The book Managing Virtual Teams, explores the critical elements that must be considered in managing virtual teams in organizations – from structural, managerial, and process points-of-view. Based in solid research, the book provides a deep look at the nature of virtual teams and the factors that enable their success. It lays out in clear detail the key characteristics of virtual teams and traces their emergence within organizations and the research literature. It makes a valuable contribution with clear guidelines for managerial practice - both to researchers interested in learning about virtual teams and to managers and organizations dealing with the challenges of managing virtual teams.

With an increasing number of employees working remotely, it is more difficult than ever to ensure that team members are working smoothly and productively. This books provides a roadmap for bridging the logistical, cultural and communication gaps that can prevent any virtual team from reaching its full potential.

Virtual Teams That Work offers a much-needed, comprehensive guidebook for business leaders and managers who want to create the organizational conditions that will help virtual teams thrive. Each chapter in this important book focuses on best practices and includes case studies and illustrative examples from a wide variety of companies, including British Petroleum, Lucent Technologies, Ramtech, SoftCo, and Whirlpool Corporation. These real-life examples demonstrate how the principles identified in the book play out within virtual teams. Virtual Teams That Work shows how organizations can put in place the structure to help team members who speak different languages and have different cultural values develop effective ways of communicating when there is little opportunity for the members to meet face-to-face. The authors also reveal how organizations can implement performance management and reward systems that will motivate team members to cooperate across multiple boundaries. And they offer the information to determine which technologies best fit a variety of virtual-team tasks and the level of information technology support needed.

Experts from across all industrial-organizational (IO) psychology describe how increasingly rapid technological change has affected the field. In each chapter, authors describe how this has altered the meaning of IO research within a particular subdomain and what steps must be taken to avoid IO research from becoming obsolete. This Handbook presents a forward-looking review of IO psychology's understanding of both workplace technology and how technology is used in IO research methods. Using interdisciplinary perspectives to further this understanding and serving as a focal text from which this research will grow, it tackles three main questions facing the field. First, how has technology affected IO psychological theory and practice to date? Second, given the current trends in both research and practice, could IO psychological theories be rendered obsolete? Third, what are the highest priorities for both research and practice to ensure IO psychology remains appropriately engaged with technology moving forward?

Many organizations worldwide are currently exploring the potential gains to be made from working with virtual teams. Although many different things are meant by use of 'virtual' (and indeed by 'teams'), usually it denotes groups of people with common purpose and goals working in different locations and often different time zones; they will be interconnected via a variety of telecommunications networks, perhaps including the Internet and intranet, video conferencing, shared white boards, as well as telephone, mail and e-mail. For organizations implementing such virtual teams there is a great need for guidance, in terms of the organizational structure and support which needs to be put in place. This book offers a practical guide to developing virtual teams, providing both an overview of what is involved and also a clear simple framework around which organizations can build their own implementation process. Although the different support technologies are discussed (at a generic level), the thrust of the book is on the organizational and human factors issues which must be addressed to make virtual teams a success. It contains detailed case studies to show how virtual teams work and where they can go wrong.

Manage your team from anywhere. Leading any team involves managing people, technical oversight, and project administration, but leaders of virtual teams perform these functions from afar. Leading Virtual Teams walks you through the basics of: Connecting your people to each other—and to the team’s mission Surmounting language, distance, and technology barriers Identifying and using the right communication channels Don't have much time? Get up to speed fast on the most essential business skills with HBR's 20-Minute Manager series. Whether you need a crash course or a brief refresher, each book in the series is a concise, practical primer that will help you brush up on a key management topic. Advice you can quickly read and apply, for ambitious professionals and aspiring executives—from the most trusted source in business.

As communication and leadership skills are both essential for personal and organizational success, new approaches and management styles are continuously being sought. Emerging technologies, automation opportunities, and a diverse workforce are just a few of the challenges business professionals must be prepared for in today’s workplace environment. The Handbook of Research on Strategic Communication, Leadership, and Conflict Management in Modern Organizations provides emerging research exploring the theoretical and practical aspects of managing and solving conflicts, and introduces updated approaches for refining communication and leadership skills. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as emotional intelligence, organizational crises, and virtual team management, this book is ideally designed for professionals, leaders, managers, and human resource specialists seeking current research on developing the skills and consciousness needed to effectively communicate, negotiate, and collaborate in diverse organizations.

In today’s complex organizations it is not uncommon to have as many as 50 percent of employees working on virtual teams. As the “virtual revolution” continues to spread, how can companies ensure that virtual team collaboration is producing the desired results? Highly practical and easy to navigate, Virtual Team Success leverages the authors’ robust global research study and hands-on experience to provide an immediately usable resource for virtual team members and team leaders. This groundbreaking book is a hands-on, practical toolkit filled with down-to-earth examples and insights that can enhance the virtual team experience for everyone involved. The authors’ research study is one of the most comprehensive applied studies ever conducted on virtual teams, and all of the recommendations outlined are based on these findings as well as the authors’ years of experience helping virtual teams and virtual team leaders effectively lead and collaborate from a distance. To help organizations and leaders enhance virtual team performance, the book includes: Why Virtual Teams Fail—outlines the four pitfalls that frequently derail virtual teams Profile of High Performing Teams—addresses the characteristics of the most effective virtual teams and what makes them successful Virtual Team Launch Kit—provides practical guidelines and tools for successfully launching virtual teams How to RAMP Up Your Team’s Effectiveness—introduces a practical research-based model of virtual team effectiveness to improve team performance Profile of Top Performing Virtual Team Leaders—identifies the practices of the most successful virtual team leaders Facilitating High-Impact Virtual Meetings—includes tips and techniques to effectively lead “v-meetings” Virtual Team Success also includes practical resources for virtual team leaders, quick reference guides for diagnosing virtual team problems, and six lessons for virtual team success.

Organizations are implementing virtual teams using web technologies as a cost-effective measure for training and project development. In Working at a Distance, Cassandra Smith provides a detailed, comprehensible virtual team business model for managers, professionals, teachers or students involved globally with such initiatives.

Teams are the key to smart, flexible, and cost-effective organizations for the 21st century. However, advances in communication technologies have dramatically changed the nature of teamwork. Traditional, collocated teams are now giving way to distributed cross-boundary virtual groups linked through relationships and technology, reaching across space, time, and organizational boundaries. In their fifth book, Virtual Teams, Jessica Lipnack and Jeffrey Stamps, leading experts in networked organizations, take you beyond teams into the new world of work-at-a-distance, showing you how to effectively start, implement, and maintain virtual teams in your own organization. Today, virtual teams are an established feature of multisite and global companies such as Hewlett-Packard, Motorola, Bank of Boston, and Steelcase. Made possible by technologies like the Internet, intranets, and groupware, these teams are invaluable tools for organizations that need to bring together specialized groups of people to work on projects or comprise a spread-out business unit. The principles outlined in Virtual Teams provide an antidote to the high failure rate of teams. At the same time, as the authors warn, "It is harder for virtual teams to be successful than for traditional face-to-face teams. Misunderstandings are more likely to arise and more things are likely to go wrong." In this straightforward guide, Lipnack and Stamps provide a comprehensive framework that makes virtual teams accessible and practical. Beginning with a brief overview of exactly what virtual teams are and how they work, the authors show how they can be integrated into your business structure. Featuring insightful case studies from Eastman Chemical Company, NCR, Tetra Pak, and Sun Microsystems, this stimulating and hands-on reference offers essential information on: The basic virtual team principles: people, purpose, links The skills and technologies necessary for creating a successful virtual team Supporting the dynamics of the cross-boundary team and enhancing personal communications electronically Virtual team applications of the Internet's newest offspring, intranets Providing an in-depth look at an increasingly important teamwork tool, Virtual Teams gives you the materials you need to create and build a winning virtual team for your own organization. "If you want to see where organizational communications are going in the future, heed what these pioneers have written today." —Howard Rheingold, Author of The Virtual Community and Founder of Electric Mind "Lipnack and Stamps have written an important book for the 21st century corporation." —Regis McKenna, The McKenna Group, author of Relationship Marketing "This book provides a long overdue perspective on how to apply the discipline of real teams in the fast moving, increasingly dispersed information age of the future." —Jon R. Katzenbach, Author, The Wisdom of Teams "For those who want to lead the movement, catch up with it, or simply know where it is going, this book is packed with useful information and interesting stories." —Dee W. Hock, Founder and Chairman Emeritus, VISA "Virtual Teams provides valuable insights into global teamwork and management through network technologies now available to all companies, large or small." —Jim Lynch, Director, Corporate Quality, Sun Microsystems, Inc.