Title

Are all distributed teams the same? Differentiating between temporary and ongoing distributed teams

Authors

Authors

C. S. Saunders;M. K. Ahuja

Comments

Authors: contact us about adding a copy of your work at STARS@ucf.edu

Abbreviated Journal Title

Small Group Res.

Keywords

virtual teams; short- and long-term outcomes; computer-mediated; communication; collaboration; GLOBAL VIRTUAL TEAMS; FACE-TO-FACE; COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION; MEMBER FAMILIARITY; GROUP-PERFORMANCE; WORK TEAMS; TIME; TECHNOLOGY; CONFLICT; TRUST; Psychology, Applied; Management; Psychology, Social

Abstract

Distributed teams, sometimes called virtual teams, are becoming increasingly prevalent as businesses bring geographically dispersed members together to achieve a common goal. A framework for understanding geographically distributed teams based on their time span is yet to be developed. The authors believe that theory building in this area has centered on temporary teams and propose that many distributed teams have ongoing and recurring tasks. Using attention focus and the shadow of the future models, this article presents a framework for understanding the differences between temporary and ongoing distributed teams' structure, processes, and outcomes, suggesting that ongoing distributed teams must tackle more process and structural issues than temporary teams and that findings of virtual teams research thus far may not always apply here. The model also implies that ongoing distributed teams are more difficult to manage and experience greater variance in well-being outcome levels, whereas in temporary teams, members are more focused on task-related (production) outcomes.

Journal Title

Small Group Research

Volume

37

Issue/Number

6

Publication Date

1-1-2006

Document Type

Article; Proceedings Paper

Language

English

First Page

662

Last Page

700

WOS Identifier

WOS:000242053500005

ISSN

1046-4964

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