Virtual Teams: High-Tech Rhetoric and Low-Tech Experience

Advances in telecommunications and computer technology have nourished visions of ideal technology use. One such vision is the concept of virtual teams. The rhetoric of virtual teams, like the rhetoric of other computerization movements, makes claims to greater efficiency, a better organization, and happier people. With virtual teams, managers reach across the geographically dispersed organization to staff project teams with the best experts at least cost. Employees enjoy working at a distance seamlessly, supported by technology. We describe the experiences of a professional, geographically dispersed organization that had to work across sites and might have nurtured virtual teams. Instead, the rhetoric of collaboration, not technology, inspired top management. Project managers did not create virtual teams, believing them to incur severe coordination costs. To foster collaboration, the company changed

电信和计算机技术的进步孕育了对理想技术应用的憧憬。其中一个这样的憧憬是虚拟团队的概念。虚拟团队的相关说辞，就像其他计算机化运动的相关说辞一样，宣称会带来更高的效率、更好的组织以及更幸福的员工。有了虚拟团队，管理者可以跨越地理上分散的组织，以最低的成本为项目团队配备最优秀的专家。员工在技术的支持下能够毫无障碍地远程工作。我们描述了一个专业的、地理上分散的组织的经历，这个组织必须跨地点工作，并且可能已经培育了虚拟团队。然而，激励高层管理人员的是合作的理念，而非技术。项目经理没有创建虚拟团队，因为他们认为虚拟团队会产生高昂的协调成本。为了促进合作，公司做出了改变。