Global teamwork and management through network technologies are now Research Paper

Global teamwork and management through network technologies are now available to all companies, large or small - Research Paper Example t virtual teams are, there characteristics, their merits and demerits and finally how to ensure that one succeeds in using them now and in the future. From literature there is no unified definition of what virtual teams are. However from the numerous definitions the recurring descriptions are that they are teams working across boundaries of space and time – here referring to geographic or temporal dispersion – with coordination of work done predominantly through the use of electronic information and communication technologies (Ebrahim, Ahmed, and Taha 2654; Ganguli and Mostashari 3). That said the most widely accepted definition of virtual teams is that they are â€Å"a group of geographically, organizationally and time dispersed workers brought together by information technologies to accomplish one or more objectives of the organization (Powell, Piccoli, and Ives 10).† From these definitions we identify three predominant characteristics of virtual teams. The first is that at least a member of the team has to be located in a different location, time zone or organization. Secondly, communication within the team is done mainly through the use of Internet and electronic media. Lastly, most of the virtual teams are created to do projects. This implies that virtual teams get disbanded on project completion. So if these teams often get disbanded at the end of a project the question is why should an organization choose to go through the trouble of establishing virtual teams? To begin with virtual teams provide organizations with unprecedented levels of flexibility and responsiveness (Powell, Piccoli, and Ives 15). In today’s rapidly changing business environments due to disruptive innovations organizations cannot afford to be laggards. It is quicker to set up a virtual team to strategize on short-term response measures to mitigate the effects of a competitor while the company devises a long-term strategy. This is because with virtual teams the company can