For the purposes of this study, a virtual team is defined as a group of people with a common purpose who carry out interdependent tasks using technology to communicate. This study reviewed literature on virtual work teams including computer-mediated work teams, geographically dispersed teams and electronically mediated work teams across the disciplines of psychology, management information systems, and organizational behavior. It should be noted that the majority of empirical research to-date on virtual teams has been conducted in laboratory settings rather than real-world organizations.

Key Findings

• Working in virtual teams is challenging. Virtual teams have less effective performance and communication, and take longer to complete tasks than face-to-face teams.

  Implications: Specific organizational strategies and systems are needed to assist virtual teams in their quest for success.

• If team members are familiar with each other prior to becoming part of the team, they are able to perform almost as effectively as face-to-face teams.

  Implications: When designing a virtual team, allocate time for the team members to meet face-to-face and establish a working relationship prior to their work as a virtual team.

• Virtual team communication improves when meetings are synchronous using computer conferencing, meaning there is a continuous exchange of information and a specific concentrated time to focus on the team's task.

  Implications: To improve team communication and effectiveness, have a set meeting time for team members to communicate via computer or video conferencing.

• Complex judgment tasks--tasks that do not have a correct answer, are complex, and require that the group reach consensus on a selected alternative--resulted in the lowest performance for virtual teams vs. face-to-face teams.

  Implications: To increase team performance, assign less complex tasks such as idea generation or intellective tasks-tasks that involve solving problems that have a correct answer-- to virtual teams; they are easier for the team to perform effectively.

• Virtual teams consistently take longer to complete tasks than face-to-face teams.

  Implications: Allocate additional time for tasks that will be completed by virtual teams.