Scheduling During the Time of Unlimited Free Time
This blog gives insights about maintaining a virtual team’s motivation during a pandemic to create a more productive and efficient virtual work teams. The reason this topic is relevant is because of the current covid-19 pandemic we are facing and the changes work environments are making to adapt. For example, having their employees work from at home virtually as opposed to physical location.
- This is about the dynamics of motivation in the workplace (Academic journal):
Taylor, B. M. (2015). The Integrated Dynamics of Motivation and Performance in the Workplace. Performance Improvement, 54(5), 28–37. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.library.wwu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=102701366&site=ehost-live
This article that was written by Beverly M, Taylor examines the relationship between employees and the work culture and environment that surrounds them. The primary focus of the article is how managers can improve employee performance through the use of motivation. Motivation that takes the form of things like incentives, rewards, and recognition.The author gives very detailed and specific explanations on the different styles and techniques of increasing the level of motivation within the workplace. The author explores many different angles pertaining to the topic of motivation and she comes across as very knowledgeable and experienced while doing so. This correlates directly with our topic as motivation is an important factor to maintaining the success of a virtual work team.
- This one is focused on managing teams in a virtual space so thought that it would be very relevant (Academic journal):
Wen-Hao David Huang. (December 2010) Managing Employees’ Motivation, Cognition, and Performance in Virtual Workplaces: The Blueprint of a Game-based Adaptive Performance Platform. Advances in Developing Human Resources. Western Libraries. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.library.wwu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=58766333&site=ehost-live
This article was written by Wen-Hao David Huang in December of 2010. Huang looks into the possible effects in overloading employees by the use of certain technologies. Huang looks into how these technologies can overall hinder an employee’s success on the job. To solve these issues Huang looks towards a “Game-based Adaptive Performance Platform (GAPP)” to help encourage positive motivation in their employees. This article is relevant to our topic because our topic incorporates the use of these certain technologies and acknowledges the difficulties founded when dealing with virtual work environments. When trying to maintain a schedule throughout various members within a virtual team you can expect the possibilities of time conflicts or other situations. Keeping a strong level of engagement throughout members of a virtual team or employees in general is as well important which is what Huang reflects on throughout his article.
- This is an article based one virtual leadership and team effectiveness (Article):
Nordbäck, E. S. (2019). Effective Coordination of Shared Leadership in Global Virtual Teams. Journal of Management Information Systems, 36(1), 321–350. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.library.wwu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=135672073&site=ehost-live
In this article Emma S. Nordbäck explores the concept of joint leadership and how it affects the efficiency and productivity of global virtual teams. The author uses data that she procured from interviewing teams that work virtually and found that teams were most effective when the shared leadership was organized implicitly. The author effectively communicates difficulties and some solutions to managing productivity and motivation of a virtual team. This correlates to our topic as leadership is a critical role to maintaining a productive virtual work team. The type of leadership can also have a significant impact within the overall efficiency of a virtual work team. For example when comparing the types of leadership between an individual leader vs shared leadership there might be different results in overall performance between leadership types.
- This is about virtual team coordination (Academic journal):
Montoya-Weiss. (December 2001) Getting It Together: Temporal Coordination and Conflict Management in Global Virtual Teams. Academy of Management Journal. Western Libraries. Retrieved from
This article was written between the help of Mitzi Montoya-Weiss, Anne Massey, and Michael Song and focuses on how virtual teams supported by asynchronous information deal with internal conflict and how that affects the group’s success. This article also covers how asynchronous communication environments can lead to disjointed work, which can negatively affect desired results among the team. This is relevant to scheduling during a global pandemic because many are forced to work from home and virtually operate business with their teams, except now everyone might be on different schedules. Discipline and conflict management is especially important in order to be successful because it can help conversations and ideas flow more continuously, leading to a higher chance for better outcomes. Keeping up on communication regarding expectations and how to resolve/avoid conflict can make virtual team coordination better as well.
- This is giving a perspective on what an effective virtual team seems like (Academic journal):
Maes, Jeanne. (2018) Building Effective Virtual Teams: Expanding OD Research and Practice.
Organization Development Journal. Western Libraries. Retrieved from http://web.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.library.wwu.edu/ehost/detail/detail?vid=4&sid=908af990-053a-4d86-8e6f-a3a064962ee6%40sdc-v-sessmgr03&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=139730957&db=bth
This article is written by Jeanne Maes in 2018. The article is about building effective virtual work teams. In the article Maes gives insight on the fact that many members within those teams do not know how to create beneficial relationships with other members of their teams according to researchers. The article gives plenty of useful insights on how to create better efficient and more productive work teams throughout members of a virtual team. Not only does this article provide an in depth recipe for a successful virtual team, it also explains the importance that organization holds. It makes the claim that organization must not be just a plan, but rather the actual functional behavior happening. The article ends with 10 “necessary management actions” that will ensure your virtual team is effective and efficient. Although these can be implemented by higher managers, it is vital that subordinates understand them as well during this time so that there is smoother collaboration.
Juan Bustos, Kaley Bartel, Sam Kanga, Lauren Forrest