What is your opinion on the feature contained in the opening thread and how do the chapter concepts apply to help understand your view? – The opening article tackles the issue of management in virtual teams where the employees and their supervisor are not in constant physical communication. The chapter enables me to understand the thread in a manner of finding the motivation behind the workers producing without the need for physical supervision. Aspects such as delegating authority and decision making to subordinates proved to be effective in motivating workers towards higher productivity
What relevant work experience do you have that relates to either view? – I have studied extensively on management, and have had to experience how an online based marketing firms work by setting expectations for the workers and providing benefits for attainment certain goals as the main motivators of performance
What knowledge of organizations do you have that relates to either view?- Organizations are comprised of various teams basically, with people working towards the achievement of a certain organization goal being a team and working towards the set goal. In this model therefore, the leader is able to adopt changing management styles most suitable towards achieving the common team goal
What research supports your view? – Below is an evaluation of a sports team management, and how it relates to the view presented in the response;
Sports team analogy: Point – Counterpoint
Successful sports teams in sports such as baseball, basketball, hockey, integrate aspects of internal competition and cooperation. The strategy by sports coaches is building a culture of corroboration within the team while the teammates push each other to peak performance. Successful teams also had a reported culture of scoring early wins. Research on hockey teams for instance showed that teams who finished the first period in a winning position, went on to win the game seventy two out of a hundred times. This study shows that a team should employ teamwork by working as one unit rather than individuals in the team (Northouse, pg 301, 2004)
Successful teams also have the tendency to avoid losing streaks. study on football teams who had the highest probability of winning the league, it was found that teams which were able to post results even on their poor runs of forms, had the higher chance to win the league than hot cold teams. This aspect calls for consistency, where the manager must provide leadership to the team. (Northouse, pg 286, 2004)
Counter point
This model falls slightly short in its effectiveness for use for comparison. Not all sports teams are similar and some teams rely on the sum total of individual inputs rather than the collective effort. A good example is baseball. Sports also tend to rely on coaching largely as a factor for success. A business/ work force manager on the other hand emphasizes on the setting up of the functional structures or the mental model for success with coaching happening concessionary. (Northouse, pg 290, 2004)
For the work place, success is not simply discernible as success or failure. There are many factors that come into play in the work place scenario, and ethically, if the workstation was defined as win/ lose situation, the work place would lose all sense of ethics
References
Northouse, P. G. (2004). Leadership: Theory and practice. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage.
Burke, Ronald J., and Cary L. Cooper. Building more effective organizations: HR management and performance in practice. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2008. Print
Ulrich, D., Losey, M. R., & Lake, G. S. (1997). Tomorrow's HR management: 48 thought leaders call for change. Chichester, England: John Wiley.
First response
Management of workers in virtual platforms is unique in its ways as there is no direct interaction with the personnel on a face-to-face basis. Management approaches to a venture of this kind would favor an incorporated approach where the manager cedes some Authority to his workers and only providing management guidance where the circumstances demand so. This approach was effectively utilized with the marketers expected to take initiative in the execution of their expected duties. The system worked since there were no reported instances where the manager had to intervene with any managerial measures to modify the program. By this approach, management is taken as a team based problem solving, rather than an imposition upon team players by the manager (Northouse, pg 290, 2004). Application of transformational leadership is evident in this instance as the manager is able to apply the various human personnel around them to achieve the various goals expected of them. Transformational leadership requires that the manager is able to identify changes in times and various roles change as time advances.
References
Northouse, P. G. (2004). Leadership: Theory and practice. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage.
FAU Libraries - Off Campus Connect / EZproxy. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://ezproxy.fau.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/222347190?accountid=10902
Response to the second article
Tele-presence in marketing is a term that is widely varied nowadays, as advances in technology in computing and telecommunications grow at paces hard for most organizations to muster and utilize. Tele-presence on the advent of modern, high-speed connectivity includes aspects of social networking by use of tools such as Skype and Google hangouts. The utilization of these tools by small to medium firms in an effective way can improve their Tele-presence tremendously as they are low cost to implement. Tele-presence requires that the intended communication be delivered in an effective manner.
Tele-presence should not encompass a presence merely without an evaluation of the effectiveness of that presence to communicate to the intended audience. The more direct the Tele- facility applied is, the better for the organization, as it improves the chances for effective communication.
References
Tata communications launches telepresence services worldwide. (2008, Jul 01). Business Wire. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.fau.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/444554181?accountid=10902
AT&T enhances AT&T telepresence solution with multipoint intercompany cisco TelePresence capabilities. (2008, Dec 08). PR Newswire. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.fau.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/447562027?accountid=10902
Zigurs, I. Leadership in Virtual Teams:: Oxymoron or Opportunity?, Organizational Dynamics, Volume 31, Issue 4, January 2003, Pages 339-351, ISSN 0090-2616, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0090-2616(02)00132-8. (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0090261602001328)
Northouse, P. G. (2004). Leadership: Theory and practice. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage.
