Week One Self-Reflective Journal Analysis

Sitting at a crowded table surrounded by my friends roaring with laughter, I gazed out at the ocean. The glaring sun burned on my skin, and I was exhausted from spending the day at the boardwalk of the Jersey Shore. My stomach was growling, and all I could think of was how badly I wanted food. All of a sudden, the aroma of melting mozzarella and fresh tomatoes hit me like a train. I could hardly wait. The waitress soon came over and left the pizza on our table. I wanted to begin eating at that second, but first I had to take a picture of this beautiful creation.

The week flew by. I felt a day behind almost every day this week. The climate was another difference during the week. I had more time in the classroom than I have had and I felt almost out of place. Our new assistant has taken on my responsibilities within the classroom. Therefore, I am searching for my role in the classroom. I jump in when I see a need or help students catch up their work when they do not finish. However, this week is different because I was not an integral part in the rotations.

My earliest memories of writing would be always writing stories and personal journals. I love to explain and explore my personal points of views when it comes to writing. The memory that I keep of writing would be when I was younger I would write in my journal very often. It made a huge impact on me emotionally because it helped me keep my mind and emotions intact. For me, writing in personal journals helped me to have a good connection with my emotions and being able to express myself and my pure and truest thoughts. This was a positive and negative impact on me because I wrote about anything and everything. I wrote about all

I think I feel more abundance when it comes to say that since I began writing the journal, I noticed more what others do for me. One example is my parents who always ask me how I am and care about me in all aspects. I feel I have the love of my parents and that fills me as a person and as a daughter.

I had a health history interview with an elderly lady in the community during transport to the city. She was sitting on the stretcher in the back of the ambulance and I was sitting on the bench seat at eye level with her. I remember explicitly noticing when we made eye contact because her eyes were big and blue but also sad. We talked through all of her body systems while I was doing my assessment. She often redirected the conversation towards her home life. She spoke of her pets and her concerns of her husband being home without her as she was the main caregiver.

Lepsinger, R., & Derosa, D. (2011). Five Ways to Create Successful Virtual Teams. Baseline, (111), 12

In contemporary society, in order to cater to the increasing demands of change and the pressure of globalization, a large sum of information communication technologies (ICT) have been invented and utilized. The appearance and utilization of virtual teams increased dramatically due to the innovation of technological advancements including videoconferencing and email. The use of technological communication advancements enables virtual teams to span geographical, temporal, and organizational boundaries, and makes organizations become more efficient, and smarter than ever. As a vital and common tool for enterprises and organizations to enlarge their profitability, virtual teams acquire skillful, talented members to satisfy the goals of organizations

Studies agree that the leader competencies for face-to-face interactions and virtual interactions overlap (Dennis, Meola, & Hall, 2013; Eissa, Fox, Webster, & Kim, 2012; Madlock, 2012; Politis, 2014; Tartell, 2015). There are many similarities but also differences. For example, performance metrics used by leaders to evaluate projects and leadership competencies change drastically when the virtual environment is introduced (p. 49). The research highlighted that strategic leaders must be able to demonstrate, then be able to identify, leader competencies such as interpersonal skills and management skills, along with understanding the degree to which these skills are required for different strategic objectives (Orhan, 2014). Finally,

As I develop in mind, body and spirit, I pledge on my honor that I have not given, received, witnessed, nor have knowledge of unauthorized aid on this or any assignment.

Although virtual teams can offer a lot of benefits, they face special challenges that hinder to realize their potential and effectively fulfilling their goals. There are a number of factors attributed to the challenges that currently managers are dealing with, related to global virtual teams; the different organizational setting, the fact that these teams work in different cultural and norms work in different time zones have greatly contributed. The main challenge, however, has evolved from the lack of physical interaction and the absence (or near absence) of non-verbal communication cues (Nydegger, 2009). Cultural alignment and shared goals can be easily lost as a result of a low degree of interaction. The absence or near absence of face to -face- interaction among team members reduce the important aspects of the team i.e. trust and communication towards achieving the shared common goals. Global virtual teams often suffer from poor performance achievement as compared to traditionally established collated teams. Here below are some of the challenges unique to virtual teams:

This type of thinking will only lead to communication breakdowns that can impede innovation, job satisfaction, and performance (King, 2007). None of these issues are independent of the others; however, they are all central to an organizations bottom line. There are some compelling issues that concern some traditional organizations when it comes to the virtual workplace. One issue is the shift in strategic planning that has some obvious problems for the employer and some employees. With the recent economic recession and a growing global market place, many businesses have been forced to increase profit by outsourcing work to contractors or offshore organizations.  These are challenging issues that must be managed to succeed if an organization is pursuing a virtual workforce to stay competitive. Some of the more contentious issues that could impede productivity for a virtual workplace are business continuity, isolation, and managing the remote workplace. Selecting and managing these employees rank very high on issues inherent in a virtual working environment. From the employer’s point of view, a virtual work environment requires given up some control of those who are working remotely and trusting that productivity is not degraded without constant supervision. The explosion of new technical advances and innovations such as highly “mobile smart phones, instant text messaging, online chatting, podcasts, Wi-Fi hot spots, cloud and more,”

The newest addition to the team structure is virtual teams. These teams are clearly defined by geographically dispersed members, sharing a responsibility for producing deliverables of a set goal (Gibson and Cohen 3). No longer are teams confined to the traditional means of meeting in one physical location, face to face. While breaking the physical requirement virtual teams have also broken the boundaries of time. Allowing work to be performed constantly greatly increases productivity and collaboration. Technologies such as email, teleconferencing and videoconferencing gives the virtual team the advantage over traditional teams.

As the world comes to the end of another calendar year, opportunities and breakthroughs for improved technologies continue flooding the desks and labs of technical and electrical engineers, scientists and the like. According to Lisa Kimball (1997), author of Managing Virtual Teams: “New technology requires us to rethink these dynamics because we don’t have the option to use familiar approaches. It gives us an opening to change the way we manage the people and work process in general” (p. 2). More than ever before, consumers are shopping online and changing the way their daily tasks are completed – tasks such as bill paying and education and business meetings – by completing them in a virtual environment. The intent of this paper is to explore the methods of a virtual business – such as www.amazon.com - and the methods of a traditional business with brick and mortar in a geographical locale.

Virtual teams are groups of dispersed individuals who rely on communication and information technologies to interact. These teams exist solely because of the technologies that support their interactions. However, they are an interesting organizational form as they allow organizations to connect disparate experts and key employees without the related costs in travel and disruptions to business. Much research has examined the nature of virtual teams, with a major interest in improving virtual team interactions and subsequent performance. Virtual teams are somewhat unique in that the very technologies that support their existence are often the same source of

Organizations are structured according to the purpose of their business design (Daft, 2015). A structure as referring to an organization is considered a group of workers joined together as a system organized by a unique relationship (vocabulary.com, 2016). Twenty to 30 years ago, most businesses functioned in a hierarchy structure where a leader was the head and whatever command came from that leader was carried out. Some organizations are moving to a community structure where a team of people make decisions for the organization (Christiansen & Robey, 2015). As more and more attention is on work life effectiveness, organizations are reorganizing to a virtual structure by allowing workers to telework (Khan & Agha, 2013). This paper addresses how leaders mold the culture, establish ethical values, and build trust in the local and virtual organizations. Also, outline what drive the need for strategic change and how leaders implement those changes. The next section provides a review of Lojeski’s Virtual Distance Leadership Model and explains how virtual leadership changed the leaders’ role.