1. Introduce briefly the Work From Home and Virtual Team phenomenon.

Why is
it relevant in today’s context and in a specific industry? End your introduction
with the objective of your study.

A virtual team can be described as a group of people, may or may not belonging to a
particular organization, collaborating via technology to communicate and get the
work done. Looking at the scenario around the entire globe, the virtual team and work
from home have become a necessity across all businesses and organizations. The
public gathering is non-viable due to the countrywide lockdown announced by the
government, and strict government regulations as a measure to control the spread of
COVID-19. Also, people are reluctant to step out of their houses for the sake of their
health and safety. All these factors have propelled the Work from Home feature
towards greater relevance in these times. However, in the case of the media and
entertainment industry, apart from the unfavourable conditions, other benefits have
also contributed to making WFH feature more incorporable in the industry. The
operating costs have reduced for the industry because fewer people can work at the
same time.
Through this research, we look forward to gaining the perspective of researchers on
this issue, challenges faced by individuals and businesses in the media and
entertainment industry, and develop an acumen to build a solution for the same.

2. Discuss what other researchers have to say about the Work From Home and
Virtual Team phenomenon.

Earlier WFH was not considered a good option as the mentality was that people might
leverage the leniency of the situation at hand and instead of working from home, they
might work for the home which would not be a good thing for an organization. But as
the Covid-19 struck the business world there was no option left but to adapt to the
WFH environment ASAP as it is the new normal now.
There have been many challenges with the adaption of the WFH environment at the
organization level and also at the individual level. The organization has to take a call
in a very short period as to how they are going to make sure that the working from
home environment setup should be made seamless for their employees such that they
do not face issues and the business also does not get hamper because of all this. Also,
they need to take care of the employees' mental well-being as they have to be at home
all the time and the work stress will be there and they need to give time to their
families as well.
On an individual level, people do not have proper internet at home which has become
a must thing to have. They were also perplexed about how will this virtual reality be
compared to the touch and feel atmosphere which will now be missing. They were not
sure as to how they will make the impact in the virtual environment and how will they
bring the office to home and ensuring they do justice to their work. One more
advantage was that now the teams could connect more than in-office environment. A
study shows that the employees and team engaged more online and able to enjoy the
work more.

After 5 months into the new normal now even researchers believe that the WFH has
not only just increased the productivity of the business but also helped the people to
dedicate time to their hobbies and passion which was earlier not easy to manage. They
can spend time with their family at all times during their breaks or after office hours.
 The advancing technology has made it possible to deliver quality work anywhere
anytime across the globe just by a click while sitting at the home. Therefore, the
situation started with uncertainties but in the end resulted fruitful for most of the
industry but not for all. So the concept of work from home and the virtual team is
good but for some industries, it is just not possible to operate completely in online
mode.

3. What is the significance of the challenges faced by individuals and businesses?

Working in a virtual team presents many challenges. When you can't see your
colleagues face-to-face, and you don't have the social interactions that build
relationships and rapport, it can be difficult to establish trust. If it isn't managed
correctly, this lack of trust can undermine everything that the team is trying to
achieve.
Another major challenge is communication, especially when a remote team includes
members from different countries and cultures. It can also be harder to pick up the
visual cues (such as body language and facial expressions) that make communication
flow, even when you're using video. There can also be unavoidable interruptions
while working from home. Finally, it can be more difficult to voice your opinion on a
virtual team, and it can be harder to resolve team conflict. Employees are usually at
risk of overworking themselves. Without the boundaries that office life has, they may
have workdays that never end, setting themselves up for exhaustion and alienation.
The major challenge faced by organizations due to work from home is changing in
company culture. Virtual meets are fostering the ability of the organizations to create
the same culture online. The simple reason being, the employees attached to the
company’s value are better likely to build an engagement with the company culture.

4. Why are these challenges more applicable to a particular industry vis-a-vis others?
What interventions/solutions have organizations used in the past to cope with the
challenges?

In the case of the media and entertainment industry, the challenges are significant as
the people employed in the industry have to come together in a physical presence to
get the work done. They need to collaborate and communicate very effectively to
avoid any errors. But, due to COVID, it is very difficult for them to engage on a
physical, thereby, hampering their work. For example, shooting a film or designing a
game, it requires people to come together and work in an offline mode to have better
coordination and get the desired output.
However, the organizations are coping with this new normal scenario and working on
methods to improve the productivity of employees while they work from home. Steps
like having daily interactive meetings for both formal and casual conversations,
playing virtual games, virtual events, and creating a virtual office space.

5. Research Method: The qualitative interview method needs to be detailed. Who are
the respondents? What questions were asked (Main and sub-questions. Refer
Appendix A)?

We tried to talk to a few industry professionals from different domains to gather a

holistic view. We contacted an actor turned filmmaker and director Mr. Arsh
 Sehrawat. Then we interviewed Ms. Sukhada Kshirsagar who is an assistant director
turned cinematographer. Finally, we interviewed Mr. Pradip Gorasva who is a director
in the Gujarati film industry to gain insights on the effect of the Work from the Home
culture at a regional level as well. The main questions that we asked were : 
1.Working in virtual teams in a work from home context, what kind of challenges do
you, your team, and your organization face? (Explore as many areas of challenges for
discussion and ask them which challenges they consider to be most significant).
2.How were you able to cope in this new context of work from home?
3.What were the initiatives/policies/guidelines adopted by your organization to
effectively work from home and in virtual teams in this scenario? 

 Our interviewees were kind enough to answer of a few of our sub-questions as well
that are as follows:
 
1.Where do you think the media and entertainment industry is headed?
2.What were the underlying problems in the industry and have they amplified/reduced
the post COVID outbreak?
3.What other ideas are the industry trying to imbibe as a community?

6. Analysis and Findings: How did the group analyse the interview responses to
identify meaningful insights? Groups are encouraged to use any scientific method
for data analysis. One such example is using Content Analysis technique (refer
Appendix B).

The group took all the 3 transcripts and went on to make a list of all topics per data
document. We were able to identify the common insights that we got from our
interviews and were also able to differentiate certain viewpoints made by the
interviewees. We were able to precisely pinpoint our unit data points by reading the
transcripts and listening to the audio transcripts of the interview. This method of data
analysis helped us understand the depth of the information that we got and thus, was
able to draw out parallels so that we could compare and create a holistic
understanding of how the media and entertainment industry is dealing with the all-
new culture work from home and working in virtual teams. It was a bit tedious but
this analysis helped us in understanding the hidden meanings of what the interviewees
talked about. While analyzing normally, people tend to overlook certain details and
take the answers at face value without delving deeper to understand true insight.

7. Discuss the interview findings and draw relevant insights and inferences from them
within the context of concepts discussed in the Literature Review Section.

As per the project guidelines we first read through certain literature readings on the
media and entertainment industry and also the effect of the virtual team culture that
has been forced upon us. It helped us make a picture in our minds so as to where is
this industry coming from and what values and work culture it is based on and now
what will be the implications of the work from home culture. Finally, the interviews
helped us understand the situation on the ground and what is the major issues that the
industry is facing.
 Issues like work-life balance going haywire, salary cuts, compromises on the quality
of work, and mental fatigue to considerable uncertainty are most prevalent in the
community. Also, the biggest freedom for an artist is being able to imagine and put it
to life for an audience which now seems impossible as they are unable to put the
majority of the ideas ahead of the audience.
Also, relatively bigger directors and producers are trying to exploit the desperation of
struggling professionals by getting double the work done at half the price. People
have to compromise on the quality of work as the teams are shorthanded and
movements are restricted.
Finally, were relatively less accomplished or struggling industry professionals are
finding it hard to make ends meet, the big players of the industry are looking at a
shooting star. They are appreciating the new way of making ultra-short movies like
the one starring Amitabh Bachchan.

8. Recommendations: Identify 3 unique and important challenges that emerged from

your interview analysis and recommend innovative and feasible solutions to them.

1. No Or A Lot Less Office Space:

Office space rental is a significant expense for most small and medium-sized companies.
Besides, maintenance and repairs cost extra. Work from home allows you to save the money
on office space which can be utilised better in so many other things.

2.Longer Working Hours :

With already long working hours being the creative industry, work from home culture is
increasing it even more as the professionals are expected to deliver the project at an earlier
time as it is considered a leeway that hey do not have to travel and would be quite
comfortable at home. A few professionals have put their foot down regarding the work
timings to their managers whereas others have started keeping another contact number as a
personal one and tend switch of their work phone.

3.Effective quality delivery has been hampered:

With industry professionals asked to work with limited crew and equipment, it has become
increasingly difficult for them to produce quality work as they could earlier do with a variety
of tools at their disposal. This has been a major concern for the industry and also the
viewers. However, to mitigate such compromises that are made, people are investing a lot
on the personal equipment rather than being dependent on the company and it’s
equipment.
References:-
 https://www.mckinsey.com/careers/meet-our-people/mckinsey-women-blog/my-
personal-approach-to-remote-work
 https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/the-
future-of-work-reskilling-and-remote-working-to-recover-in-the-next-normal
 https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-
insights/reimagining-the-postpandemic-workforce
 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/273761672_Work-
Life_Balance_and_Working_from_Home
 https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/IJPCC-07-2020-
0083/full/html
 https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/IJPCC-07-2020-
0083/full/html