Abstract
1- Introduction
2- Virtual teams
3- Trust
4- Organizational strategies for successful virtual teams
5- Leadership actions to create trust
6- Team composition
7- Virtual teams: Here to stay
References
Abstract
The impressive growth in web-mediated organizational relationships has created an escalating interest in how to manage virtual teams successfully. As organizations increasingly expect their managers to lead employees in these online groupings, it becomes imperative to identify and train them in the skills to do this effectively. The purpose of this article is to organize and present strategies that organizations have found successful in helping their managers lead virtual teams. While all successful managers must ensure that they have provided the basic organizational support for their employees, especially effective leaders also ensure they build trustworthy relationships. Thus, we emphasize how each strategy contributes to building and sustaining a climate of trust in virtual teams.
Introduction
Fred has just been assigned to lead a team responsible for installing new credit card system software for a large bank in the Republic of Colombia. While this sounds like a normal leadership transition seen in any organization, this particular circumstance is different. The team of programmers and installers does not reside in any single location, but consists of individuals located around the world. Instead of bringing team members together in a conference room to introduce their new manager, itis up to Fred to contact and build relationships with each member of his new team. Although management scholars have created a large body of knowledge on how to manage teams that are physically present in a single location, there is far less understanding of how leaders can manage teams effectively that work together virtually, using computer-based communication technology. It is a far different challenge to lead eams whose members are physically co-located than itisto lead a team comprised of people spread out all overthe world–—or even overthe same building–—who seldom, if ever, see each other.