8.1 What is a virtual team?

A virtual team is one whose primary means of communicating is electronic, with only occasional phone and face-to-face communication, if at all. However, there is no single point at which a team ‘becomes’ a virtual team (Zigurs, 2003). Virtual working offers benefits to both organisations and individuals. Benefits to the organisation include:

  • people can be hired with the skills and competences needed regardless of location
  • in some cases working across different time zones can extend the working day
  • it can enable products to be developed more quickly
  • expenses associated with travel and relocation can be cut
  • carbon emissions can be reduced.

Benefits to the individual include:

  • people can work from anywhere at any time
  • physical location is not a recruitment issue
  • travelling expenses and commuting time are cut
  • relocating is unnecessary.