Vts Advantages And Disadvantages

By highlighting advantages but also some disadvantages of VTs, the following chapter explains why VTs are growing in importance for multinational organisations. Effects of implementing VTs may be assessed at an individual, organizational, and societal level.

At the individual level, potential advantages of VTs are that employees may work at any time from any place. This high flexibility often results in higher work motivation. As is becomes easier to move between projects, employees might find it easier to contribute to more that one team at the time. This would also increase their empowerment and responsibilities.

The predominant strategic advantages of VTs are visible at the organizational level. For instance, the constructions of teams

This results in a more task-focused environment, which leads to a conclusion that VT tend to be more effective than face-to-face-teams (Nydegger, 2010). The broader geographic spread of team members is accountable for the speed and flexibility of responding to market demands, which leads be increased and a closer relationship with contractors and clients can be realised (Bergiel et al., 2008). Moreover, it is argued, that team member performances are easier to measure and compared (Gibson and Cohen,

Advantages of VTs at a societal level are not as grave as the previous mentioned, yet there are still some positive aspects worth mentioning. For instance, a wide employment of VTs decreases commuting traffic and air pollution with helps the environment. Additionally, one might argue, that the implementation of VTs supports the development of areas with a low employment rate.

Undoubtedly, VTs also have challenges and drawbacks. At an individual and societal level, feelings of isolation and an increased potential for misunderstandings are the most common problems, while additional costs for suitable technology and the concern around data protection form the main downsides of VTs on an organisational level (Hertel et al., 2005, Curşeu et al., 2007). Additionally, VTs might not be the ideal solution for every employee as some people might not be psychological suitable to work in a virtual environment (Bergiel et al., 2008). On the other side, even if people are able and willing to work virtually, some people might not have the appropriate technological skills to keep up with the technological applications (Bergiel et al., 2008, Stanko et al.,