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What are Virtual Teams?
Team members maybe located anywhere in the world, rarely meet face-to-face and include, therefore, a culturally diverse mix of people. Teams are often organised as cross-functional and can come together to solve specific customer issues,for example, or to devise new operational processes. The growth in the development of virtual teaming - across all types of industries and organisations - has been driven by a number of factors, among which are: (To find out why virtual teams are important to organisations, click here) * The increasing globalisation of trade and corporate activity * The global workday is 24 vs. 8 hours * Increasing horizontal organisational structures characterised by geographically distributed human resources * A continued shift from production to service/knowledge work environments * The emergence of work environments which require inter-organisational cooperation as well as competition * A flexible organisation tends to be more competitive and responsive to the marketplace * The truth is that the best employees may be located anywhere in the world these days and not just in our back-yard * These same employees are sophisticated in terms of their own needs and are increasingly demanding personal and working-life flexibility * Employees demand increasing technological sophistication in order to support and enhance remote working * People tend to be more productive; i.e., they spend less time on commuting and travel when they can work where they are
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