Many industries have observed the
rise of Virtual Teams (VTs) as highly productive team structures taking
advantage of members scattered around the globe while being able to
accomplish assigned tasks by communicating through internet based
technologies. Nonetheless, the looked-for achievable gains of VTs
working heavily rest on meeting the requirements prescribed by the
antecedents and critical success factors associated with specific
idiosyncrasies of VTs such as the multiculturalism dominating their
working environment. In this regard, it is widely recognized that when
it comes to adopting VTs, the managerial/leadership matters are among
the main challenges facing organisations. The major parts of foregoing
issues are stemmed from the limitations of mediums of communications
exacerbated by cultural diversity and disparity of members. This chapter
first aims at critically analysing the different approaches of managing
and leading virtual teams and ascertaining the main influential
variables. This is followed by presenting a management/leadership model
for VTs based on a dynamic integrated approach, thus labelled, 'Leading
and Managing Virtual Teams' (LeManViT). © 2013, IGI Global.