A virtual team (also known as a geographically dispersed team, distributed team, or remote team) usually refers to a group of individuals who work together from different geographic locations and rely on communication technology such as email, instant messaging, and video or voice conferencing services in order to collaborate.Gibson, C. B., and S. G. Cohen (2003). Virtual Teams That Work: Creating Conditions for Virtual Collaboration Effectiveness. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.Martins, L. L., L. L. Gilson, and M. T. Maynard 2004 "Virtual teams: What do we know and where do we go from here?" Journal of Management, 30: 805–835. The term can also refer to groups or teams that work together asynchronously or across organizational levels. Powell, Piccoli and Ives (2004) define virtual teams as "groups of geographically, organizationally and/or time dispersed workers brought together by information and telecommunication technologies to accomplish one or more organizational tasks."Anne Powell, Gabriele Piccoli, and Blake Ives. Virtual teams: a review of current literature and directions for future research. The DATA BASE for Advances in Information Systems - Winter Vol. 35, issue 1, 2004 As documented by Gibson (2020), virtual teams grew in importance and number during 2000-2020, particularly in light of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic which forced many workers to collaborate remotely with each other as they worked from home.
As the proliferation of fiber optic technology has significantly increased the scope of off-site communication, there has been a tremendous increase in both the use of virtual teams and scholarly attention devoted to understanding how to make virtual teams more effective (see Stanko & Gibson, 2009;Stanko, T. L., C. B. Gibson. 2009. Virtuality here and now: The role of cultural elements in virtual teams. R. S. Bhagat, R. M. Steers, eds. Cambridge Handbook of Culture, Organization, and Work. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 272–304. Hertel, Geister & Konradt, 2005;Hertel, G., Geister, S., & Konradt, U. (2005). Managing virtual teams: A review of current empirical research. Human Resource Management Review, 15(1), 69–95. and Martins, Gilson & Maaynard, 2004 for reviews). When utilized successfully, virtual teams allow companies to procure the best expertise without geographical restrictions,Kirkman, B. L., B. Rosen, C. B. Gibson, P. E. Tesluk, and S. O. McPherson (2002). "Five challenges to virtual team success: Lessons from Sabre, Inc." Academy of Management Executive, 16 (3): 67–79. to integrate information, knowledge, and resources from a broad variety of contexts within the same team,Kirkman B. L., Gibson C. B., & Kim K. (2012) Across borders and technologies: Advancements in virtual teams research. Kozlowski SW, eds. Oxford Handbook of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, (New York: Oxford University Press) vol. 1: 789-858. and to acquire and apply knowledge to critical tasks in global firms.Virtual team, Mastering virtual teams: strategies, tools, and techniques that succeed By Deborah L. Duarte, Nancy Tennant Snyder According to Hambley, O'Neil, & Kline (2007), "virtual teams require new ways of working across boundaries through systems, processes, technology, and people, which requires effective leadership." Such work often involves learning processes such as integrating and sharing different location-specific knowledge and practices, which must work in concert for the multi-unit firm to be aligned.Maloney, Mary M.; Zellmer-Bruhn, Mary E. (2006). "Building bridges, windows and cultures: Mediating mechanisms between team heterogeneity and performance in global teams". Management International Review. 46 (6): 697–720. ISSN 1861-8901. Yet, teams with a high degree of "virtuality" are not without their challenges, and when managed poorly, they often underperform face-to-face (FTF) teams.
In light of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, many industries experienced a rapid and overnight transition to virtual work as a result of "social distancing." However, some scholars have argued the phrase "social distancing" in reference to the practice of physical distancing between colleagues may have dangerous connotations, potentially increasing prejudice based on age or ethnicity, isolation due to limited options for interpersonal contact, and hopelessness, given the focus on prohibitions rather than solutions. Today, most work teams have become virtual to some degree, though the literature has yet to incorporate the dynamic urgency of the pandemic and the impacts of rapid-fire learning of new technology and communication skills.
Origins The acceleration of digital technologies has allowed common, even synchronous activities to be distributed across employees at remote locations.Herschel, R. T., & Andrews, P. H. (1997). Ethical implications of technological advances on business communications. Journal of Business Communications, 34, 160-170.Gajendran, R. S., & Harrison, D. A. (2007). The good, the bad, and the unknown about telecommuting: Meta-analysis of psychological mediators and individual consequences. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92(6), 1524–1541. These decentralized work arrangements were first named telework in the 1970s, defined as "work carried out in a location remote from the central offices or production facilities, where the worker has no personal contact with coworkers but is able to communicate with them electronically".Allen, T. D., Golden, T. D., & Shockley, K. M. (2015). How Effective Is Telecommuting? Assessing the Status of Our Scientific Findings. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 16(2), 40–68. . Typically, the remote location is the home, though telework centers and remote offices are alternative locations.Davis, D. D., & Polonko, K. A. (2001). Telework in the United States: Telework America survey2001. Retrieved from http://www.workingfromanywhere.org/telework/twa2001.html .Hill, E. J., Miller, B. C., Weiner, S. P., & Colihan, J. (1998). Influences of the virtual office on aspects of work and work/life balance. Personnel Psychology, 51(3), 667–683. Since the introduction of home computers in the 1980s and laptops and mobile phones in the 1990s, increasing numbers of office workers have become able to work from different locations.Kizza, J. M. (2013). Ethical and social issues in the information age. London, England: Springer-Verlag. Moreover, the shift from manufacturing to an information economy has expanded the number of jobs amenable to remote work. Telecommuting is referred to as telework, remote work, distributed work, virtual work, flexible work, flexplace, and distance work, among other labels.
Investigations of such flexible work locations began in earnest over 30 years ago (see Ramsower, 1983).Ramsower, R. M. (1983) Telecommuting: An investigation of some organizational and behavioral effects of working at home. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Distributed work and telecommuting have become widespread practices, growing steadily in the United States and abroad. A 2002 study by the Gartner Group indicated that more than 60% of professional American employees worked in teams characterized by virtuality,Kanawattanachai, P., and Y. Yoo (2002). "Dynamic nature of trust in virtual teams." Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 11: 187–213. and by 2012, nearly 3.3 million American workers telecommuted for at least half of the time. Globally, an international survey of 254 senior-level executives revealed that staff in two thirds of their global firms were involved in distributed work.AT&T. (2004). The remote working revolution. Retrieved November 8, 2005, from http://www.business.att.com/resource.jsp?&rtypeWhitepaper&rvaluethe_remote_working_revolution .
Early research heralded virtual teams as a promising design for integrating firms and taking maximum advantage of innovation-creating capabilities.Nonaka, I., and H. Takeuchi 1995 The Knowledge Creating Company. New York: Oxford University Press. They were likewise touted as means to permit flexibility in the "where" of tasks, to allow workers to meet household needs, and to enable organizations to adapt work arrangements to changing environments and labor needs.Nickson, D., & Siddons, S. (2004). Remote working- Linking people and organizations. Burlington, MA: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann.Igbaria, M., & Guimaraes, T. (1999). Exploring differences in employee turnover intentions and its determinants among telecommuters and non-telecommuters. Journal of Management Information Systems, 16(1): 147-164. According to Gibson and Gibbs (2006: 453), the term "virtual" represents a wide variety of teams that are at least to some extent geographically dispersed (consisting of members spread across more than one location), mediated by technology (communicating using electronic tools such as e-mail or instant messaging), structurally dynamic (in which change occurs frequently among members, their roles, and relationships to each other), or nationally diverse (consisting of members with more than one national background). Much of the literature has focused on the challenges of virtual teams, while few have identified their assets and benefits, identifying strategies by which to increase team effectiveness and satisfaction. As technological ability and industry contexts are rapidly and continuously changing, virtual work represents a promising avenue of research as an ever-evolving, fundamental shift in how organizations have historically done business.
Defining features The four defining features of a virtual team – geographic dispersion, electronic dependence, national diversity, and dynamic structure – have unique effects and should be considered independently. For example, although electronic dependence sometimes coincides with geographic dispersion, this is not always the case; teams in the same office may use e-mail to avoid the trip up to another floor, and teams in different countries may prefer to meet face-to-face infrequently rather than use video calls. As such, there is conceptual agreement that virtuality is a multidimensional higher-order construct. Rather than being dichotomous "on-off" conditions, these four features of virtuality each represent a continuum, and the degree of difference influences the strength of its effects.Gibson CB, Gibb J, Stanko T, et al. (2011) Including the 'I' in virtuality and modern job design: Extending the Job Characteristics Model to include the moderating effect of individual experience of electronic dependence and co-presence. Organization Science 22(6): 1481–1499. These four factors will be explored in further detail below. Geographic dispersion refers to the degree of physical distance between team colleagues. A team that spans multiple continents is more dispersed than one whose participants are located in the same city, and this degree of dispersion in turn modulates the severity of outcomes. Electronic dependence refers to the degree of reliance on electronic tools such as e-mail or instant messaging for communications.