Virtual team evolution

       For Organization Development (OD) practitioners, there are many challenges in our national and global workplace worth pursuit and stewardship.  The question becomes, “How do organizations handle or manage change?”  “Can the tools, techniques and proximity of yesterday provide the performance standards today and tomorrow?”  “How can virtual teams affect this change?”

      Organizations in the year 2010 and beyond must function and flourish under conditions that are vigorously complex, rapidly changing, and in many respects unprecedented. The stakes are high and the risks are great. Consider the 500 largest firms on the first published list by Fortune magazine in 1956, only 29 remain today. GM for the first time in list's history didn't even make the list. Homebuilders, once money-making powerhouses aren't on the list either. The top companies are businesses focused on necessity, demand, affordability and agile change. These changes are manifestations of a deeper and more general transformation: the shift in the developed world from an industrial to an information economy that has given a new meaning to speed, access and Organization Development. 

         It is believed that a real team appropriately focused and rigorously disciplined is the most versatile unit organizations have for meeting both performance and change challenges in today’s complex world (Katzenback & Smith, 1993).  Globalization, commerce and the internet are redefining organization operational boundaries, cultural norms, and work group structure.  Today organizations must figure out how to manage widespread behavior and skill challenges. At the same time, shortfall in leadership begs for different leadership styles and managerial disciplines.

        Virtual teams may not be the solution for every organization; their advantages make them a strategically important tool in today’s global market. Virtual teams cut travel time and associated costs, help facilitate the recruitment of talented employees, promote employment in different areas, build diverse teams, assist disadvantaged employees and reduce various forms of discrimination.  Senior managers of organizations must continue in their efforts to understand the relationship between the physical world and the e-world of virtual teams.