Due to developments in information technology within the workplace, along with a need to compete globally and address competitive demands, organizations have embraced virtual management structures.
However, when compared to leaders of face-to-face teams, virtual team leaders face the following difficulties: (a) logistical problems, including coordination of work across different time zones and physical distances; (b) interpersonal issues, including an ability to establish effective working relationships in the absence of frequent face-to-face communication; and (c) technological difficulties, including finding and learning to use appropriate technology.
[5] An extensive study conducted over 8 years[6] examined what factors increase leader effectiveness in virtual teams.
To develop role clarity within virtual teams, leaders should focus on developing: (a) clear objectives and goals for tasks; (b) comprehensive milestones for deliverables; and (c) communication channels for seeking feedback on unclear role guidance.
Leadership must ensure effective communication and understanding, clear and shared plans and task assignments and collective sense of belonging in team.
[11] There are three predominant factors that contribute to virtuality, namely: (a) the richness of communication media; (b) distance between team members, both in time zones and geographical dispersion; and (c) organizational and cultural diversity.
Finally, the distribution and bundling of resources is also very much altered by the move from collocation to virtual space.
Experimental studies demonstrate that getting acquainted before the start of computer-mediated work facilitates cooperation and trust.
These comprehensive management strategies arise from the agreed upon difficulty of working in virtual teams.
To apply this, the leader must show active leadership to create a shared conceptualization of team meaning, its focus and function.
As a consequence, delegative management principles are considered that shift parts of classic managerial functions to the team members.
[15] Communication processes are perhaps the most frequently investigated variables relevant for the regulation of virtual teamwork.
By definition, communication in virtual teams is predominantly based on electronic media such as e-mail, telephone, video-conference, etc.
The main concern here is that electronic media reduce the richness of information exchange compared to face-to-face communication.
[13][15] This difference in richness of information is an idea shared by multiple researchers, and there are some methods to move around the drop created by working in a virtual environment.
[13] These research issues revolve around the idea that people become more hostile over a virtual medium making the working environment unhealthy.
Since most of the variables are originated within the person, they can vary considerably among the members of a team, requiring appropriate aggregation procedures for multilevel analyses (e.g. motivation may be mediated by interpersonal trust [20]).
[13] Systematic research is needed on the management of knowledge and the development of shared understanding within the teams, particularly since theoretical analyses sometimes lead to conflicting expectations.
The development of such “common ground” might be particularly difficult in virtual teams because sharing of information and the development of a “transactive memory” (i.e., who knows what in the team) is harder due to the reduced amount of face-to-face communication and the reduced information about individual work contexts.
However, particularly when virtual project teams have only a short life-time and reform again quickly, careful and constructive disbanding is mandatory to maintain high motivation and satisfaction among the employees.
Members of transient project teams anticipate the end of the teamwork in the foreseeable future, which in turn overshadows the interaction and shared outcomes.
As per market sources, around 80% of global corporate remote work policies had shifted to virtual and mixed forms of team collaboration during the pandemic.