This paper examines the critical challenge organizations face in building and sustaining effective virtual teams. Drawing on research by Ferrazzi, Bartelt and Dennis, Derven, and Olaisen and Revang, the paper establishes that while virtual and dispersed teams have become essential to modern knowledge work, the majority fail to meet their goals. The paper identifies a general lack of evidence-based practice around how organizations should create, maintain, structure, and implement virtual teams, and highlights three specific factors — quality of knowledge, contextual knowledge, and actionable knowledge — that can improve virtual team performance. The discussion opens with an illustrative parallel drawn from the creative networking culture of the Chelsea Hotel.
When poet, artist, and punk rock star Patti Smith moved into the Chelsea Hotel with her companion and fellow artist Robert Mapplethorpe in 1970, she recognized the power of networking for increasing productivity and propelling individual and group success: "The Chelsea hotel network made anything possible. Everything changed" (Olaisen & Revang, 2017, p. 1441). The example of Patti Smith illustrates how networking is a critical component of success in any business sector, whether the arts, sciences, or commercial enterprise.
As many as 79% of knowledge workers report working "always or frequently in dispersed teams," yet 82% of virtual teams believe they "fall short of their goals" (Ferrazzi, 2014, p. 1). Bartelt and Dennis (2014) also found that teams were actually "unable to successfully determine whether they were performing effectively, in terms of team performance" (p. 533). These figures underscore the growing gap between the prevalence of virtual teams in modern organizations and their ability to function at full effectiveness.
"Organizations struggle to build effective virtual teams"
"Three knowledge factors that improve virtual team outcomes"
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