A community setup in the late 1990s with the support of the European Commission that, led by UNINOVA and AIDIMA, implements an European research strategy for better interoperability in smart organizations.
Published in Chapter:
Best Practices for Effective Virtual Teams
D. Sandy Staples (Queen’s University, Canada), Ian K. Wong (Queen’s University, Canada), and Ann Frances Cameron (Queen’s University, Canada)
Copyright: © 2008
|Pages: 9
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-59904-955-7.ch009
Abstract
The use of teams as fundamental building blocks in organizations is growing (Furst, Blackburn & Rosen, 1999), as is the frequency of teams to be distributed geographically (which we call virtual teams). Virtual teams are now being used by many organizations to enhance the productivity of their employees and to reach a diversity of skills and resources (Majchrzak, Malhotra, Stamps & Lipnack, 2004). Virtual teams are groups of individuals who work on interdependent tasks, who share responsibility for outcomes, and who work together from different locations. While the use of virtual teams is more common in today’s organization, the practices that make virtual teams most effective are not fully understood and challenges remain (Markus, 2004).