COMMUNICATION + VIRTUAL TEAMS

(http://www.owatonna.k12.mn.us/Classroom/OJHS/Outback/ezeman/Home.htm, August 2010) (http://blog.seattlepi.com/entrepreneursjourney/archives/131907.asp, August 2010)

What is communication? “Communication is a learned skill. Most people are born with the physical ability to talk, but we must learn to speak well and communicate effectively. Speaking, listening, and our ability to understand verbal and nonverbal meanings are skills we develop in various ways. We learn basic communication skills by observing other people and modeling our behaviors based on what we see. We also are taught some communication skills directly through education and by practicing those skills and having them evaluated” (http://www.tarunpatel.net/MSc/Communication%20skills.pdf, September 2010). In communications are two dimensions: Interpersonal communication and Technological communication. When we are talking of communications there are 4 elements: “the communicator, the receiver, perceptual screens, and the message” (Communication: Class presentation, September 2010).
In the other hand in this moment communication as a complex scenario, before was only letters, contact face-to- face, telephone, in now days internet, cell phones, high technology and globalization allow organizations and people to create virtual team, virtual communications, virtual groups and teleworkers, In this moment it is not necessary to go everyday to a office or have meetings or schedule them, or if somebody is outside the city and have different zones times communications is not a barrier with the all technology is possible work from different places at any time.
“Virtual teams can work collaboratively and effectively in a project despite the additional challenges, if a skilled project manager leads the project in overcoming the problems associated with the lack of direct person- to – person contact and immediate managerial oversight” (Kuruppuarachchi, Palitha R. 2009)
Virtual team is very common between entities that have subsidiaries around the word, all this people has a common goal and the members interact with each other, they use to have meeting by internet. Virtual teams can help to reduce costs and time saving. Are very useful for people in different countries.
Some disadvantages that virtual team has are: the face-to- face contact is reduce, technical vocabulary, cultural differences, time. Advantages are costs, flexibility, and market opportunity.
Also virtual communities are common in now days like facebook, each member participate via internet, has roles and norms and common purposes. This helps people from everywhere to communicate with the rest of the world.

Based on the article “If Intercontinental were a sound…what would it be?”*, Please discuss the implications (potential advantages, disadvantages, challenges, etc.) of using sounds to send strategic messages. You need to integrate the use of key concepts relating to the topic of communication to support your answer.
I think is hard to educate people to understand the messages sent by the sounds and Intercontinental show was hard for them too. They use the sound strategy because they want to do something different and as Nicolas said: “ We realized that the guest experience involve much more than things such as find dining and the thread count on the bed linen… that is taken for granted in a luxury hotel. We had to look deeper into the impact we could make on our guest and in ways that were meaningful to them” (Michael Spencer, "If InterContinental were a sound … what would it be?", Journal of Business Strategy, Vol. 31) for all this they made a exhaustive study inside the hotel with staff and guest.
Possible advantages to me can be the recognition and differentiation that Intercontinental can have and if the sound is positioned in the market they can achieve more incomes, also an advantage was the whole study that the made that explain how music is processed and how goes to the cerebrum, and another important factor and this goes straight to the marketing are the senses in now days it is important to play with all the senses and normally in a hotel you just see signs. A disadvantage for me is that sounds can be ambiguous, and I think it takes to long to educate people, because values and beliefs are different in cultures.
Moreover when the message is send by a sound I think it has a clear purpose, it is objective, is consistency, can be complete, powerful and direct.