A DMBA student stated, “A good friend once told me, ‘the train will move if you

Question

A DMBA student stated, “A good friend once told me, ‘the train will move if you are on it or not.’”

I replied, "In relationship to your points regarding prioritizing staying on schedule (late classmates, etc.), looking at the end outcome from a workplace situation, what does a client what to hear? 1) The work was delivered on time, or 2) the work was not on time but individual team performance was enhanced? It is almost always to going to be the former rather than the latter."

A student in another section noted, “My point is people are who they are, whether it be in a virtual environment or a collocated environment, and no amount of leadership is going to change that. […] If all of the people you are paired with have a good work ethic and take pride in themselves and their work, there will not be many issues[.]”

My response was, “I wholeheartedly agree that when we work with people who choose to have a good work ethic, pride and high level communication skills, there are not any issues (whether face to face or virtual). I disagree that there is nothing that leadership can do when dealing a person who is not demonstrating a good work ethic. Employers fire them. They do not receive a grade for a team project that they did not contribute to (in a college class). No one is able to change the behavior of another person but leaders implement consequences to stop the behavior (often by removing the person from the environment). Thanks!”

I wonder how much of this perception regarding teams (and virtual teams) is simply a result of our personal familiarity with a modality? Someone who started out working face-to-face and spent their time in that modality would feel that it is preferable whereas someone who has spent the majority of their career working virtually would feel the exact opposite. For example, I have spent the majority of my time working remotely (and now virtually) with clients, students, staff, etc. I last taught in a traditional ground class in 2000. I have taught online since that time. I changed my law firm to remote/ virtual practice the same year (2000), as I had started my consulting practice and was traveling to client sites the majority of the time.

I have not had a traditional face-to-face business model for any of my endeavors (real estate investment, teaching, law, consulting, writing, etc.). I work on my computer wherever I am in the world each day (at home, in a hotel room, in an airport, etc.). I have staff, students, vendors, clients, etc., around the world and manage everything online. Phone calls are rare. It is odd to me to have so many people voice a preference for physical presence as it seems to incur costs and limit options (smaller client base, less teaching opportunity, logistics of travel constantly, costs of offices, utilities, additional insurance, etc.). Perhaps it is simply that we prefer what we are used to?

Explanation / Answer

As the world is rapidly changing, availability of technological orientation as well as better Technologies specially the internet has changed the way of operation. I agree that physical presence is highly appreciated by any of the climb but virtual presence is also starting to set its legs due to adaptability of the society. As an available increment in the overall technological advancement, better communication inflexibility of working from any place as well as learning from any place has increased the adaptability of such a specific type of Technology in the society.
According to the statement I agree that we prefer what we are used to in terms of getting the most comfort of the specific environment. I specifically used virtual environment as my choice of business operations due to my comfort level which can be clearly aligned with some other people who use physical environment for their operation as it satisfies them for doing that specific job.

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