| “Virtual teams” is one of the many hot topics in business these days. But unlike a fad, virtual teams appear to have staying power. Their use in organizations is growing in concert with globalization, the rise of the knowledge worker, the need for innovation, and the increasing use of information and communication technology (ICT). While the use of virtual teams continues to grow, our understanding of how their many unique characteristics work (or do not work) together lags far behind (Cramton & Webber, 2000). Researchers and practitioners are trying hard to correct this situation, and in this book, their best efforts are brought together.
In the 13 chapters presented here, the authors offer a well-rounded picture of the current state of virtual team practice and research; that is, what is working and what is still problematic. In addition, the chapters contain invaluable advice on how to manage the conditions that will facilitate the most effective virtual teams. Virtual team members, leaders, managers, senior executives in IT, HR, and other functional areas—as well as researchers—can all gain from a careful reading of this book.
The current notion of virtual teams has been around since the mid-1990s. First addressed by the practitioner literature (Grenier & Metes, 1995; Lipnack & Stamps, 1997; O’Hara-Devereaux & Johansen, 1994), and then by researchers investigating primarily student populations (Jarvenpaa, Knoll, & Leidner, 1998; Sahay, Sarker, & Lau, 1999; Warkenten & Beranek, 1999), research on virtual teams in organizations has only emerged in the last few years. As the reader will soon see, researchers are grappling with everything from defining what makes a virtual team virtual to all the various team, communication, and project processes and protocols that might influence how well a team works together and accomplishes its tasks, as well as the influence of organizational policies, technology, and boundary crossing on virtual team dynamics and effectiveness. |
