Abstract
The world now lives and works in cyberspace. Often, organizations have their people perform functional tasks by working in virtual teams, where members use technology to cooperate across geographic and organizational boundaries. As the use of virtual teams in the workforce becomes more prevalent, those involved must have the knowledge to communicate efficiently and effectively, especially the virtual team leaders. This chapter provides a general overview of virtual teams and virtual team leadership, and discusses specific communication strategies and competencies necessary for virtual team leaders to be effective and successful communicators.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Leadership: Setting a direction for an organization; motivating and inspiring people; aligning people with an articulated vision; ability to effect real changes within an organization.
Virtual Team: A group of geographically dispersed people who have common goals and communicate and interact in cyberspace.
Cyberspace: The notional environment in which communication and interaction over electronic networks occurs.
Virtual: An environment simulated by electronic networks for reasons of economics, convenience, or performance.
Communication: The exchange of ideas, messages, or information by speech signals, or writing.