Group items tagged

Tips to deal with communications problems in virtual work settings. the author emphasizes that they stem from lacking context when mostly communicating with email and phone - another way (than those mentioned) to overcoming them is to use more sophisticated tools and communicating at multiple channels

report talking about how performance is becoming more important than presence. mainly looking at the risks and possible problems of virtual work

From the post: "These virtual teams, largely composed of people who have never met, were not only productive but also more innovative than "face-to-face teams." "They make decisions faster with more input from others and develop policies that are implemented worldwide with fewer problems than conventional teams," said Malhotra."

A bit dated study of Fraunhofer-Institute but it shows clearly where are the problems when SMEs try to globalize

Building community in the virtual workplace by Jennifer Carpenter

In a lightweight study of virtual teams, Stanford management science researcher Pamela Hinds found that 6 months after virtual team members participated in an intense week-long team-building retreat there was zero correlation to their ability to work together. Hinds believes that in order to increase a group's relational coordination or ability to problem-solve through mutual respect and open communication, members need to "know-who" each other are in their work contexts. Bringing people who don't usually see each other to do team-building exercises in a neutral hotel doesn't help because Hinds points out, "the truth is we don't work in neutral territory." She emphasizes, "Learning to work together is learning how people work, not just what kind of beer do you like," even though she adds, "that's useful information."