1 What is a virtual team?
The term ‘virtual team’ first started to appear in organisations in the 1990s. The advances in technology that recent years have brought, along with the increasingly global nature of business, has led to the development of different ways of working. Of course, the impact of the global pandemic and the consequent development of file sharing and video conferencing capabilities has accelerated this even further.
A ‘virtual team’ describes a team that is using technology to work across a range of different locations, organisations or even countries. The defining characteristic of these teams is that they do not meet face-to-face but use a range of technology to communicate. As you progress through the course, although much of what you will learn will be relevant in either context, for virtual teams there are additional challenges in both the use of appropriate technology, and new ways of thinking and operating.
In the UK in 2023, 44% of people were working from home at least some of the time (also known as hybrid working), with 16% working exclusively that way. While the ability to work from home is, to some extent, industry and role dependent, over half of UK employers were offering some form of remote working. With large companies such as HSBC selling off their office space globally since 2021, remote working is clearly here to stay (Fennell, 2023).
There are several different definitions for what a ‘virtual team’ is, but the common features of all of these definitions are:
- there is a common goal to be achieved or task to be performed (as with any team)
- individuals or groups may not be physically located in the same place
- team members may also be separated by time zones
- technology is used to aid communication.
A frequently used description of a virtual team provided by Fleming and Hailstrom (2006, p. 7) is ‘working together apart’.
One implication of these different definitions is that it is always worth checking exactly what is meant if you are asked to work as part of a virtual team in your job.
Years ago it would not have been possible to work in this way as the necessary technology was unavailable. Consider for a moment how technology has progressed since 1800 (Table 1), leading to this point where synchronous (at the same time) and asynchronous (not at the same time) communication is possible.
| 1800 | Telegraph |
| 1900 | Telephone |
| 1970 | Fax |
| 1980 | |
| 1995 | Virtual team software (though this was asynchronous only) |
| 2005 | Web based virtual team software (synchronous and asynchronous) development of Web 2.0 |
| 2020 | Significant development of video conferencing and cloud storage software during the COVID-19 pandemic |
Web 2.0 describes the current state of online technology compared to the early days of the web or what might be referred to as WWW or Web 1.0. Originally the web was a static site, whereas the web you see and use today is characterised by more user interactivity, more connectivity and enhanced communication channels.
The next development will be Web 3.0 which, according to the Investopedia Team (2024):
Represents the next phase of the evolution of the web/Internet and potentially could be as disruptive and as big a paradigm shift as Web 2.0 was. Web 3.0 is built upon the core concepts of decentralization, openness, and greater user utility.
Noyon (2024) predicts the impact of Web 3.0 on remote working, with teams working in community driven remote workspaces, earning crypto tokens for their contributions.
Next you will consider an example of virtual team working and its advantages to both the employer and employee.