Tom Stewart

One of the most significant changes I have noticed over the past 37 years (yes, I have been involved in the human aspects of computing that long) is that computers are now as much about communication as they are about computation. This is certainly true of my own computer usage but I also see the evidence around me that computer technology now forms the glue that holds organizations together. In the first paper in this issue of Behaviour and Information Technology (BIT), Michael Workman from the Florida State University in Tallahassee reports an interesting longitudinal (2-year) study into the way 436 virtual teams behaved in a large multinational. The paper reports many different findings but one that struck me most forcibly was that the teams who put more effort into how they were structured and organised performed better than those that focused on the task in hand. I have always thought that taking some time to work out what was needed and how to do it was better than rushing into the immediate task, so it was interesting to see this supported by this study. The author concludes with some guidance for organisations on how to make virtual teams more effective.

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/01449290701597548