MSG Team's other articles

10496 Office Politics and Organizational Dynamics

Politics is inevitable wherever there are groups of people and wherever there are blocs of people competing for the same set of scarce resources. In this context, it is indeed the case that organizations have their own share of office politics due to the prevalence of power centres and interest groups each with competing and […]

12042 Women and Leadership

Unlike male leaders, the reference point for a good leadership has been inadequately defined for women leaders. The traditional and concretely defined gender roles in the society have also influenced the research and findings on women leadership, a role, which is divorced from the stereotype roles identified for women. So, it becomes rather challenging for […]

10149 Leadership and Motivation

Motivation is a goal-oriented characteristic that helps a person achieve his objectives. It pushes an individual to work hard at achieving his or her goals. An executive must have the right leadership traits to influence motivation. However, there is no specific blueprint for motivation. As a leader, one should keep an open perspective on human […]

9857 Importance of Organization Culture

A common platform where individuals work in unison to earn profits as well as a livelihood for themselves is called an organization. A place where individuals realize the dream of making it big is called an organization. Every organization has its unique style of working which often contributes to its culture. The beliefs, ideologies, principles […]

10603 Performance Appraisal System for Virtual Teams

Performance appraisal is considered as a challenging task by many business managers. It becomes all the more daunting in case of virtual workplace. With the virtual team members distributed globally and coming from different cultures and backgrounds, it is important to ensure that the entire process of performance evaluation is perceived as fair and upright […]

Search with tags

  • No tags available.

Conflict is an inevitable characteristic of all work teams. Considering the complex dynamics of virtual teams, understanding and managing conflict becomes a big challenge. Conflict can be both - constructive and destructive.

When members of the team present different viewpoints about a task and positively contribute to decision making, it leads to constructive conflict. Destructive conflict results when group members doubt each other’s intentions behind difference in opinions.

Virtual teams present a very paradoxical situation because on one hand virtual team members are more task-oriented and therefore do not get into any interpersonal issues, while on the other hand, due to the lack of face-to-face interactions, task related conflict transpires into interpersonal/relationship conflicts. This impacts collaborative efforts, hinders productivity and decrease morale.

It is the key responsibility of a virtual team leader to prevent task-related disagreement to devolve into interpersonal conflict. A strong leader who can anticipate team members’ expectations and disagreements acts as the lifeguard when any problem arises.

The first and foremost task is to ensure a strong and well-planned orientation at the time of project initiation. This is the time when ground rules are set, expectation clarified and responsibilities delegated. Good team building activities and icebreakers should also form part of the virtual team orientation session. Members should be encouraged to share their backgrounds, past experiences and other informal information about themselves. This would help members to relate to each other.

Constant flow of communication should be encouraged. Different media can be used to share information and knowledge. Online discussion board in a shared virtual workspace is a great platform for virtual team members to discuss their opinions openly, voice their concerns and connect with each other in a relaxed and casual way. This generates transparency and builds trust among the members. Thus people do not attribute any hidden agenda behind a task related disagreement.

During the course of project, virtual team leader should promote team bonding activities outside work such as a 5 minute small talk session before project meetings etc. Such actions keep the members engaged as well as committed to the common goal. A daily updates from all the members about the four things - work completed, issues/challenges faced, assistance required and next day agenda - goes a long way in avoiding any seeping conflicts.

Virtual team leaders are mainly responsible for dealing with conflicts but a lot of time, effort and energy that goes in resolving the conflicts, can be saved if utmost care is taken during hiring & selection of virtual team members. Hiring people with right attitude along with their technical skills and knowledge is necessary. Right attitude in the context of virtual teams means intercultural competence, tolerance and understanding. This would reduce the situations of interpersonal conflicts among the members.

Another cause of conflicts in virtual teams is lack of non-verbal features of communication including gestures, body language and facial expressions, especially when communication is done through emails. For example, many a times a simple question/query sounds interrogatory and reproachful resulting in negative feelings and misunderstandings. Therefore, as much as possible the problem discussions should be done via videoconferencing and other rich synchronous media.

Thus we see by keeping in mind such simple and inexpensive action steps, virtual team leaders can increase the productivity and commitment of their dispersed work teams.

Download Powerpoint Presentation for Complete Course on Conflict Management


    Total Slides: 145

    “These presentations are Packed with Real Life Examples on the Largest Range of topics across Management Subjects”

    “All Presentations contain Optimum Lively Graphics & Animations to make the Concept Easy to Understand”

Article Written by

MSG Team

An insightful writer passionate about sharing expertise, trends, and tips, dedicated to inspiring and informing readers through engaging and thoughtful content.

Leave a reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Articles

Critical Success Factors for Virtual Teams

MSG Team

Critical Competencies of Virtual Team Members

MSG Team