Leading Effectively: What is your Global Management Style?

February 25, 2009

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What makes virtual teams virtual is geographical dispersion and the use of technologically mediated communications. The members of virtual teams are not colocated; their primary work sites are different from one another. They may be located in different buildings, cities, states, nations, and even continents. Team members may belong to the same organization or multiple organizations. Thus, these teams may be transnational or global and multiorganizational.

Virtual teams also rely on electronically mediated communication to stay in touch and get their work done. They use a variety of technologies that range in sophistication, such as telephone, faxes, teleconferences, e-mail, videoconferences, collaborative design tools, and knowledge-management systems. These teams may meet face-to-face from time to time, but they could not do their work and effectively coordinate their activities without technological support. Of course, teams that are colocated also use telephones, e-mail, and computers. But just the use of technology does not make a team virtual, because all teams use technology. It is the degree of reliance on electronic communication that increases virtuality. Virtual teams often have no choice; they must communicate electronically. Colocated teams typically have more discretion about whether and when to use technology.

We see virtuality as a continuum. Virtual teams range in their degree of virtuality, from slightly virtual to extremely virtual. Where a team exists on this continuum is a function of the amount of dependence on electronically mediated communication and the degree of geographical dispersion. A team that does all its work through e-mail, text exchanges, and teleconferences, never meeting face-to-face, is more virtual than a team that meets monthly face-to-face. A team that spans multiple continents and time zones is more virtual than one whose members are located in the same city. As the cases discussed in this book suggest, increased virtuality adds complexity that must be managed.

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