Effective Leadership of Virtual Teams

Abstract

Geographically dispersed project teams collaborating in virtual environments face a range of challenges in the successful completion of IT development projects. This is particularly the case when the project teams are non-homogenous, comprising multidisciplinary members with a range of skills, professional orientations and cultural backgrounds. Of interest to the global enterprise are those leadership mechanisms and attributes that may serve to optimize team functioning. With an increasing portion of the estimated US$600,000,000,000 (Cusamano, 2004) global software industry being performed by virtual teams, and with the mechanics and dynamics of virtual team operations being a relatively new area of study, the significance of the problem can be firmly established. Virtual teams, and the leadership thereof, is therefore a significant aspect of the global software development industry. Yet as Cusamano (2004) asserts, it is the business itself (and the processes therein), not the technology that determines the success or failure of the organizations that produce the software.