The April 2009 issue of the Communications of the ACM, a highly respected journal, published an article by Jay F. Nunanamker, Bruce A. Reining, and Robert O. Briggs on ‘Principles for Effective Virtual Teamwork.’ The authors derived these principles from their decade long experience of working with hundreds of virtual teams. I present these principles and also provide links to… Read more →
It’s both good and bad that I can’t take my work home. These days my biggest limitation is technology. The work I do depends heavily on several expensive software packages. My employer has a policy disallowing the organization from paying for software for home computers, and these applications are too expensive for me to buy on my own dime. … Read more →
Effective communication in electronic environments can be vexing to virtual teams. We know intuitively that we need proper communication to achieve high quality and efficient outcomes, but we are not always sure how to best achieve effective communication or even what effective communication is for the task at hand. We have mentioned issues around communication in past posts, such as… Read more →
I watched in awe from early this morning as the world got ready for the inauguration of Barack Obama as President. I felt joy and hope as I read my dad’s email this morning saying that he was so excited to see the moment that he had dreamed of, but thought might never come in his country. And I… Read more →
I recently read an article by Line Dube and Daniel Robey entitled “Surviving the paradoxes of virtual teamwork”. The authors, through their research, determined five paradoxes that are prevalent in the realm of virtual teamwork. They then made some suggestions for dealing with each paradox. In the rest of this post I will: List the authors’ five paradoxes and their… Read more →
A few weeks back, Surinder posted quick tips that virtual team leaders could use to deal with pressures to make their virtual teams more productive. I believe that sponsors and leaders of virtual team projects ought to also focus on another thing: training. While the times are challenging because of pressures to cut down costs, we strongly believe that the… Read more →
I recently had a problem with my MacBook Pro. The graphics chip went bad, which was a known problem with the particular chip I had. While it was shipped off to Apple for repair, I struggled through more than a week of trying to communicate with team members and keep a normal rate of productivity without the laptop I had… Read more →
In Second Life my name is Abi. I am taller than average, wear high-heeled Mary Janes, black pants covered in zippers and a t-shirt with a dragon on it. I have bright pink hair. In real life I am short, never wear high heels, and have light brown hair. The only features my avatar and I have in common are… Read more →
A project leader recently asked me how to promote cooperation among members of his virtual team who are at different locations. This is a common issue that virtual team leaders struggle with. Virtual teams often consist of subgroups of team members located in separate locations. This division of team members can give rise to social categorization within the team (i.e., those who… Read more →
This week I read an interesting research article (Perceived Proximity in Virtual Work: Explaining the Paradox of Far-but-Close) that talked about perceived proximity. The authors (Wilson, O’Leary, Metiu, and Jett) define perceived proximity as two or more individuals having the feeling of being close, regardless of physical distance between them. Often, one assumes that physical proximity and perceived proximity are highly correlated, but the… Read more →