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.

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?

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.

Annotation Twenty essays present current research on knowledge management as related to effective design of new organization forms. The first section of the book covers frameworks, models, analyses, case studies and research on the integration of knowledge management within virtual organizations, virtual teams and virtual communities of practice. Themes covered in this section include business model innovation; design of virtual organization forms; net-based models; techniques for enabling knowledge capture, sharing and transfer; and collaboration and competition at intra- and inter-organizational levels. The focus of the second half is on key success factors that are important for realizing virtual models of business transformation. Topics include the role of organizational control systems, the role of internal and external employees and customers in creation of organizational knowledge, and information quality issues. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).

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.

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.

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.