Learning to work in distributed global teams

International teamwork is one of the core components of network organizations. A set of studies was conducted to observe how students learned to work in globally dispersed virtual teams. Nineteen teams of three to seven graduate students, who resided in 13 a’i#erent universities in nine werent countries, were observed for five weeks. Many teams had members separated by a l&hour time difference. Students were challenged to push the limits of electronic mail by collaborating on unstructured tasks with people they would never meet face-to-face. Students learned a variety of collaboration, socialization, and global communication skills while accomplishing dt~icult work.