Traditionally, theorists suggest that the managerial function of controlling sho

Question

Traditionally, theorists suggest that the managerial function of controlling should not be confused with control in the behavioral or the manipulative sense. This function does not imply that managers should attempt to control or to manipulate the personalities, values, attitudes, or emotions of their employees. Instead, this function of management concerns the manager’s role in taking necessary actions to ensure that the work-related activities of employees are consistent with and contribute toward the accomplishment of organizational and departmental objectives. Research the concept of the virtual organization. Then, explain how can a manager measure work that is performed when the employee may be 5,000 miles away? Be sure to consider the virtual and global organizations and how a manager would control and measure work from afar.

Explanation / Answer

Answer: With the spread of globalizations many new concepts have emerged in the field of management. The concept of virtual teams is one of them. The virtual team is a team of individuals who are located at different geographical locations and communicate with each other through IT based communication technologies like the video and voice conferencing. This situation gives rise to the issue of how to manage and measure the team performance in such situations. It is a valid question that, how can a manager sitting 5000 miles away can measure and control the work of his team members. The answer for this is simple, the managerial control does not implies the manipulation of personalities, values and attitudes of the employees but it involves that the managers ensure that the work related activities of the employees are consistent with the organizational goals and objectives. Therefore by using the same metrics like the organizational KPI’s and individual targets and so on the managers can measure their performance and guide them accordingly. Face to face interactions are only required when the managers attempt to manipulate the attitudes and emotions of the employees. Hence it can be established that in virtual teams the managers can control and measure the performance of the employees just like in normal business format.

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