**2. Virtual teamwork**

There are numerous definitions of teams. For this paper teams are defined as a cluster of two or more people usually occupying different roles and skill levels that interact "adaptively, interdependently, and dynamically towards a common and valued goal" (Salas, Shawn Burke, & Cannon-Bowers, 2000, p. 341). At present the term "virtual teams" is used by different authors to mean different things. A more detailed exploration of the various facets of virtual teams is provided by Dubé and Paré (2004) and is summarised in Table 1. A number of other researchers have outlined the characteristics of or factors relating to virtual teams e.g. Berry (2011); Schumacher, Cardinal and Bocquet (2009) as well as the


Table 1. Key Characteristics of Virtual Teams

variables contributing to effective virtual teamwork (Gaudes, Hamilton-Bogart, Marsh, & Robinson, 2007; Peña-mora, Vadhavkar, & Aziz, 2009). Virtual teams may differ significantly depending upon these aspects and Dubé and Paré suggest that this table could also be used as a diagnostic tool to help assess the level of complexity in a virtual team.
