implications of our analysis for managers. First, we offer important insights to
managers about what skills they should use and emphasize during different stages of
development of VTs. We argue that identifying these unique capabilities would help
VT managers/leaders to be more cognizant of how and when they should apply their
capabilities during the development of VTs.
More specifically, to effectively manage VTs, it is essential for VT leaders to use
skills that go beyond the project related tasks and occasional interpersonal conflicts
associated with traditional teams. These skills are needed to create a common cause
among VT members who are geographically, temporally dispersed and who are often
from different backgrounds and cultures (Pauleen, 2003). It must also be noted that
these leaders have either managed traditional teams in the past or might be leading
them along with VTs. For example, a project leader could have a team of five
employees in the same location who continuously deal with a support team of a few
other individuals scattered in different physical locations. Therefore, an important
question for these managers is how to best use the skills gained from managing
traditional teams in leading VTs. Our paper provides important insights to managers
in this regard. As suggested earlier, cognitive skills are most important during the
preparation, training and development and disbanding stages of the team
development. Organizations can focus on developing the cognitive skills of
managers during development programs and can use this as an important criterion
during the selection process of leaders.
As mentioned earlier, our model posits that leaders of VTs should use their social
skills more during the launch stage. This would enhance development of relationships
between the leader and the team members. The relationships built during this stage
can benefit the organizations beyond the initial objectives (Pauleen, 2003). Given the
lack of face-time for VTs, it might be challenging for leaders to apply their social skills.
However, organizations can overcome this challenge by using social media. Many
organizations have started using internal media (e.g. intranets) or external social media
(e.g. Facebook, twitter) to facilitate social interactions among employees who are
geographically and temporally dispersed (Burrus, 2010). Organizations use these social
media platforms to facilitate interactions among VT employees beyond the context of
corporate emails and memos. In addition, it also allows the leaders to know their VT
members beyond their roles in organization and facilitate information exchange
between leader and team members. Leaders can then use the social capital thus created
to better manage their team members and motivate them to share innovative ideas and
collaborate on work. This has direct implications for training VT leaders and members
to effectively use these technologies to maintain a strong team culture and provide
support to the team.
A better understanding of what skills should be utilized by VT leaders at different
stages during a VT life cycle, and why, can provide critical insights into how
organizational training programs for leaders and members might best be tailored. The
VT leaders must aware of the fact that social and behavioral skills may become
increasingly valuable during the maturity phases of VTs. More specifically, during the
next two stages of VT development (i.e. performance and training and development)
the behavioral skills of the leader are most important. The ability of the leader to
effectively communicate, inspire, motivate, and provide feedback is crucial to a team’s
success during this stage. Furthermore, the theoretical literature and the empirical
findings on VTs suggest that such teams are deployed for organizational benefits.
Thus, the successful implementation and maintenance of management concepts