Virtual Teams in the Global Economy

VIRTUAL TEAMS IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY In today's global economy, many companies have headquarters and employees spread worldwide. But how do they connect so many people across the globe? Many are using the power of telecommuting and virtual teams to keep communication open with great success. The Trend of Transnationalism Corporations are expanding their reach far beyond their home country, becoming "transnational" corporations that cross borders, oceans, and time zones SMART CORPORATIONS KNOW THAT THE MARKET IS OUT THERE More than 70% of the world's purchasing power is located outside of the US WELL-KNOWN COMPANIES ARE TAKING TO THE GLOBAL STAGE General Electric: Over $500 billion in foreign assets, $4 2$ 24 More than 50% of all workers are based overseas .70% which is more than of its total assets Nestlé's foreign sales are 97.8% of their total sales TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATIONS ARE ECONOMIC POWERHOUSES According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, foreign affiliates of transnational corporations employed an estimated 69 million workers %24 24 24 24 24 and generated 28 trillionin sales in 2011 The Growth of Telecommuting With so many employees scattered across the globe, the use of telecommuting - working from a remote location, not a central office - helps employees check in and be productive no matter where they are Global Workplace Analytics reports that in 2011, 3.1 million workers in the US telecommuted 2011 2005 The number of telecommuting workers grew /J% from 2005 to 2011 According to a 2012 survey by collaboration software company Wrike, telecommuting could be even more prevalent than that, and is projected to keep expanding as a practice 83% of respondents worked remotely at least part of the day 66% of respondents believed that their office might go fully virtual in 1-5 years The Utility of Virtual Teams A byproduct of the global economy and telecommuting is the rise of the virtual team, a group with all members joining in electronically from across the world to work together According to a 2012 survey by the Society for Human Resource Management, the use of virtual teams is common among businesses 46% 66% 28% of organizations use virtual of multinational operations of US-based operations teams in the workplace use virtual teams use virtual teams VIRTUAL TEAMS CAN SERVE MANY FUNCTIONS FOR GLOBAL BUSINESS VIRTUAL TEAMS SERVE A MULTITUDE OF PURPOSES Of organizations that use virtual teams, Of organizations that use virtual teams, 53% use them to include talent in different 79% use them as project teams geographic locations 49% use them to boost collaboration among employees in different geographic locations 52% use them as top management teams 37% use them to boost collaboration across global business units because work projects are 47% use them as action teams becoming more global COMPANIES THAT SUCCESSFULLY USE VIRTUAL TEAMS: Ogilvy & Mather BP Nokia With the skills gained in an online Master of Communication Management degree, a trained manager can lead virtual teams to outperform traditional teams, for reasons including: Expertise pulled from any location "Follow the sun" scheduling - A multiplicity of viewpoints - especially important for companies with many business hubs workers on either side of the essential for overseas markets globe work in shifts to maximize collective output Effective virtual team management is a vital skill for the modern communication professional. How better to learn this skill than in a degree program utilizing virtual teams in education? Check out the USC Annenberg Master of Communication Management online at http://communicationmgmt.usc.edu. Sources: http://www.trade.gov/cs/factsheet.asp http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2012/07/focus-1 http://www.unctad-docs.org/files/UNCTAD-WIR2012-Dverview-en.pdf http://www.globalworkplaceanalytics.com/telecommuting-statistics http://www.wrike.com/blog/04/06/2012/The-Past-Present-and-Future-Remote-Collaboration-Where-Does-Your-Team-Stand http://www.shrm.org/Research/SurveyFindings/Articles/Pages/VirtualTeams.aspx http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118165895540732559.html http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/03/how_virtual_teams_can_outperfo.html