Digital disruption: Lessons learned from virtual team management

Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to discover how management skills infl uence online teams in direct comparison to offl ine teams. A survey was conducted of 120 managers working in varying degrees of online and offl ine teams. As virtual teams are affected differently by leadership and communication skills together with team dynamics and culture, these attributes were examined at length to understand how best to manage online teams. The paper gives light to the new phenomenon of online teams and their benefi ts but also the extra attention needed when communicating, as the element of human interaction is missing. The study revealed that leadership and communication are important in online teams. Also, interaction and engagement with online teams require more sensitivity. Finally, team dynamics are more diffi cult to develop with online teams, and culture plays a major role in managing online teams.