With the rising globalization there is an emergence of virtual structures in
many organizations. If globalization as a business pull is one reason for accretion
of virtuality, the other cardinal reason is the technology drive. Work is
essentially becoming a thing one does and not on the place one goes. Modernized
technology has replaced the offices (Davenport and Pearlson, 1998). Changing
workforce, changing family norms, rapid advancement in technology and the upcoming
of knowledge worker, have led to many changes in work structure. Information
and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have replaced face-to-face contacts to a
wide extent. Business use of virtual team is in existence since a decade (The
Virtual Teaming Association, 2003). Virtual organizations allow the dispersed talent
and diversified knowledge to be brought together and contribute to the
attainment of organizational goals. Along with the positive outcomes like
no geographical barriers, introduction to innovation, virtuality also presents
certain discontinuities across time, space, organizational boundaries, culture and media
(Watson-Manheim, et al., 2002). Discontinuity interrupts established
communication and flow of information. Virtual teams face various challenges like
communication, team participation and work coordination and trust building. With no
geographical barriers virtual teams not only work at one place, but act globally. Global
virtual teams face more complex problems as team members reside in different
countries with diverse cultural backgrounds.
Virtuality has become the buzzword. Organizations have geographically
diversified to a large extent after globalization. In many corporations today, it
is common to have teams with members in different geographical locations.
Work has highly passed into the hands of knowledge workers whose tasks have
become computer mediated, i.e., technology-oriented. Increasing virtuality helps
in eliminating the need for teams to be collocated. Employees may work with
multiple teams at different geographical locations. Some teams communicate
face-to-face for a short while and then use information technology (virtually) for future
team work. It is not necessary to meet face-to-face if all the criteria of face-to-face
meeting are fulfilled by virtual teams. Virtual teamwork is a current topic in the literature
on global organizations; it has been difficult to define what `virtual' means
across multiple institutional contexts. Working virtually means working from satellite
offices on the road or any other place outside the physical office (Davenport and
Pearlson, 1998). |