Face-to-Face Communication and Virtual Teams
There is a big difference between face-to-face communication and virtual teams. In face-to-face communication, interaction can be done verbally and manually and the person is talking to is just in front of you. But in virtual teams, interaction is done electronically, and most often, via the Internet. In the context of organization management, the management in virtual teams has to learn how to trust their team members since they are working in a virtual environment.
In a face-to-face communication, the team occupies a rather small space for personal interaction whereas in virtual teams, the team members are virtually and physically separated either by time and/or space but can occasionally meet face-to-face. (Gould, 2006) The Aberdeen model can still be implemented in any organization that relies heavily on virtual teams because it is also based on collaboration—which is one of the principles of the Aberdeen model. Also, it can save a lot of many for some companies. Take for example what it has done for the Hewlett Packard’s Corporate External Standards organization.
It helped the company saved almost a million dollars alone when they have adopted the system. (Snyder, May 2003). Personally, the system is practical since I can have meetings with my colleagues at any time that would be convenient for us. Virtual team is big leap in intrapersonal communication. Basically, it is still a type of communicating; but the biggest difference that it has from the traditional form is that, it is done electronically and the team members are practically located in different time zones.
Since its birth, many companies have adopted the system and it became beneficial for them. Practically speaking, it makes our life easier but nevertheless, it still has its cons. It becomes a threat to face-to-face communication in a sense that, ten years from now, people, not just big companies, will be using it. Virtual teams best works for companies having worldwide stations and employees. It is also an option to have a better organizational construction and operations in a sense that, it make deals and meetings faster.
But, in the course that there will be obstructions, there is still the traditional way of communicating to look back to.
References:
Gould, D. (2006). Virtual Teams [Electronic Version]. Fifth Generation Work – Virtual Organization. Retrieved June 8, 2007 from http://www. seanet. com/~daveg/vrteams. htm#Benefits. Snyder, B. (May 2003). Teams That Span Time Zones Face New Work Rules [Electronic Version]. Retrieved June 9, 2007 from http://www. gsb. stanford. edu/news/bmag/sbsm0305/feature_virtual_teams. shtml.
