The working atmosphere is continuously developing, and the companies are gradually implementing new and innovative methods to bring different sets of people. In order to overcome globalization, the companies are leading in the path of creating virtual teams. The virtual teams are those teams where the members of the team work together in networked environments.
It will support the communication and physical existence with the help of technology and membership of the virtual groups. The paper will evaluate two scenarios; Scenario A will utilize clustering techniques to choose the members from the R, D & D teams for attending the meeting. Scenario B will utilize Leximancer Concept map to find the link between the various concepts.
Main Context
Discussion of Scenario A
Scenario A has been set up in the context of a medium-sized Australian company, whose total number of employees is 800. 80 out of 800 employees are engaged in research, development, and design (R, D & D) works. The company is actively eager to recognize the innovative or creative skills of their RD&D employees and utilize their talents to bring differences in their business, which would differ from their competitors. The company has established a project to carry on research on the innovative or creative skills of R, D & D, which are held tacitly by the employees while facilitating an unstructured communication. It had been noted that tacit data could be best accessed and changed to knowledge by accessing the email-based communication between the RD&D employees (Akinici & Sadler-Smith, 2012).
The emails of RD&D employees and their direction and rates of connectivity has been mapped accordingly for a period of one week. The outcomes of this research audit can be observed on the map of R, D & D, which had been designed on the basis on unstructured information and is included in the emails of the employees of RD&D team.
Each employees and their workstation they are logged in are identified by the map of R, D & D. The lines connecting various nodes shows the rates of connectivity and the lines connecting into or out of nodes shows intensity and direction of traffic. The project will interpret the map and decisions made to bring together for the discussion of the content and collaborate to make tacit unstructured data based on the emails explicit (Allred, Fawcett, Wallin & Magnan, 2011). Thus, it would be appropriate for the company for using it. Many meeting rooms would be given to the employees of RD&D, along with a facilitator, visual aids and a group decision support system, so that they could connect and review the outputs of the meeting room.
A group-based communication technology system would be utilized by the project in order to support the meetings between the employees and help them to create tacit data explicitly (Al-Dujaili, 2011). The resources available in each meeting room will help the group procedure and make sure each member of the group has better collaboration with each other, and also with groups of different meeting rooms for producing explicit information.
The table presents the clusters and nodes of six employees of the R, D & D team.
|
No |
Clusters |
Nodes Identified per Cluster |
|
1 |
13 |
3 |
|
2 |
31 |
3 |
|
3 |
38 |
3 |
|
4 |
59 |
4 |
|
5 |
61 |
5 |
|
6 |
75 |
4 |
The table shows the key members of R, D & D who has been selected to attend the meetings.
|
Rooms |
Clusters |
Key Members Selected to Attend Meetings |
|
A |
1 |
Project Manager |
|
B |
2 |
Research Staff Member |
|
C |
3 |
Research Associate Member |
|
D |
4 |
Technical Staff Member |
|
E |
5 |
Technician |
|
F |
6 |
Senior Research Associate |
The type and size of each of the six clusters has been decided by rational decision making process. The rational decision making process makes assumptions that people would take decisions which will increase advantages and reduce any expenses. It also assumes that a person had complete and perfect knowledge on the basis on which the decisions would be taken. It also makes assumptions that a person has the skill, time and resources to analyze each alternative compared to others (Bellinger, Castro & Mills, 2004). The clusters were selected by arranging a group of numbers in the same group those who are similar to each other.
The process utilized for selecting clusters is hierarchical clustering, where the end-point is a group of clusters, where each cluster is far from each cluster, and the nodes in each cluster are highly similar to one another. A minimum connection has been used to select the key members for attending the meeting and carry on the research analysis. The hierarchical clustering is the most useful process of grouping.
The nodes have been chosen by recognizing the innovative or creative skills of their RD&D employees and utilize their talents to bring differences in their business, which would differ from their competitors — the skills of the employees’ shows that tacit data could be best accessed and changed to knowledge by accessing the email-based communication between the RD&D employees. A group-based communication technology system would be utilized by the project in order to support the meetings between the employees and help them to create tacit data explicitly.
A group-based communication technology system will help the key members to take decisions as group which will lead to better decision process (Carton & Adam, 2016). In this way, the key members of the meeting s have been chosen.
Dangling nodes has not been included in the research analysis because dangling nodes signifies that each node is disconnected from each other. The decision has been taken by utilizing the intuition decision making process. Intuition decision style is that style which is natural, biased and subconscious in nature. This type of decision style are less structured and consists of emotions and perceptions more than the evaluation and facts. Intuition decision making is far more than utilizing common sense, as it includes extra sensors for perception and information awareness from external sources. It is utilized to remove nodes from the cluster, and no nodes have been removed in this scenario (Sadler-Smith & Shefy, 2004). Every node is connected with one another, and so dangling nodes has not been included in the analysis.
The decision to include the unconnected nodes has been taken by using the balanced decision making method. The balanced decision making provides opportunity for better intellectual contribution in the decision making method. It also gives opportunity for higher commitment for executing the decision after it has been taken. The decision maker are not removed from the responsibility of taking the correct decision by balanced decision making.
It just offers more support for the decision making process (Wierenga, 2011). Unconnected nodes have been included in the clusters as they help to recognize the employees of R, D & D team and make a more direct process for them. Although unconnected nodes are not needed in most cases, in this case, it is necessary as the task is to choose the key members for the meeting, and they will make their work easier.
The aim of clustering is to decrease the amount of information by grouping the same nodes. The two R, D & D employees like the research staff member and research associate member are chosen, as they are close with one another and their work is also connected with each other. So, they have been chosen to attend the meeting. Many meeting rooms would be given to the employees of RD&D, along with a facilitator, visual aids and a group decision support system, so that they could connect and review the outputs of the meeting room. Group decision support system (GDSS) is a computer based process which helps the decision makers of the organization, those who are working in group to solve their issues which are unstructured in nature.
GDSS will help to improve the quality and efficiency of the group meetings of the key members of the R, D & D team (Dhami & Thomson, 2012). In GDSS meeting, each member of the team is given a computer, and the computers are connected with one another, to the facilitator’s computer and file server. Both the facilitator and the members could digitally project their messages and images on the screen. GDSS meeting includes various phases and these phases are controlled by the facilitator. These phases could consists of generating ideas, discussion and voting.
Discussion of Scenario B
Scenario B has been evolved around a wide service based company of Australia and whose headquarter is situated in the city of Melbourne, Australia. The company has almost 200 service employees with ten service centers, and they report to 40 managers. The company is interested in deciding the levels of service support given by their employees. In order to carry on their business, they have introduced a project to capture the responsibilities of the service person and recognize the perceived support given by the management.
The number of telephonic and face-to-face interviews had been carried on across field staff and management, and then the results are recorded (Choo, 2000). The recorded stories of the individuals which have been captured in the interviews have been conducted by Leximancer map, which is a qualitative analysis tool and which helps to make sense of the vast amount of information.
In this case, Leximancer concept map shows the result by sorting a large amount of qualitative information from unstructured interviews held with employees across the service-based company of Australia. The map shows six themes, and they are management, customer, communication, focused open and results. Each balloon is connected with other balloons, and it signifies that all the balloons have some connections with each other in carrying the business. The communication balloon has two components, work, and team. It shows that both group and work are connected with communication so that the work proceeds systematically.
The map demonstrates that all the balloons that are the management, customer, open and results are all linked with the communication balloon (Eisenbess, Knippenberg & Fahrbach, 2015). Thus, it shows communication plays a significant function as it is a vital tool of a successful business. Communication between the team members is necessary for all the companies to better performance.
The employees of the field services have communicated with one another in open communication, by sending emails, face-to-face interaction, interacting at the time of training, utilizing simple words and body language. All these aspects have helped to take correct decisions and helped the company to carry on their business and improve their performance and increase their productivity (Olsson & Walker, 2003). The open communication among the employees of field suggests that they take group decisions for the benefit of their team. Group decision are made in supportive business conditions where the team members are open for suggestions.
The employees of the field services communicate mostly with the management team and other members of the group of the company. The communication is wholly related to business processes in order to achieve the goal. Here also group decision making process is applicable as the employees of the field services team and management team take decisions on the information gathered by the team members (Heshmat, 2016).
There is no high level of communication between the managers and the customers because the customers generally interact with the employees about the needs and demands. It is also because the customers are not directly linked with the managers to tell them about their needs. Thus, there is a low level of communication between the managers and the customers. Here individual decision making method is applicable as the level of communication between the customers and managers is solely decided by the managers, as there is no direct connection between them and it is based on limited information collected by the managers.
The support availability is essential to carry on the business in the company. It also gives technical support to the customers according to their needs. The resources available to the customers has proven that it is useful for the company, as it efficiently fulfills the demands of the customers (Morales-Sa´nchez & Cabello-Medina, 2013). The Leximancer concept map has shown a high level of support available to the customers.
There is open communication between the field employees and the management. The management and the field employees openly communicate about the main problems of the company and take an appropriate decision for the benefit of the company (Thomas, 2014). If the communication between the field employees and management is not open, then it might have an effect on the decision-making procedures of the company.
The nature of results communicated by field employees is on the basis of efficient communication. Efficient communication helps to improve the performance of the works and also helps to achieve the targets of the company. As a result, the company will get positive outcomes for their business.
Managers play an essential role in communicating results so they could carry on their primary functions of management like planning, leading, organizing and managing. Communication helps the managers to carry on their tasks and duties.
Utilizing the results of the analysis, it has been found that the managers are not sufficiently customer facing for introducing an incentive payment system for the customers. It is due to the fact the managers are not equipped with adequate funding capacity to give an incentive payment system to its customers. The managers have to take balance decision so that they clear the confusion that they are not customer facing for introducing an incentive payment system not due to their instability. It is due to fact that they does not have sufficient funds (Ho & Ramon, (n.d.).
The results of the analysis present that in spite of difficulties that both the management and the field service team, are working together to reach to their customers and fulfill their demands. Both the sides are equally significant for the company to carry on business effectively (Metcalfe, 2010). So, the company has to use the concepts of both the management and the field service team, to conduct their business successfully.
According to me, if I would the manager, my shadow type would have been applicable in this situation, as I am an outspoken person who is not shy to face the difficulties and would have concentrate on the current situations. As I have realized that I have the logical decisions making style, after completing the intuition, logic and balance test, I would have taken decision on the basis of my logic, irrespective of the circumstances and aspects. Logical decision makers are good at leadership.
According to me, customer-service communication could be changed towards greater openness. After I have realized that I have the logical decisions making style, after completing the intuition, logic and balance test and after evaluating the problems, I does not trust my hunches. So my logical decision makes me realize that greater openness to communication would help the customers their concepts and concerns more openly.
Recommendations
Conclusion
The paper had discussed about two scenarios, Scenario A and Scenario B. Scenario A is about the usage of the clustering process, and Scenario B is about Leximancer concept map. The virtual teams are significant in the current business world for better performance of the company. The significance of virtual team management takes the primary function when it is needed to manage the efforts and time of remote workforces. The virtual workers have a direct impact of the decision making of the management of the company. The management has maintained good relations with the other team members for carrying out the business effectively.
References
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