Impact of technology on team functioning

The use of new technologies can improve and in some cases hinder team
functioning. As technology changes teams must update and maintain their
knowledge in order to function effectively.
Technologies which have improved team functions

e-mail

mobile phones

blackberry

groupware

computers

e-mail - allows asynchronous communication which means team members do

not need to be in the same place at the same time in order to communicate
effectively. E-mail also has its negative aspects in terms of managing e-mail and
the misuse of e-mail.
Mobile phones - allow teams to communicate even when team members are
out of the office, on the road or otherwise unavailable. Sometimes having always
access to team members can hinder team functioning.
Phone technologies such as blackberry and 3G data cards allow team members
to work and communicate remotely and this out in the field or with clients.
Groupware enables teams to plan meetings, collaborate, delegate all within a
virtual environment which can often be accessed remotely from anywhere in the
world.
Personal computers allow team members to carry out various tasks and
communicate more effectively. They are now lighter, more powerful and a longer
battery life. Personal Digital Assistants (PDA) now have much of the same
functionality, but are smaller, more portable and have a longer battery life. Many
PDAs now have wifi as standard and some are also phones (and some phones
have many PDA features).
Recent advances in networking environments and telecommunications have led
to the proliferation of teams that do not work face-to-face but interact over a
computer mediated communications network. Although some have asserted that
virtual teams transcend boundaries of time or distance, others have claimed that
working remotely in a mediated team environment differs in significant ways
from working face-to-face.

Virtual Teams
The nature of teams has changed significantly because of changes in
organizations and the nature of the work they do. Organizations have become
more distributed across geography and across industries. Relationships between
people inside an organization and those previously considered outside
(customers, suppliers, managers of collaborating organizations, other
stakeholders) are becoming more important.
Organizations have discovered the value of collaborative work. There is a new
emphasis on knowledge management - harvesting the learning of the experience
of members of the organization so that it is available to the whole organization.
All these changes in organizations have changed how teams are formed and how
they operate. Teams have changed:
From

To

fixed team membership

shifting team membership

all team members drawn from within

the organization
team members are dedicated 100% to
the team

team members can include people

from outside the organization (clients,
collaborators)
most people are members of multiple
teams

team
members
are
co-located
organizationally and geographically

team
members
are
distributed
organizationally and geographically

teams have
ending point

teams form and reform continuously

teams are
manager

fixed

managed

starting

by

and

single

teams
have
multiple
reporting
relationships with different parts of the
organization at different times.