A social interaction approach to managing the “invisibles” of virtual teams

This paper uses social interaction theory and Tuckman's team development model to report and interpret the findings of a case‐based research into the forming and performance of eight internationally situated virtual project teams operating in the information technology industry. Its objective is to highlight the need to bridge the “gap” between the structural and process orientations of management and virtual team members' situational perceptions and psychological drivers (the “invisibles”). For organizations contemplating the adoption of these new organizational forms, its findings will provide a holistic framework to guide their transformation from conventional to virtual teams. Some of the issues identified here are also likely to be salient to those who are already using virtual teams.