Teams. The concept is certainly a buzzword in organizational research and a mandate for those in the workplace. Before zooming in one type of team structure, the virtual team, it will be helpful to zoom out and evaluate a few characteristics of teams. What are teams and what makes them work (or not work for that matter)?
Katzenbach and Smith define teams as follows: “A team is a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, set of performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.” As you can see, that definition closely resembles the more specific definition of virtual teams, which one would expect. They go on to present the following specifics as to what differentiates a group from a team…
This differentiation is helpful in conceptualizing what will separate a group from a team, especially a virtual team. While much research has been done on teams, we find the Shared Leadership Model and Katzenbach and Smith Model especialy helpful.
