;">Do leaders emerge in virtual teams, and if so, when and why?
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: justify;">What types of leadership behaviors do leaders of distributed teams exhibit? Are perceived trustworthiness and leadership style relevant and important to team members when assessing team leadership?
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: justify;">How are communication patterns related to the leadership of virtual teams?
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: justify;">Can an emergent leader increase a virtual team’s performance?

<span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: justify;">It was found that leaders do emerge in some virtual teams. Clearly, some teams saw one member as taking on the leader role. Leaders who emerged were generally perceived to be more trustworthy with regard to their ability to perform tasks, their integrity, and their ability to form friendly relationships. In particular, the ability to perform tasks effectively (role performance trust) was an especially common trait of emergent leaders in the study. <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: justify;">In addition, the leaders appeared to have a transformational leadership style, as a number of the emergent leaders were described as having the ability to motivate and inspire others on the team. Although the emergent leaders communicated more on average than other team members did, the leaders were not simply those who communicated the most with the team. <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: justify;">The quality of communication appeared to be important as well. In the study, almost all of the team communication was conducted by e-mail, and leaders were noted to be those who were effective at leading through this text-based communication channel. <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: justify;">Finally, the study found that virtual team performance was not clearly related to emergent leadership within the team. This relationship appears to be more complex, involving several characteristics of the team and emergent leader. <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: justify;">The implications for practice to assist practitioners in designing and developing effective virtual teams using team leadership are as follows:
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: justify;">Trust appears to be an important factor for leadership in virtual teams. When developing effective virtual teams and effective virtual team leaders:Emphasise computer-mediated communication skills in virtual team leaders through training or selection. Communicating using technology means more than transfer of knowledge and information. The ability to inspire, motivate, mediate conflict, and develop interpersonal trust through a variety of communication media is critical in virtual team leadership. If a virtual team will be communicating primarily through e-mail, then written communication skills, including the ability to write clearly and concisely and to motivate others through the written word, are especially critical.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Role performance trust was viewed as particularly important for the leaders in the study. Managers may be wise to select a leader who is strong in this area. Ethical integrity and affective bond trust are also important types of trust to look for in virtual team leaders.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Managers should be encouraged to make efforts to facilitate effective leader emergence and trust development prior to beginning a project. One way to build trust may be to provide virtual team members a chance to get to know more about one another outside the virtual environment. If possible, it may be worthwhile to have virtual teams meet through initial face-to-face meetings that will help team members learn more about their teammates, assess their potential leadership qualities, and develop trust in others.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">If face-to-face meetings are not feasible, then disseminating information about team members (for example, biographies, resumes, pictures, Web pages) may facilitate trust and social knowledge. This type of approach was used for the teams in the study and appeared to provide an effective way for team members to learn more about their teammates.
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Virtual team leadership may be more critical during times of low to average trust among team members. If trust is low during any period of a virtual team’s development, it should be considered to try to appoint a team leader who has the qualities discussed above. If trust among team members develops to high levels over time, then team leadership may become less important.

media type="custom" key="24663448"

media type="youtube" key="n1NyIBiYuFQ" width="560" height="315" = = =<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 18px;">Employee Motivation = <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: justify;">Organisations are made up of different individuals with different characters and personalities. Every employee in an organization is motivated in one way or the other. Betsy Carroll (2008) in her article ‘Motivation in Virtual Teams’, pointed out that despite the fact that virtual organisations are completely new and different from the normal traditional organizations, motivation is an important aspect to the organizations effectiveness. She introduced two different sources of motivation; intrinsically motivated wherein employees are interested in the work itself or in experiencing a sense of achievement, and extrinsically motivated in which employees respond more positively to external rewards such as money or praise. It is the responsibility of the virtual leaders to figure out which primary source of motivation drives each team member. This can be achieved by listening or talking to the employee. However, in actual fact most employees do not really know what motivates them. By interacting with employees over a period of time, team leaders will be able to have a clue as to what really motivates an employee. Betsy Carroll further went on to say that even if a person is highly intrinsically motivated, there is a threshold for extrinsic motivation factors below which they will not go. Such a person for instance may love the content of their work but exit the situation if yearly salary increases are too low or opportunities for advancements do not exist.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: justify;">It takes a particular type of person to succeed in a virtual organization (Duncan Kitchin, 2010). Employees of virtual organizations need to be self motivated (not needing high structure and detailed instructions in order to work effectively). They must be able to work on their own with less supervision or no supervision at all. Some factors that motivate employees in a virtual organization and leave them satisfied are as follows:
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: justify;">The obvious approach, everybody loves cash. Money is a great motivator for anyone no matter where they work. Salary increases and bonuses are good ways in which managers reward virtual workers for their effort. Commissions are also ways to incentivize better work and bring in quality results (Amie Marse, 2013).


 * <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: justify;">Start and end with your vision. Employees want to feel that they are helpful to the organization. Many workers are motivated by regular positive reinforcement and encouragement. In as much as virtual workers are located in different geographical places, holding regular progress meetings with them gives them the sense of belonging. Such meetings are used to share the organisation’s purpose and to inform employees on how things are progressing. It also gives workers opportunity for interpersonal communications (Matt Keener 2012).


 * <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: justify;">Empowerment drives success. According to Amie Marse, nothing motivates employees better than being given the opportunity to prove to their coworkers, their managers and themselves that they can do more than the daily routine. Empowerment comes from investing another valuable capital resource in employees: trust and responsibility. Virtual organizations lack the existence of physical interaction between employees and their managers therefore maintaining a one-on-one relationship helps to motivate employees.


 * <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: justify;">It’s the little things that count. Managers and team leaders must be open and accessible for employees to feel comfortable in bringing their thoughts and concerns. Expressing appreciation for an employees work makes him/her feel important and valuable and know that his/her effort is contributing to the organisation’s overall existence and profitability. Showing your employees that you care about them and not just their results will not only empower them, but also motivate them to produce the results you both want (Amie Marse 2013).


 * <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: justify;">Good working conditions. From results obtained on a research done on personnel motivation of virtual organizations, most respondents of virtual employees’ state that in the organisation where they work conditions are good as they have enough means and tools to work well. Employees continually improve their skills and learn new things which can be useful in the future performance of their jobs. Better working conditions in some way contribute to providing satisfaction for employees and serves as a key motivator.

media type="custom" key="24712722"

=<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 18px;">References =

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14px;">[|An I-Based Taxonomy of Virtual Organisations and the Implications for Effective Management]

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14px;">[|Building a Winning Virtual Team]

media type="facebooklike" key="http%3A%2F%2Foale2group.wikispaces.com%2F4.%20Management%20of%20Virtual%20Organisations%20and%20Employee%20Motivation" width="450" height="80"