Research Paper on:
Virtual Teams and Communication

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
or geographically diverse employees have to work together, even if they never meet. There have been many reasons for the increase in  these remote workers. These virtual employees are working off site, with little or no physical contact with the organisation for which they work first originated in the 1980s when firms  where attempting to cut costs in order to survive the tough economic conditions (Kurland, 1999). One of the reasons this type of working arrangement is increasing for many reasons; initially  it was simple economics. For virtual teams were employees are based in their won homes there are savings. Employees working from their own homes can release real estate  for the company and many of the associated overheads are shifted onto the employee rather than the employer (Davenport et al, 1998). Although this shift of costs may appear unfair,  many workers find this acceptable; the number of virtual employees is increasing year after year. A 1996 report estimated 12.7 million telecommuters were working in the United States, and predicted  it will double by the year 2000 (Carroll, 1996). These patterns are repeated throughout the developed countries. It is also estimated that  the real productivity of these employees is increased at an impressive rate, according tot he Garner Group this is at a rate of 20% (Industry Week, 1999). Partly this is  due to the reduced interruptions and wasted time. With a sales representative it is apparent why this would be so useful, with reduced time spent in the office more time  is spent productively with potential customers. With other workers such as tele-workers or professional team members the reason is the same, there is less idle time and fewer distractions which