I firmly believe that training can be a motivator. In the past when I have been part of a team, and superiors took an interest in my success, it made me work that much harder. There is a motivational theory called Reinforcement Theory. “In reinforcement theory, when a manager or a leader sees a behavior that they want to motivate the person or employee to duplicate, they reinforce that behavior” (Leybourne 2014). I have seen training used often in this situation. When an employee has a work habit or knowledge they can pass that work habit or knowledge to other team members through training. In virtual teams this concept gets lost or forgotten all together.

References

Rosen, B., Furst, S. and Blackburn, R. (2006), Training for virtual teams: An investigation of current practices and future needs. Hum. Resour. Manage., 45: 229–247. oi: 10.1002/hrm.20106

Leybourne, S. (2014). AD643 Lecture Notes, Fall 2014, compiled. Boston, MA: Boston University.