It's the Exception, Not the Norm

Abstract

Much of the early literature on managing a successful virtual team or on how to successfully implement a telecommuting program made the assumption that most team members were co-located, and the remote user was the exception. The goal for the virtual team, therefore, was to make sure that these one or two remote individuals were able to work within the team on a best-effort basis rather than one encouraging all team members to act virtually. A good example of where this situation might exist is in programs where telecommuting is positioned as a perk, as opposed to a business benefit. In this chapter, we will discuss Myth #7 and Myth #8.