INTRODUCTION
The use of teams as fundamental building blocks in organizations is growing (Furst, Blackburn & Rosen, 1999), as is the frequency of teams to be distributed geographically (which we call virtual teams). Virtual teams are now being used by many organizations to enhance the productivity of their employees and to reach a diversity of skills and resources (Majchrzak, Malhotra, Stamps & Lipnack, 2004). Virtual teams are groups of individuals who work on interdependent tasks, who share responsibility for outcomes, and who work together from different locations. While the use of virtual teams is more common in today’s organization, the practices that make virtual teams most effective are not fully understood and challenges remain (Markus, 2004).
Virtual team best practices are identified below from three perspectives: organizational best practices, team leadership best practices, and team member best practices. Ideas for best practices were identified from three sources: six case studies of actual virtual teams (Staples, Wong & Cameron, 2004); the existing literature on virtual teams; and the existing literature on traditional (i.e., collocated) teams and telecommuting (i.e., research on virtual work at the individual level).
ORGANIZATIONAL BEST PRACTICES
There are six best practices that the organizations that have virtual teams should follow. Table 1 contains a list of these practices, each of which is explained next.
Carefully Select Team Members for Diversity
The importance of creating teams with the appropriate diverse mix of skills and individual traits was identified in the case studies and has been identified in the traditional team literature (e.g., Bettenhausen, 1991; Cohen, 1994).
The distributed nature of virtual teams allows a diversity of backgrounds, experiences, ideas, thoughts, abilities, and perspectives to be assembled within a single team. Organizations forming virtual teams should take advantage of this, selecting team members with diverse backgrounds and skills. Working on a diverse team can also be more rewarding, interesting, and fun, as team members get the opportunity to learn about new cultures and interact with people beyond their own work location.
Supply Sufficient Resources and Support
Organizations have to supply virtual teams with sufficient resources, including such things as financial resources, time, facilities, hardware, software, communication channels, technical equipment, and proper training. The traditional team literature suggests that team building activities and training members how to work in teams is important because they ensure that employees develop the knowledge required to contribute to organizational performance (Cohen, 1994). In virtual teams where it is especially difficult for team members to get to know one another, organizations may need to provide extra resources for extensive team building exercises. Since virtual teams often need to communicate electronically, appropriate information technology (IT) equipment, training on how to use IT and communication systems, and constant technical support are also important to virtual teams (Duarte & Snyder, 2001; Fisher & Fisher, 2001; O’Hara-Devereaux & Johansen, 1994; Pinsonneault & Boisvert, 2001; Staples et al., 2004).
Develop Human Resource Policies that Stimulate High Virtual Team Performance
Policies must be designed in such a way that virtual team members are recognized, supported, and rewarded for their work (Duarte & Snyder, 2001). Providing team-based rewards to team members can increase team cohesive-ness, motivation, and effectiveness (e.g., Cohen, Ledford & Spreitzer, 1996; Lawler, 1986, 1992). Since virtual team members are not seen every day in a central office, it is also possible that they may be overlooked for promotional opportunities (Duarte & Snyder, 2001). Therefore, special career development opportunities should be created for virtual team members so that this “out of sight, out of mind” phenomenon does not occur (Pinsonneault & Boisvert, 2001).
Table 1. Organizational best practices for effective virtual teams
Carefully select team members for diversity
Supply sufficient resources and support to the team
Develop human resource policies that reward team efforts and stimulate virtual team performance
Provide appropriate autonomy to the team
Use standard process and procedures
Develop an organizational culture that stimulates the sharing of information
Provide Appropriate Autonomy to the Team
Consistent with traditional team research (Cohen & Bailey, 1997), virtual team members interviewed in the case studies reported that little involvement from senior management was usually preferred over hands-on management, as long as the organization still provided the funds and resources necessary. Worker autonomy is shown to have clear benefits such as enhanced worker attitudes and performance. Organizations should give team members the power to take action and make decisions while still providing the team with the information it needs to make sound business decisions (Cohen, 1994). Organizations should provide information on processes, quality, customer feedback, business results, competitor performance, and organizational changes.
Use Standard Processes and Procedures
The use of standard processes and procedures can reduce the time needed for team start-up and may eliminate the need for unnecessary reinvention of operating practices every time a new team is needed (Duarte & Snyder, 2001). For virtual teams that rarely meet face to face, standard communication procedures and policies are extremely important (Duarte & Snyder, 2001; Fisher & Fisher, 2001; Grenier & Metes, 1995). A good face-to-face startup can allow team members to develop communication norms and agreements on how members are going to work together.
Develop an Organizational Culture that Stimulates the Sharing of Information
The organizational culture plays a large role in determining how well a virtual team functions within the organization since it influences how individuals in an organization behave. Therefore, organizations should work to build norms and values that promote communication and the sharing of information. The traditional team research also identified the importance of having a supportive culture. Therefore, organizations should create a cooperative work environment where norms are established that reinforce and support team behaviors such as sharing information, responding appropriately to team members, and cooperating (Bettenhausen, 1991). This has been found to be critical for effective team performance (Tjosvold, 1988).
TEAM LEADERSHIP BEST PRACTICES
There are six best practices relating to the leadership and management of the virtual team. Table 2 contains a list of all six team leadership practices, each of which is explained next.
Set Goals and Establish Direction
The virtual team literature strongly suggests that effective leaders understand the importance of defining a vision for the virtual team (Fisher & Fisher, 2001; Grenier & Metes, 1995; Lipnack & Stamps, 1997; O’Hara-Devereaux & Johansen, 1994). According to Lipnack and Stamps (1997), a predictor of virtual team success is the clarity of its purpose and vision. To succeed, teams must turn their purpose and vision into action by assigning roles and responsibilities (Fisher & Fisher, 2001; Grenier & Metes, 1995; O’Hara-Devereaux & Johansen, 1994; Pinsonneault & Boisvert, 2001) and setting goals (Lipnack & Stamps, 1997).
In the virtual team case studies, 64% of team members recognized this need to carefully set realistic, clear goals and timelines. To accomplish this, management and team leaders can first develop a ‘roadmap’ with realistic timelines that are compatible with the expectations of senior management. Next, the critical path through the project should be identified. Based on this path, major milestones should be set. Whether or not it affects them directly, all team members should be constantly reminded of the next milestone. Focusing on milestones and deliverable dates will help members keep the ‘big picture’ in mind when working on their individual tasks. Successful virtual teams are those that, with the help of a focused manager, are consistently able to meet these milestones within the allotted time.
Table 2. Management and team leader best practices for effective virtual teams
Set goals and establish direction
Provide feedback via coaching and modeling
Build trust through open communication, honest behavior, and delivering on commitments
Empower the team Motivate the team
Use appropriate leadership styles at appropriate times_
Provide Feedback via Effective Coaching and Modeling
Team leaders need to provide members with timely feedback about their performance so team members know what they can do to continuously improve their performance (Duarte & Snyder, 2001). A manager’s ability to provide remote employees with advice and help can increase the effectiveness of the remote employees (Staples, 2001). In virtual teams, this might require getting informal input from various people who interact with team members both within and outside of the organization. Virtual leaders also need to model appropriate virtual work habits (Staples, Hulland & Higgins, 1999). To accomplish this, the telecommuting literature suggests managers should keep remote employees well-informed of organizational activities, provide regular feedback on performance and progress, establish well-structured and constant communications, and be available at hours that fit with work routines of remote employees (Pinsonneault & Boisvert,2001).
Build Trust Through Open Communication, Honest Behavior, and Delivering on Commitments
Without trust, productivity suffers as team members spend time playing politics instead of working on real business issues (Fisher & Fisher, 2001). To build trust, it is important for team leaders to communicate openly and frequently with team members. Perhaps the single most important variable that affects trust is honesty. Leaders who demonstrate openness about their actions will find that members respond with sincerity. How a leader listens and communicates with his or her team members is very much related to team effectiveness and trust (Cohen & Bailey, 1997). Listening to team members and visibly keeping commitments increases trust, whereas broken promises diminish it (Fisher & Fisher, 2001).
Empower the Team
This best practice is related to the organizational practice of more generally providing autonomy to teams. At a lower level, team leaders also have to provide the appropriate level of autonomy, setting overall team goals and establishing direction while allowing individual team members to decide how they carry out their own specific tasks (Cohen & Bailey, 1997; Fisher & Fisher, 2001). Leaders who trust team decisions can give the members a sense of ownership. This approach is particularly important in a virtual team environment where geographic separation makes micromanagement impractical.
Motivate the Team
In a virtual team environment where tasks may appear unconnected, the ‘big picture’ is not always easy to visualize and it may be difficult for employees to remain committed to the project. Thus, team leaders can play a key role in keeping virtual team members motivated. Motivation can be stimulated by making the importance of the team’s task clear (such that passion for the team’s cause is created) and by demonstrating how the project will result in significant outcomes for the individual team members (Fisher & Fisher, 2001; Staples et al., 2004). By linking team success to individual success and opportunities, team members will be highly motivated to succeed on the project.
Use Appropriate Leadership Style
Over a quarter of case study team members (Staples et al., 2004) reported that appropriate leadership at the appropriate time was one of the key elements of a successful virtual team. During the initial phases of the project, the appropriate leader is one who can “whip up enthusiasm” and motivate the team. During the later stages, the effective leader is someone who is “getting the right people together and keeping everybody on task and keeping everything going.” Therefore, the style and activities of team leaders have to be appropriate for the stage the team is at and the needs at that particular time.
TEAM MEMBER BEST PRACTICES
Suggestions for what makes individual members of virtual teams effective include specific behaviors, as well as attitudes and beliefs. The five general characteristics of effective virtual team members are listed in Table 3 and described.
Communicate Effectively
Research in tradition teams and telecommuting recognizes that the ability to communicate effectively is a critical skill for telecommuters, remote workers, and managers of remote workers (Cohen, 1994; Pinsonneault & Boisvert, 2001; Staples, 2001). Eighty-four percent of team members interviewed in the case studies also recognized the importance of effective communication in building a successful team. Communication involves transferring ideas, sharing information, listening and internalizing the ideas of others, and notifying team members of any problems or issues. This can be challenging in a virtual team where face-to-face communication and impromptu meetings are infrequent, if not impossible. To solve this problem, virtual team members suggest working hard to keep lines of communication open, and developing or finding the right communications tools that make up for the loss of face-to-face time and provide for informal interactions. For example, team members can use e-mail or instant messaging as a “virtual coffee pot or water cooler” around which personal conversations can occur (O’Hara-Devereaux & Johansen, 1994). In addition, team members themselves have to be responsive, quickly returning telephone calls and responding to e-mails, even if it is just to say, “I don’t have time right now, but I’ll get back to you in two days with the answer.” Recipients can also confirm that the message had been received and ensure that the major points in the message were understood. Setting communication norms such as these helps to avoid misunderstanding that can occur when communicating electronically.
Have the Necessary Skill Sets
The effectiveness of a team depends on the collective knowledge and skills of its members. In order to make good decisions, team members need the appropriate knowledge and skills (Cohen, 1994). Specific skills mentioned by the virtual team members in the case studies included: the ability to organize effectively, a strong competency in an individual’s functional area of responsibility, adequate technical skills to use the information and technology tools available, and good time management skills. Specific social skills mentioned in the virtual team literature include learning how to negotiate creatively, mediating online disputes, and making new members of the team feel included (Grenier & Metes, 1995).
Be Highly Motivated
In some cases, a particular practice may exist on both the management and individual level. As described above, motivating is an activity that must be performed by team leaders. The self-managing nature of many virtual teams means that self-motivation and self-discipline are also essential. Virtual team members must be able to work independently and be motivated to make appropriate decisions. This is made possible by having clear goals and responsibilities, and having high personal commitment and motivation to the team, along with having the resources and information needed to do the job (Lipnack & Stamps, 1997). The ability to self-motivate is important since virtual team members are often working far apart from their other team members. Virtual workers should also have a low preference or need for social interaction or have the ability to fulfill this need outside of the work team (Pinsonneault & Boisvert, 2001).
Be Supportive of Other Team Members
The way in which team members interact with each other has an effect on team effectiveness (Cohen, 1994). Supporting team members involves working together with a sense of energy and team spirit, and sharing ideas and expertise to help others (Cohen, 1994). Several dimensions of a supportive team emerged during the case study interviews. First, team members felt that it was important to recognize when someone else did a good job, and to congratulate or thank them accordingly. Second, interviewees sought a respectful team environment where members were not afraid to openly discuss ideas. Third, interviewees reported that the ability to get along with other team members was an essential quality of an effective virtual team member.
Table 3. Team member best practices for effective virtual teams
Communicate effectively
Have the necessary skill sets
Be highly motivated
Be supportive of other team members
Be action-oriented
Be Action-Oriented
Interviewees felt that individuals should have an action-oriented approach when participating in a virtual team. Phrases that case study members of one team used to describe a top performing virtual team member included: being a “doer”; being “proactive”; “uses an entrepreneurial approach”; and “looks for solutions.” One virtual team member who was interviewed stated that successful virtual team members are those who “organize their thoughts into actions or proposals that get a good buy” or influence the rest of the group.
FUTURE TRENDS AND OPPORTUNITIES
As competition increases globally and trading barriers decline, the creation of teams comprised of members from many different locations is expected to become the norm. With this virtual team growth, knowing the best practices for team members, leaders, and organizations with virtual teams becomes even more important. While some useful best practices are explained above, some questions are left unanswered. These questions create many opportunities for future research in this area such as:
• Which of the best practices are most critical for team effectiveness?
• Does the impact of certain practices on effectiveness vary depending on the task and/or the organizational context? How?
• Does one set of practices (i.e., individual, managerial, or organizational) take precedence such that those practices have to be in place before the other practices have a positive effect?
• How does an organization ensure that best practices are followed?
• Can training programs be developed for managers and leaders, and for members of virtual teams? What should be in these training programs and how should they be delivered?
• Can policies be developed and norms established in organizations such that supportive practices, which research suggests leads to effective virtual work, are followed? How can this be done most effectively?
CONCLUSION
The ideas presented in this article should help organizations create and maintain more effective virtual teams. Individual virtual team members, virtual team leaders, and organizations can all follow best practices that contribute to virtual team effectiveness. Given the growing use of virtual teams in organizations today, there is a great need to more deeply understand what makes a virtual team effective. We hope we have made a contribution in that direction, and we look forward to other researchers and practitioners answering some of the questions posed previously.
KEY TERMS
Communication Norms: In the context of virtual teams, communication norms are typical routines and expectations for communicating within a virtual team using the communication media that the team has available to them (e.g., electronic communication such as e-mail or instant messaging, telephone, etc.). For example, responding within a day to all e-mails, even ifjust “I’m busy but will get to this tomorrow,” is an example of a virtual team communication norm.
Organizational Culture: “The collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one organization from another” (Hofstede, 1997).
Remote Worker: An individual who works at a different location than his/her co-workers and/or manager. That person is remote, in terms of physical presence from his/her colleagues.
Team Diversity: The combined variety of skills, backgrounds, experiences, ideas, thoughts, abilities, and perspectives that individuals bring to their team.
Team Effectiveness: The ability of a team to perform its tasks on time, on budget, and with acceptable quality, as well as the satisfaction, motivation, and commitment of the team members.
Telecommuting: The practice of working from the employee’s home instead of physically commuting to a company office location. The connection to the office is done via telecommunications, rather than physically commuting (i.e., traveling) to the office.
Traditional Teams/Collocated Teams: A group of individuals who work on interdependent tasks, who share responsibility for outcomes, and who work together at the same location (i.e., their office/work area is in the same general location).
Virtual Coffee Pot/Virtual Water Cooler: Using electronic communication (such as e-mail or instant messaging) to conduct informal interactions (personal or non-work conversations) that would normally be discussed around the office water cooler in a face-to-face work environment.
Virtual Team: A group of individuals who work on interdependent tasks, who share responsibility for outcomes, and who work together from different locations (i.e., they are geographically dispersed, in terms of their normal work location).
