60 percent of work 25 years from now will be on equipment and activities that don't exist today. For instance, members of Microsoft's software teams in the United States, Pacific Rim, India and the United Kingdom pass software around the globe, building on each other's products 24 hours a day and interacting almost exclusively using information technology. The ability to work any time and at any place, which characterizes virtual teams, is likely to make it difficult for workers to separate work life from home life and, potentially, add to work-related pressures. Work satisfaction may be adversely affected by the difficulty of knowing when one's work is finished for the day. In the absence of an optimum level of human contact with fellow co-workers due to reliance on electronic communication, members of virtual teams may suffer from feelings of alienation.
Virtual teams are likely to create several challenges for an organization's management.
Managers will spend more time identifying skill requirements and suitable candidates for an organization's projects. He earned a B.Tech in chemical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, an MS in chemical engineering from Rutgers University, and a PhD in business administration from the University of Michigan. His research has been published in such journals as Creativity Research Journal, Decision Sciences, Decision Support Systems, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Management Information Systems, Personnel Psychology, and Small Group Research. Kahai has taught a variety of courses on information systems and his teaching interests include management information systems in Business, the Internet and e-commerce, and business data communications. He has facilitated group decision support system sessions and information systems strategy and planning sessions at various organizations.