The emergence of Virtual Teams can be traced as far back as the 1970’s. Virtual Teams are defined as groups that work "across space, time and organizational boundaries with links strengthened by webs of communication technologies." (Linpack & Stamps, 1997). In the words of Melymuka (1997), “they (virtual teams) address the needs of a new work environment that has become increasingly common…”
I have been part of 2 virtual teams in my career and it is my observation that there is not standard methodology to manage a virtual team. In both the teams that I belonged to, the teams were “managed” differently. Although there is no shortage of books on project management a majority of these do not address the challenges that come with virtual project management. In my view when it comes to the management this type of team/project, each manager just does what seems right i.e. no formal methodology was followed.
Virtual Teams are here to stay, and for organisations to get the full benefit of such a team, academia should contribute to its success by continuing to research areas of importance. This is what I will attempt to do.
In this blog I will be learning about:
- The history of virtual teams
- Project Management of virtual teams
- Team development in a virtual team
- How to motivate (or inspire) virtual teams
- The psychological impacts of belonging to a virtual team
- Technology required to make virtual teams successful
- Virtual team building – can it be done?
This post references the following authors:
* Matthews J & Gladstone B. 2000. Extending the Group: A strategy for virtual team formation. Industrial and Commercial Training.
Vol.32(1)
