Virtual Reality - People Management
Key learnings: - Organisations have seen the cost advantage and become quite comfortable with virtual workers
- Diverse virtual teams, when not managed effectively, can lead to dismal performance and employee burnout
- HR has a key role to play to realise the benefits that a diverse virtual team can deliver
Work, these days, is perceived to be heavy, not in terms of volume but in terms of processes and approaches. Such situations demand intellectual collaboration from across boundaries. Geographical barriers no longer exist as the emphasis shifts towards virtual interactions and interfaces. In this process, organisations have seen the cost advantage and become quite comfortable with virtual workers. But which are more successful—homogeneo us or heterogeneous virtual teams?
There is enough research to prove that the latter are less effective than the former. The danger with heterogeneous groups is that there is a possibility of human patterning that forces a 'we–they' divide among employees. There are also surveys that tie positive performance of organisations to their collaborations. However, HR must make the right balance and take the lead in building virtual heterogeneous teams that help organisations emerge successful.
Bill Joy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, has said, "No matter who you are, the smartest people work for someone else." Collaboration and round-the-clock operations, with people from various geographic regions, is one sure-fire way for firms to create successful, low-cost, breakthrough products/processes. As a result, there is a rise in the number of mergers, acquisitions and alliances. Knowledge sharing and transfer has become common fare. M&As aside, even within a company, specialist jobs are time sliced and allocated across various esteemed projects.
All this, and more, is evidence enough that diverse teams are beneficial to organisations. Nevertheless, diverse teams that are not managed effectively can lead to dismal team performance and subsequent employee burnout. Let us first take a look at why diverse teams fail, and then examine the role of HR in tapping into the advantages that a heterogeneous team can deliver.
Diverse teams, diverse problems!
Getting a diverse mix of employees to communicate through digital media is difficult! Virtual distance certainly matters a lot. Karen Sobel-Lojeski of Stony Brook University has arrived at an equation that determines virtual distance. According to her, three factors contribute to virtual distance and careful handling of those could help minimise distractions in a virtual environment.
Virtual distance is physical distance, operational distance and affinity distance put together. Karen defines virtual distance as "the perceived distance between individuals, organisations and groups".
Physical distance is made up of geographical spaces and time differences.
- Operational distance consists of behavioural gaps that occur due to:
- Day-to-day workplace situations
- Technology barriers
- Communication barriers, and delays arising thereof
- Ill-defined team structures
- Multi-tasking demands
- Lack of motivation
- 'We–they' disconnect
Affinity distance is the emotional disconnect between virtual team members due to:
- Lack of trust
- Cultural differences
- Distances in social relationships
- Interdependence distances
The general assumption is that diverse teams share valuable information—differen t types of knowledge and experiences. Research, however, reveals otherwise. Diverse teams are more engaged in trying to find commonality among themselves than working towards the best solutions.
Due to a mix of all the barriers mentioned above, diverse teams may not make smart decisions like their homogeneous counterparts. But is that all?
Fortunately, not!
Let us run through the example of a special collaboration between Boeing Inc., and Rocketdyne in their effort to build a new engine. Their virtual team comprised employees from different product design backgrounds, disciplines and design practices, who had never met before, even in an online environment. The diverse team reduced the number of parts of a critical component by about half, and manufacturing costs dropped from an estimated USD 7 million to USD 500,000. Team members spent less than 15 percent of their time in this effort and brought down the project duration considerably. Naturally, Rocketdyne senior executives agreed to fund the project!
Advanced digital communication media helps group dynamics and virtual team operations to a great extent. Team leaders must believe in the power of working in a virtual environment. Standardised processes and participant- led facilitation techniques could be used for all interactions and documentation. Motivation plays the most critical role here!
Role of HR
HR has a key role to play in the following areas:
Training: Collaboration in a diverse environment is an uphill task and it requires being knowledgeable in many areas.
Employees must be trained in using advanced electronic communication media to their advantage. They must be made particularly aware of the process structure of their teams. Workflow techniques must be understood clearly. Group behaviour must be emphasised and dealing with unwanted behaviour must be taught. Diversity training can be of major help. However, diversity proves to be an asset only when unique perspectives are shared within the team. The focus must be on making the team effective, not just viable! Organisations need effective diversity trainers who help teams understand that conflict and disagreement (healthy, of course) are essential to trigger creativity and innovation.
Grooming collaborative employees: Traditional controls and employer-employee relationships are changing. Virtual teams are a reality, and therefore, HR must play a role in grooming employees towards 'willingness' for virtual collaboration. They must groom leaders to manage virtual teams with multiple priorities as effectively as they monitor a 'physically-present' team.
Bridging cultural divide: HR plays a critical role in finding and nurturing leaders adaptive in global environments and cultures, where belief systems vary. A great attribute of effective leaders these days is the ability to think beyond cultural contexts to manage diverse employees.
Designing appropriate reward systems: Defining compensation policies, with an eye on various national and state laws, and union contract requirements, is a daunting task. However complex the task, the bottomline is that motivation (or the lack of it) makes a huge impact on worker productivity. Effective reward systems can be motivating, and designing appropriate systems is therefore essential. HR executives must consider team goals, roles, skills and composition, and bring a set of metrics and performance- based rewards to the fore.
There is a radical change in today's work environment. This means HR must change its assumptions about teamwork and diversity, and assume the responsibility to nurture virtually collaborative employees.
Source: 20-01-10
The Manage Mentor.
