Remote Work is the New Normal: Virtual Teams as a Prerequisite in Global Business Strategy

Abstract

The world has changed, and with it comes the obligation for us to adjust ourselves to what is truly normal for our organizations. Organizations today rely heavily on a geographically dispersed workforce to compete in the global economy. They establish teams that offer the greatest functional expertise from around the world coupled with deep, local knowledge of the most exciting areas. Despite virtual teams’ growing prevalence, relatively little is known about this new form of work team, particularly in most developing nations. The objective of the paper is to identify the antecedents of virtual team performance and critically examine the literature to filter the advantages and pitfalls of virtual teams. For this purpose, we conducted a search in Google Scholar with the keywords ‘virtual team performance’ and ‘determinants of virtual teams performance’. Given the ease with which the technological infrastructure required to support virtual teams is now available, more research into the wide range of difficulties surrounding virtual teams is required if we are to understand how to manage them effectively.