What is Leadership in Virtual Teams

In this chapter, factors “really” influencing virtual multicultural team work shall be described and a training design used for students and company members will be presented. So far, little attention has been paid to behavioural factors influencing virtual team work, or conclusions have been made from what is known about face-to-face teams. In this study, a bottom-up research with empirical data collected directly in the field, discovering such influences will be presented. With the help of grounded theory method factors influencing team members’ behaviour and team processes such as isolation, leadership, trust, commitment, conflict, information sharing, or culture will be described. A training design based on a real-time online business game which considers these factors provides a tool for acquiring the skills and abilities needed in virtual multicultural teams.