This week’s journal articles focus on empowering leadership and effective collaboration in geographically dispersed teams, please answer the following questions: How do geographically dispersed teams collaborate effectively? Please find at least three tools on the market that teams can use to collaborate on a geographically dispersed team

Outline of empowering leadership and effective collaboration   

1. Introduction

Leadership is greatly dependent on one’s ability to process, arrange and develop structures that achieve the set organizational goal. Lucas and Baxter (2012, p.51)suggest that the leadership process greatly engages concepts of power, influence, and status in identifying activities and responsibilities that teams would be required to complete in order to attain the objectives delegated to them. The paper takes into consideration how empowering effective leadership within the organization’s culture is seen to be directly correlated to the outcomes achieved in graphically dispersed teams (Petty, Beadles, Chapman, Lowery, Connell, 2016, p.486).

2. Body

In Bonavia’s study beliefs and values are directly related to observable team manifestations that help inform the teams of the organization’s take in matters of motivation, strategy, rules, communication process, relationships, and technology regardless of graphical disposition. However, concepts of globalization, outsourcing needs, and strategic partnering of teams expose the organization to new challenges. Instituting capable responsible leaders with the influence of their team’s function in the various departments within an organization goes a long way in collaborating effectively among geographically dispersed teams..

1. Collaboration tool -

The cutting edge contribution of most collaboration tools is cloud-based because the user deals with a single instance of a file hence allowing for simultaneous working. On Google Workspace Different dispersed teams could simultaneously gain access to the same Google document online and track changes hence creating a sense of working together. Additionally, Google Workspace provides central storage that can be accessed from anywhere and supports conference calls that allow free flow of information amongst the teams.

2. communication tools

The pro of utilizing communication tools such as Slack to improve collaboration of dispersed teams is the increased ease and time efficiency of delivering required information compared to arranging for physical meetings that would involve traveling and incurring unnecessary costs. However Slack is not without its disadvantages because although it is suitable for smaller teams in a given channel, instant messaging might not be quite the best way to communicate. 

3. Environmental and social change

The advantage of utilizing Doodle is that leaders could schedule tasks or meetings centrally for their team and it will get sent to members automatically in real-time hence ensuring increased turnout in company meetings.   Although doodle keeps everything fairly organized its simple functionality only provides for scheduling time and in the event that there is a lot to schedule it becomes hard to view..

3. Conclusion

Organizations should therefore equip their members with the proper collaboration tools such as instant messaging, cloud-based applications, and scheduling, video, voice, and conference calls.  It is not enough to provide collaboration tools it is essential to understand the impact of initiatives like training, mobile devices, and remote working before introducing them more widely.

Empowering Leadership and Effective Collaboration

Leadership is greatly dependent on one’s ability to process, arrange and develop structures that achieve the set organizational goal. Lucas and Baxter (2012, p.51)suggest that the leadership process greatly engages concepts of power, influence, and status in identifying activities and responsibilities that teams would be required to complete in order to attain the objectives delegated to them. Defined roles help to consciously coordinate activities and establish authority relationships within an organization. Since the roles are divided into multiple departments the organization exists to accomplish develop common goals. Needless to say, communication is key in achieving collaboration within organizations as they are active environments of groups of people serving different functions for mutual benefits.  The paper takes into consideration how empowering effective leadership within the organization’s culture is seen to be directly correlated to the outcomes achieved in graphically dispersed teams (Petty, Beadles, Chapman, Lowery, Connell, 2016, p.486)

The series in which authority is structured helps to clearly define the responsibilities associated with the departments and teams. The diverse efforts of the multiple functional groups are integrated and collaborated towards achieving the common goal. The environment of the organization is essential for the effective collaboration of graphically dispersed teams as it is influenced by the institution’s social, political, economic, and legal factors. Bonavia's ( 2016, p. 672) study suggests that effective collaboration and leadership are also influenced by other factors such as the organization's culture. The organization’s culture improves collaboration between teams in an organization by establishing a set of shared values and beliefs. In Bonavia’s study beliefs and values are directly related to observable team manifestations that help inform the teams of the organization’s take in matters of motivation, strategy, rules, communication process, relationships, and technology regardless of graphical disposition. However, concepts of globalization, outsourcing needs, and strategic partnering of teams expose the organization to new challenges. In order to remain competitive organizations have swiftly adapted by building graphically dispersed teams that would ensure the organization succeeds on the global market.

As part of achieving effective collaboration amongst graphically dispersed teams, it is important to consider leaders and how they work with their teams.  Instituting capable responsible leaders with the influence of their team’s function in the various departments within an organization goes a long way in collaborating effectively among geographically dispersed teams. This would help to pick out the best practices amongst the leaders that would help to achieve a difference in their dispersed teams. Effective collaboration in a graphically dispersed team helps to identify practical applications for the theoretical models and studies utilized by the teams (Bonavia, 2016, 675). Therefore for organizations to succeed in the global market team leaders need new skills and strategies in order to lead these dispersed teams successfully.  Some practical solutions involve the leader’s utilization of technology, the speed at which they build their understanding of team members, and their individual differences in their teams. The way in which leaders use their status to exert their power and influence is reflected in the way they are able to delegate work in a dispersed way for projects that can be hugely important. Additionally, leadership is crucial in making decisions about how individuals performed in their teams.  

Collaboration Tools

Collaboration - Google Work Space

There are various ways to perceive the way in which leaders can be able to utilize modern technology to better manage the people in their teams. The first one is through collaboration and the tools that can be used to support team members to work better together. Google Workspace provides leaders with multiple capabilities of simultaneous working through the provision of storage, screen sharing in video calls, and emailing one dashboard. The cutting edge contribution of most collaboration tools is cloud-based because the user deals with a single instance of a file hence allowing for simultaneous working. On Google Workspace Different dispersed teams could simultaneously gain access to the same Google document online and track changes hence creating a sense of working together. Additionally, Google Workspace provides central storage that can be accessed from anywhere and supports conference calls that allow free flow of information amongst the teams. However, Google Workspace also has its disadvantages because not all its functions and labels are straight forward which makes it that much harder to execute simple actions such as printing. Additionally, there is a negative perception attached to Google as it is perceived to be advertisement-focused rather than geared toward increasing productivity.

Communication Aspect - Slack

Secondly, leaders could utilize communication tools and how they serve the aspect of collaboration management. Dispersed teams need to share information to be able to collaborate and overlap. The idea of utilizing instant messaging in Slack helps to support the transfer and receiving of a range of media. The pro of utilizing communication tools such as Slack to improve collaboration of dispersed teams is the increased ease and time efficiency of delivering required information compared to arranging for physical meetings that would involve traveling and incurring unnecessary costs. However Slack is not without its disadvantages because although it is suitable for smaller teams in a given channel, instant messaging might not be quite the best way to communicate. The practical solution to this downside is the utilization of mass communication channels such as email lists.

Scheduling and planning- Doodle

Finally scheduling or planning tools that help team members organize their work. Some of the capabilities of scheduling tools such as Doodle that has synched calendars that show all the in-person and virtual meetings. The advantage of utilizing Doodle is that leaders could schedule tasks or meetings centrally for their team and it will get sent to members automatically in real-time hence ensuring increased turnout in company meetings.   Although doodle keeps everything fairly organized its simple functionality only provides for scheduling time and in the event that there is a lot to schedule it becomes hard to view. Since not everyone is diligent at checking their calendar therefore as a leader of a dispersed team you are required to send reminders ahead of time.

From the above tools, I would choose to use the Google Workspace to effectively collaborate with dispersed teams. The rationale behind my decision is that it uniquely encompasses the three attributes of collaboration, enables communication of large groups, and has a synced calendar while providing voice, video, and conferencing capabilities. Google Workspace would be the best fitting tool for collaborating as it allows the central simultaneous control of the organization’s communication flow, project tasks, and storage all in real-time. Additionally, Google Workspace allows the team leader to track changes made to organization documents which means that it is unlikely to miss an amendment Google Workspace is quite an effective collaboration tool because it is a cloud-based software that effective at managing different tasks projects at the same time while allocating the jobs to different people.

It is possible to conclude that for every organization the collaboration of its teams is at the heart of its productivity and innovation. Dispersed teams involve concepts of globalization, outsourcing needs, and strategic partnering of teams that are aligned with the organization’s culture. new communication, collaboration, and scheduling tools are quite relevant to the role of dispersed teams as they are able to access tools in their preferred devices wherever they choose to work. It is evident that a leader’s power and return from investments is dependent on the capability of the followers hence which should be reflected in the organization’s effort of equipping dispersed teams. Detailed analytics would help to assess the best fitting tool to utilize on which devices, in a given situation.  Organizations should therefore equip their members with the proper collaboration tools such as instant messaging, cloud-based applications, and scheduling, video, voice, and conference calls.  It is not enough to provide collaboration tools it is essential to understand the impact of initiatives like training, mobile devices, and remote working before introducing them more widely.