What: Journal article synthesizing research on effective virtual teams.
Citation: Bergiel, B.J., Bergiel, E.B., & Balsmeier, P.W. (2008). Nature of virtual teams: A summary of their advantages and disadvantages. Management Research News, 31(2), 99-110.
Post to which it is related: Virtual Teams – Beneficial or Detrimental?,
Bottom line: This is a really nice overview article of the research about virtual teams that is broadly relevant to practitioners. The authors summarize the most crucial factors in only 9 pages of text, using very clear language without confusing terminology or jargon. And the fact that they also interviewed practitioners seems to focus the academic summary in a really useful way. They cite trust, communication, leadership, goal setting, and technology choice as the most crucial factors that determine whether a virtual team is effective. They also discuss the most common barriers to communication, with practical implications for virtual team managers and members.

What: Journal article investigating the effects of cultural diversity and technology on global virtual teams.
Citation: Schachaf, P. (2008). Cultural diversity and information and communication technology impacts on global virtual teams: An exploratory study. Information & Management, 45, 131-142.
Post to which it is related: Implicit Communication and Culture: What It Means for Leading Virtual Teams,
Bottom line: This article is much more academic and formal than the previous one listed in this digest. Although practitioners may be interested in reading about the study in this article, often the front end (intro and theoretical background) and back end (implications and conclusions) are most useful to non-academic readers. This article is particularly relevant to geographically dispersed virtual teams, functioning across cultural and spatial boundaries. Results show that cultural diversity has a positive influence on decision making quality, but a negative impact on communication (pretty intuitive). The most important contribution of the study might be that varied and frequent use of technology was found to lessen the negative impact of cultural diversity on communication, and to heighten the positive impact on decision making. This study shows how important the choice of technology (or combination of types of technology) can be for a virtual team’s success.

What: Irish Medical News article about the launching of a new virtual research health center.
Post to which it is related: Leading Virtually Digest, April 8, 2008.
Bottom line: This one relates to an earlier digest article about a virtual cancer research network. The success of virtual research networks seems to be encouraging governments to invest in building more of them. One interesting point from this article is that money goes straight to the main purpose, doing medical research, rather than expensive capital costs like constructing buildings. It seems to me that this can be a great advantage for the consumer, if the network is strong and important information doesn’t slip through the cracks.

What: Dinar Standard article about business strategies for managing virtual teams, with a specific focus on the Muslim business environment.
Post to which it is related: Culture Matters in Virtual Teams.
Bottom line: We seem to hear so much about Western-based businesses implementing virtual teams, but hear much less from the perspective of other parts of the world. I like this article because in it one can see that the underlying principles of hiring for and managing virtual teams are similar everywhere, yet it also discusses specific challenges from a non-Western, Muslim perspective.