Because goodwill is hard to observe virtually,
expectations about actions and the actions
themselves need to be made as explicit as possible
for all others to see. This is done first by focusing
on the norms regarding how information will be
communicated during the course of their virtual
work. Several of the teams we studied struggled
initially because they lacked a common set of
procedures or way of doing things. In the absence
of communication norms, team members resorted
to using the practices prevalent in their local
setting. This often led to each team member communicating
in her/his own way, and thus not
adequately sharing information with other team
members. The result was a lack of cohesion and
difficulty in integrating the work of different team
members