A group of individuals cohesively working towards a common goal. Team members are dispersed in one or more ways (geographical, temporal, organizational, cultural) and, importantly, has a degree of dependency on technology for communication (Zigurs, 2003 AU22: The in-text citation "Zigurs, 2003" is not in the reference list. Please correct the citation, add the reference to the list, or delete the citation. ).
Published in Chapter:
Virtual Teams, Technology, and Leadership: A Primer
Copyright: © 2017
|Pages: 10
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-1049-9.ch047
Abstract
Interactions among humans are always very complex and the outcomes of their interactions can be unpredictable. Subsequently, when a group of people are required to come together as a team for the purpose of accomplishing common goals, there is potential for either great success or great failure. When individuals are separated by distance, as is the case in virtual teams, interaction is mediated by technologies and presumably this leads to a greater level of interaction complexity and presents a greater challenge to leaders and managers. In effort to meet the challenges of globalization and the digital age, many organizations are shifting from hierarchical top-down organizational structures to the flatter organizational structures afforded by team-based approaches. Driven by the need for global business and the great array of Web 2.0 technologies, effective leadership in virtual teams is now an important consideration for leaders. The basis for enactment of effective leadership in virtual teams must be an understanding of the nature of virtual teams. The author's rationale for the writing the present chapter is thus to highlight major features of virtual teams and to bring to the fore core issues related to these features which impact significantly on team performance.