Virtual Teams: Mastering Communication and Collaboration in the Digital Age

To advance in todays workplace requires virtual team skills. Most individuals assume their face-to-face skills will translate but competency with virtual communication and teamwork requires an entirely new set of skills. This book guides readers down the path to success.Electronic communication is now embedded in our daily experience as is work involving off-site collaborators. Virtual communication has become an essential job skill that is critical to individual and group success yet most people just muddle through it without giving it any thought. Drawing on decades of scientific research in the fields of psychology organizational behavior and sociology this book explains how to master the art and science of communicating virtually.The author first analyzes the subtle but significant changes that result when conversations are moved online providing examples and tips to avoid common pitfalls then discusses how team behavior and decision making can best be guided in this realm. Readers will fully understand what makes teams click―what inspires trust how to get a team off on the right foot and what steps to take in order to make good collaborative decisions―as well as other key topics for virtual teamwork such as best practices for working in the cross-cultural environment. The book serves as an ideal guide for anyone who participates in or manages a virtual team but is also suitable as a supplemental textbook in a business school course on organizational behavior or business communication.Explains how virtual communication has significantly changed the way people interact and rewritten many aspects of the rulebook on how business is doneDefines how team dynamics change when the interaction shifts from in-person to electronic and how to correct for these tendencies to avoid unintended offense or misunderstandingInstructs readers on building trust addressing fairness and dealing with conflict in an online environmentProvides relevant instructive anecdotes based on the experiences of dozens of managers allowing readers to learn from their real-world successes (and disasters)