Creating and Sustaining Trust in Virtual Teams SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Creating and Sustaining Trust in Virtual Teams
Conventional wisdom assumes that trust develops from a history of interpersonal interactions and communication, through which people come to 'know and trust' one another. In virtual teams, however, establishing trust can be complicated: members may have no past on which to build, no future to reference, and may never even actually meet face-to-face. Swift but fragile trust can develop early in a team's life cycle. Yet, if swift trust doesn't develop or even dissipates, members need to find ways of building trust in each other. To this end, an understanding of how trust impacts a virtual team's development will help managers and team leaders to facilitate and improve team success. Describes the three components of trust (ability, integrity, and benevolence) and identifies which of these are critical to each life cycle stage (establishing the team, inception, organizing, transition, and accomplishing the task) of the virtual team. Proposed action steps for each stage show managers and team leaders how to help members develop trust and sustain it through the project's successful completion.
Authors :: Penelope S. Greenberg, Ralph H. Greenberg, Yvonne Lederer Antonucci
Topics :: Leadership & Managing People
Tags :: Human resource management, Leadership, Leading teams, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis
Swot Analysis of "Creating and Sustaining Trust in Virtual Teams" written by Penelope S. Greenberg, Ralph H. Greenberg, Yvonne Lederer Antonucci includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Trust Virtual facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Creating and Sustaining Trust in Virtual Teams case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Human resource management, Leadership, Leading teams and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Creating and Sustaining Trust in Virtual Teams casestudy better are - – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, wage bills are increasing, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, there is backlash against globalization, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Creating and Sustaining Trust in Virtual Teams
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Creating and Sustaining Trust in Virtual Teams case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Trust Virtual, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Trust Virtual operates in.
According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.
SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix
SWOT analysis of Creating and Sustaining Trust in Virtual Teams can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Creating and Sustaining Trust in Virtual Teams case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Trust Virtual
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Leadership & Managing People field.
4. Making a Leadership & Managing People topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Trust Virtual
Strengths Creating and Sustaining Trust in Virtual Teams | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Trust Virtual in Creating and Sustaining Trust in Virtual Teams Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to recruit top talent
– Trust Virtual is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Creating and Sustaining Trust in Virtual Teams are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Creating and Sustaining Trust in Virtual Teams firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Trust Virtual to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Trust Virtual to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Diverse revenue streams
– Trust Virtual is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Creating and Sustaining Trust in Virtual Teams case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Innovation driven organization
– Trust Virtual is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Creating and Sustaining Trust in Virtual Teams Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Trust Virtual has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive segment. Secondly the value chain collaborators of the firm in Creating and Sustaining Trust in Virtual Teams HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Organizational Resilience of Trust Virtual
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Trust Virtual does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Trust Virtual is one of the leading players in its industry. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in its segment but also across the whole industry. The ability to lead change has enabled Trust Virtual in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Creating and Sustaining Trust in Virtual Teams Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Trust Virtual are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.
High brand equity
– Trust Virtual has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Trust Virtual to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Trust Virtual has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in, as mentioned in case study Creating and Sustaining Trust in Virtual Teams - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Learning organization
- Trust Virtual is a learning organization. It has inculcated three key characters of learning organization in its processes and operations – exploration, creativity, and expansiveness. The work place at Trust Virtual is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Creating and Sustaining Trust in Virtual Teams Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Weaknesses Creating and Sustaining Trust in Virtual Teams | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Creating and Sustaining Trust in Virtual Teams are -
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Creating and Sustaining Trust in Virtual Teams HBR case study still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Trust Virtual has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Creating and Sustaining Trust in Virtual Teams, in the dynamic environment Trust Virtual has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Trust Virtual has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Trust Virtual supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Creating and Sustaining Trust in Virtual Teams, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Trust Virtual vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Need for greater diversity
– Trust Virtual has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Creating and Sustaining Trust in Virtual Teams that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case Creating and Sustaining Trust in Virtual Teams can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Trust Virtual is planning to shift buying processes online.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Creating and Sustaining Trust in Virtual Teams, is just above the industry average. Trust Virtual needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Trust Virtual has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Trust Virtual needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Trust Virtual has some of the most successful products in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. firm in the HBR case study - Creating and Sustaining Trust in Virtual Teams should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Trust Virtual has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Trust Virtual is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Trust Virtual needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Trust Virtual to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Opportunities Creating and Sustaining Trust in Virtual Teams | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study Creating and Sustaining Trust in Virtual Teams are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– Trust Virtual can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Trust Virtual can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Identify volunteer opportunities
– Covid-19 has impacted working population in two ways – it has led to people soul searching about their professional choices, resulting in mass resignation. Secondly it has encouraged people to do things that they are passionate about. This has opened opportunities for businesses to build volunteer oriented socially driven projects. Trust Virtual can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Trust Virtual to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.
Manufacturing automation
– Trust Virtual can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Leadership & Managing People segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Trust Virtual can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Leadership & Managing People segment.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Trust Virtual has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in the sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled, as illustrated in the Harvard case study Creating and Sustaining Trust in Virtual Teams - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Trust Virtual to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Trust Virtual is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Creating and Sustaining Trust in Virtual Teams case study suggests that firm can utilize new technology to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Trust Virtual can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Trust Virtual can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Trust Virtual operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Loyalty marketing
– Trust Virtual has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Trust Virtual to increase its market reach. Trust Virtual will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Developing new processes and practices
– Trust Virtual can develop new processes and procedures in Leadership & Managing People industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
Threats Creating and Sustaining Trust in Virtual Teams External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Creating and Sustaining Trust in Virtual Teams are -
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Trust Virtual can face downward pressure on margins from increasing competition from international players. The international players have stable revenue in their home market and can use those resources to penetrate prominent markets illustrated in HBR case study Creating and Sustaining Trust in Virtual Teams .
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Trust Virtual business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Trust Virtual high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.
Capital market disruption
– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Trust Virtual.
Increasing wage structure of Trust Virtual
– Post Covid-19 there is a sharp increase in the wages especially in the jobs that require interaction with people. The increasing wages can put downward pressure on the margins of Trust Virtual.
New competition
– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for Trust Virtual in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Creating and Sustaining Trust in Virtual Teams, Trust Virtual may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Leadership & Managing People .
Environmental challenges
– Trust Virtual needs to have a robust strategy against the disruptions arising from climate change and energy requirements. EU has identified it as key priority area and spending 30% of its 880 billion Euros European post Covid-19 recovery funds on green technology. Trust Virtual can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Trust Virtual in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The Leadership & Managing People industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Trust Virtual can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the field.
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Trust Virtual needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Instability in the European markets
– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Trust Virtual will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Creating and Sustaining Trust in Virtual Teams Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study Creating and Sustaining Trust in Virtual Teams needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants.
We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –
First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study Creating and Sustaining Trust in Virtual Teams is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.
Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study Creating and Sustaining Trust in Virtual Teams is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.
Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of Creating and Sustaining Trust in Virtual Teams is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Trust Virtual needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
