Teams of Practice: Interdependent Conditions for Integrating Groupware in Collaborative Practice within Virtual Teams

In this paper we investigate collaboration within global virtual project teams. Our objective is to understand the practice of virtual teams to determine conditions needed in order to integrate groupware in such a context. The research question explored is: What are the conditions for integrating groupware technology in collaborative practice within virtual teams? Investigating this question we first develop a model explaining interdependent conditions for integrating groupware in collaborative practice (InterCon-model). We discuss our model theoretically, focusing on the negotiation of joint enterprise as the intentional practice within what we define as ‘Teams of Practice’. Finally, our model is validated in an analysis of two empirical cases involving the establishment of virtual teams as Teams of Practice in a large global transportation company.