Networked Teams

• Individuals who collaborate to achieve a common goal or purpose.

• Membership frequently is diffuse and fluid.

• Team members frequently rotate on an off the team as their expertise is needed.

• Team members may not be aware of all the individuals, work teams or organizations in the network.

• Examples: consulting firms, high technology organizations.

Parallel Teams

• They carry out special assignments, tasks, or functions.

• Distinct membership that identifies it from the rest of the organization.

• It's clear who is on the team and who is not.

• Work together on a short term basis in specific business issues.

• The collaborative work usually is accomplished both in distance synchronic / asynchronic mode.

• The expertise does not reside in one location or one organization.

• Examples: Multinational employees working in areas such as Customer recommendations / Quality implementation systems / Commercial campaigns.

Functional Teams

• They carry out special assignments, tasks, or functions, linked by a common strategy and a business policy.
• Distinct membership that identifies it from the rest of the organization.
• It's clear who is on the team and who is not.
• Work together on a long term basis.
• The work usually is accomplished both in distance synchronic / asynchronic mode through distance communications and collaborative tools.
• They carry out functions designed in the organisation headquarters, but implemented in the different organisation sites in a homogeneus way.
• The key is to establish the boundary among the team members' different responsabilities and to identify the share area between the global and local responsabilities.
• Examples: Multinational employees working in areas such as Human Resources / Quality control systems.

Product Development Teams

• Created around a specific task.
• Conduct projects for users or customers for a defined, but typically extended period of time.
• Their typical results are new products, information systems or organizational process.
• Usually exist for a longer period of time than parallel teams and has a charter to make decisions.
• Membership is clearly delineated from the rest of the organization and a final product is clearly defined.
• One of the main reason for the team creation is the need of complementary members.
• Examples: design and development of new product or process.

Work or Production Teams

• Perform regular and ongoing work.
• Clearly defined membership and can be distinguished from the other parts of the organization.
• Access to workflow processes over the firm's intranet / extranet, which allows them to work as a group on systems-development activities.
• Examples: Accounting, finance, training or research and development activities.

Service Teams

• They are dedicated to continuous operations.
• Members usually are not always located in the same place.
• The bigger difficulties are the coordination and following through different time zones.

Management Teams

• Dispersed across a country or around the world.
• Work collaboratively on a daily regular basis.

Action Teams

• Offer inmediate responses, often to emergency situations.
• Cross distance and organizational boundaries.

Networked	Work or Production	Your eTeam
Parallel	Service
Functional	Management
Product Development	Action

Check the description that best matches your eTeam

	Type of Team	Description
	Network	Membership diffuse and fluid. No clear boundaries with the organization.
	Paralell	Distinct membership and clear boundaries. Team works in short term to develop recommendations for an improvement in a process or system.
	Functional	Distinct membership. Team works on a long term basis to carry out special assignments.
	Product Development	Fluid membership, clear boundaries, and a defined customer, technical requirement, and output. Longer-term team task is nonroutine. Team has decision-making authory.
	Work or Production	Distinct membership and clear boundaries. Members perform regular and ongoing work, usually in one functional area.
	Service	Distinct membership. Supports ongoing customer, network activity.
	Management	Distinct membership. Team works on a regular basis to lead corporate activities.
	Action	Team deals with inmediate action, usually in an emergency situation. Membership may be fluid or distinct.

2.1. DEFINITION AND TYPES

Definition of Virtual Team:

Group of employees working on the same project and/or in the same organizational unit who are based at two or more locations, and must rely upon communication technologies to share information, collaborate, and coordinate their work efforts.

Types of Virtual Teams: