Uniting the Virtual Workforce

“Uniting the Virtual Workforce” starts with the concept of distance – distance in space, distance in time, distance created by affiliation with different company structures – to identify all of the challenges posed to so-called ""virtual"" teams. For the authors, the problem for these geographically dispersed and often culturally heterogeneous teams consists in understanding the impact of this distance on the dynamics of the team and adapting management and collaboration practices in consequence. The first part of the book covers this aspect of awareness. The second part enters into possible strategies to circumscribe the impact of distance on virtual teams, while capitalizing on the creative power of remote collaboration. Chapter 9 in particular addresses the question of the role of technology in these strategies. It offers a fairly complete overview of how various information technologies are used to ?ll in the gaps created by distance in terms of sharing information, as well as managing social interactions, cultural differences, etc.