The Challenge of Remote Team Working and Strategies to Make it Effective

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to describe the difficulties that remote teamwork faces and to propose strategies to make them more effective. The concept of virtual team is defined and the difficulties among its members are analyzed under three aspects: a) Gaps in the use of information and communication technologies, b) Communication, and c) Coordination. It is concluded that virtual teams present difficulties very similar to those of face-to-face teams; however, these difficulties that could be increased by the impersonal use of technologies can be overcome over time with adequate training, effective coordination and constant communication.