Newcomer Assimilation in Virtual Team Socialization

Abstract

The way we work today is being transformed. Recent technological advances, combined with more flexible job design, have helped increase the number of people working in geographically and/or temporally dispersed environments. Increasing numbers of organizations have employees who are not physically present in the traditional organizations. Hence, more employees are working on teams that seldom, if ever, meet face-to-face. These “teleworkers” have the same work responsibilities as traditional employees, but they have the added challenges of managing or operating within the dynamics of these virtual teams.