Currently virtual teams (VTs) have become common place across many industries and academic settings. Many scholars argue that today's VTs began when technology made it practical to offer electronic mediated communication at a reasonable price to corporate and business users. As a result of today's technology, some 'old fashioned' teams have become VTs and offer members a closer relationship - correspondence classes have become virtual classrooms and a far flung sales force can now collaborate about sales issues. The first VTs have been geographically dispersed teams working on a common goal through some electronic media. More recently, 'local' teams have gone virtual. Employees who used to daily come to a common office now work from home, collaborating with team mates, managers and customers in running their day-today business. The VT trend is apparent not only by looking at what is happening in organizations around the world, but also by looking at the multitude of recent articles about VTs, both scholarly and academic. Most of our current knowledge about team dynamics is based on research done within face-to-face (FTF) teams. Team members report the experience of being a participating member of a VT as different than FTF teams. VTs are studied both in the academic world and from corporate practitioners. Many reported VT studies look at ad hoc teams, teams made up of strangers who come together to virtually perform a task and disband. VTs made up of stranger are often created in an academic lab to test given variables. These studies look at different team dynamics variables including member satisfaction, use of power, and decision making methods. A smaller number of studies examine team dynamics in a relatively stable, ongoing team in a single corporate setting. The team dynamics of ongoing vs. ad-hoc VTs may be different and may account for difference in research findings. The current summary is based on both current research and real life experience from the corporate world and from academia.
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