Part 1 The internet age now allows you to connect to work from virtually anywhere in the world. However, managing a team of remote employees presents unique challenges. Monitoring, communicating, organizing, and motivating remote employees and coworkers can be difficult, even with available technology that helps remote employees meet and collaborate in virtual spaces. As you review the Learning Resources this week to prepare for your Shared Practice posting, imagine the following scenario: At your current employer, or at a company where you would like to work, you have been assigned to manage a virtual team. Your virtual team is composed of some individuals in the office, some that work from home in various time zones, and some others that work out of another office several time zones away. Consider the challenges of managing virtual employees and how these challenges compare to managing a traditional “non-virtual” team. With these thoughts in mind: Post a response that addresses the following: (350 or more words for Discussion post) Explain benefits and challenges that a manager has when developing, leading, and motivating virtual teams and how those challenges are unique to virtual teams. Explain which of the challenges you identified that need to be addressed directly by a manager, and which challenges should managers empower or allow the team to address. Describe how you would meet the challenges and contribute to the virtual team if you are assigned to manage the team. Be sure to identify obstacles you think you would have and how would you address them. Hint: An exemplary response will draw on the themes from previous weeks, such as ensuring a positive and productive environment, handling difficult conversations, motivating employees, providing feedback, maintaining levels of trust, etc. Part 2 (250 words or more for each colleague) Read a selection of your colleagues' posts. Respond to two or more of your colleagues' postings in one or more of the following ways: Share an experience that is relevant to a colleague’s post about having managed, lead, and/or participated on teams that largely collaborated in a virtual environment. Evaluate the factors that made the teams successful or ineffective. Expand on a colleague’s post with relevant concerns or observations, based on your experiences or the readings in the classroom, about working on or managing virtual teams. Expand on a colleague’s post by offering resources and processes that should be in place to support virtual teams and how to mitigate the risks that working virtually creates. 1st Colleague to respond to: “Virtual team members may be located across the office, but almost as easily across the country or across the world and may rarely or perhaps never meet face to face” (Berry, 2011). When it comes to a virtual team, managers are face with many benefits and challenges when developing, leading, and motivating a team. Some challenges are having infrequent face- ...

1. Part 1
The internet age now allows you to connect to work from
virtually anywhere in the world. However, managing a team of
remote employees presents unique challenges. Monitoring,
communicating, organizing, and motivating remote employees
and coworkers can be difficult, even with available technology
that helps remote employees meet and collaborate in virtual
spaces. As you review the Learning Resources this week to
prepare for your Shared Practice posting, imagine the following
scenario:
At your current employer, or at a company where you would
like to work, you have been assigned to manage a virtual team.
Your virtual team is composed of some individuals in the office,
some that work from home in various time zones, and some
others that work out of another office several time zones away.
Consider the challenges of managing virtual employees and how
these challenges compare to managing a traditional “non-
virtual” team.
With these thoughts in mind:
Post a response that addresses the following: (350 or more
words for Discussion post)
Explain benefits and challenges that a manager has when
developing, leading, and motivating virtual teams and how those
challenges are unique to virtual teams.
Explain which of the challenges you identified that need to be
addressed directly by a manager, and which challenges should
managers empower or allow the team to address.

2. Describe how you would meet the challenges and contribute to
the virtual team if you are assigned to manage the team. Be sure
to identify obstacles you think you would have and how would
you address them.
Hint: An exemplary response will draw on the themes from
previous weeks, such as ensuring a positive and productive
environment, handling difficult conversations, motivating
employees, providing feedback, maintaining levels of trust, etc.
Part 2 (250 words or more for each colleague)
Read a selection of your colleagues' posts.
Respond to two or more of your colleagues' postings in one or
more of the following ways:
Share an experience that is relevant to a colleague’s post about
having managed, lead, and/or participated on teams that largely
collaborated in a virtual environment. Evaluate the factors that
made the teams successful or ineffective.
Expand on a colleague’s post with relevant concerns or
observations, based on your experiences or the readings in the
classroom, about working on or managing virtual teams.
Expand on a colleague’s post by offering resources and
processes that should be in place to support virtual teams and
how to mitigate the risks that working virtually creates.
1st Colleague to respond to:
“Virtual team members may be located across the office, but
almost as easily across the country or across the world and may
rarely or perhaps never meet face to face” (Berry, 2011). When
it comes to a virtual team, managers are face with many benefits
and challenges when developing, leading, and motivating a
team. Some challenges are having infrequent face-to-face

3. contact as a team, (DeRosa, 2009), building a collaborative
atmosphere virtually, (DeRosa, 2009), lack of trust, poor
communication, time zone differences, and physical distance.
“The most effective leaders of virtual teams develop a process
for establishing and adjusting priorities as a tool to address
these challenges” (DeRosa, 2009). Communicating daily to
ensure that you are running a successful business is important.
Without communication within your company, you are not
operating a business successfully. “Virtual teams are greatly
influenced by the effectiveness of communication” (Emelo,
2002). To ensure that as a manager, you are operating a
successful virtual team, everyone should help others achieve
their goals, provide their support, and take accountability for
their own actions. To help enhance team performance,
managers, should ensure that a team charter is created to
enhance team commitment and accountability, and that team
members are happy and comfortable with giving feedback
virtually. Some benefits include lower office cost, reduced
travel time, and having a 24-hour workday. With some
employees working from home, computer equipment isn’t being
used frequently. A staff that works from home, is a substantial
benefit, because they do not need to travel everyday to work.
Employees that work out of another office several time zones
away, is a benefit to the company, because you can operate your
business on a 24-hour schedule with shifts in different
countries. One of the challenges that should be addressed
directly by a manager would be the lack of communication.
Communication is the key to a successful business, because it
allows a company to be productive and operate effectively. You
must communicate daily with all employees to ensure that the
job performance is successful, to make sure every employee is
on the same page, and to build a relationship with your
employees so that they are motivated and committed to working
essentially. As a manager, you should always allow employees
to work at their own pace, long as deadlines are met. Having
different time zones is a challenge but as a manager I would

4. allow, because you know someone will always be available
because you have staff working different schedules. If I was
assigned to manage a virtual team, I would motivate all
employees to work hard, by recognizing all the hard workers,
which includes giving bonuses. As a manager, I would ask for
feedback daily to ensure that we are on the same page. I would
also provide feedback to ensure that we as a team, is doing what
we supposed to do to achieve daily goals.
References
Berry, G. R. (2011). Enhancing effectiveness on virtual teams.
Journal of Business Communication, 186–206.
DeRosa, D. (2009). Virtual success: The keys to effectiveness
in leading from a distance. Leadership in Action, 9–11.
Emelo, R. &. (2002). Virtual team interaction. T+D, 17–19.
2nd Colleague to respond to:
There are many benefits and challenges that a manager has
when developing, leading and motivating a virtual team. Some
challenges can be physical distance. This is when there is no
face to face contact so it is my belief when it is like this one
must pay very close attention to the things that they are asked to
do. Communication can also be a challenge this is important
because you must be mindful of the right messages being sent
when I look at this challenge I thought of ( when you send a
WhatsApp message and how you can sometimes send the
message to the wrong person). Also, miscommunication of lost
files can happen when we look at communication. The website

5. https://managing-virtual-teams.com/en/virtual-teams-
articles/project-management/advantages-and-challenges-of-
virtual-work-teams.html. notes that "Communication is arguably
one of the most difficult aspects of business, especially with
virtual employees and members."Another challenge can be
different time zones this is something honestly that the manager
can not control. With the bad comes the good there are three
benefits of a virtual team that I will discuss one would most
definitely be flexibility, who does not love having a flexible
time let's be honest this leaves a person in charge of their own
schedule. Also, freedom to travel this one is my favorite with
this it does not mean jumping on a plane but virtually being
able to go anywhere in the world gives a person freedom to
choose their physical workspace. Another benefit would be
spending less money. When there is not a physical location the
company and team save money.
Secondly out of the challenges that were identified I would state
that communication would be the one that should be addressed
directly by a manager. Communication is key in any workplace
especially one where most interactions occur via email, chat or
calls. Ensuring a free flow of accurate information throughout
your company's structure means hiring the right people,
fostering a communicative culture, and using the right tools for
the job. Close attention to relationship building is important.
This can be a process to ensure good communication. When
there is a strong culture of communication this allows
collaboration. Also, before hiring a person to work virtually
ensure that you test their usage of communication through calls
and writing. Managers can allow employees to address whether
they should work the same time when in different time zones
once the work is getting done before the deadline, let everyone
work at their pace and the time that they agree. Working with a
virtual team requires leaders and organizations to be flexible. In
many cases, team members work in different time zones, making
it difficult to coordinate virtual meetings or collaborate in other

6. ways. Even when employees share a common time zone, they
may favor working at different times of the day when they feel
they can be more productive. Since it’s not absolutely necessary
for all team members to be working at the same time, it makes
sense for the team to be flexible enough to accommodate
everyone’s needs. DeRosa, D. states "Furthermore, it may be
beneficial to have all or most of the team working at the same
time for at least a portion of the day in case important
information needs to be communicated to everyone."
Finally, It's a situation more people and businesses are facing.
With the globalization of business and leading a team that one
has never met in person can be a bit challenging. Even as the
growth in social media and communication technology has made
everything easier for a leader to guide a team even though the
human interaction is missing. I would have to put extra
emphasis on the ability to influence my team, communication
and most definitely planning. Kalman (2018) noted, "Because
virtual gatherings are disconnected by the traditional human
relationships that are formed when people work together daily,
the ability to create a sense of unity and purpose for the team
and for the goals of each meeting or project is an especially
important skill for leaders to acquire."There are also many
obstacles that I am sure that I would encounter one would most
definitely maybe making persons accountable, sometimes as
humans I feel as though we become relaxed so this is where I
feel that I may have to send regular reminders and this is fine
this simply just means that I must be organized and up to date
with my information.
Reference
DeRosa, D. (n.d.). 7 Tips to Ensure Your Virtual Teams Are
Productive. Retrieved October 9, 2019, from
https://www.onpointconsultingllc.com/blog/productive-virtual-

7. teams.
Kalman, F. (2018, August 21). How to Lead Effectively in
Virtual Environments. Retrieved October 9, 2019, from
https://www.chieflearningofficer.com/2012/01/13/how-to-lead-
effectively-in-virtual-environments/.
(n.d.). Retrieved October 9, 2019, from https://managing-
virtual-teams.com/en/virtual-teams-articles/project-
management/advantages-and-challenges-of-virtual-work-
teams.html.