Practical Coach: Management Skills for Everyday Life, The

Differences Between Co-Located and Distributed Teams

If I could live anywhere, it would be in cyberia.

—Gabe Doppelt, Editor of Mademoiselle, 1993

Research on distributed teams suggests that they differ in many ways from their face-to-face counterparts.^[57] Teams as large as 300 members scattered around the world can collaborate effectively and efficiently using various information and communication technologies.^[58] Distributed teams are more likely to bridge traditional organizational boundaries such as functions, departments, and organizations. Furthermore, members of distributed teams are more likely to be more diverse than are those in co-located teams because virtual teams are more likely to include people from different regions, nations, ...