IT Systems Perspective Virtual Teams and Group Collaboration Technologies:Challenges in Supporting Distributed Groups

Organizations increasingly depend on virtual teams, in which interaction and collaboration takes place among geographically-distributed, and often culturally-disparate individuals. Often these teams are globally dispersed, following the patterns created by multinational firms, global alliances, and international trade. Yet, it is by no means guaranteed that virtual teams will be a success, and participants often find the experience to be frustrating even when work is supported by sophisticated group collaboration technologies. The best technology cannot work if team members are not prepared for the challenges raised by working across time zones and national borders. For example, one team of software developers comprised of US and Spanish participants used a sophisticated Web-based system that included version control and notification services when any one person was working on pieces of code. They found direct communication by video conferencing to be difficult due to language differences, but were certain that they could simply use email to divide up their programming tasks by location and then assemble the result at the end of the project period. This group failed, however, because they both ended up designing the same software modules due to a simple misunderstanding at the outset that was never discovered until it was too late.