Open Access

Antonia Wassmann

• Companies are progressively implementing remote work models to handle the evolving changes in economic, social, and technological environments and facilitate their business operations amidst these. Meaning more teams including multicultural ones are deployed to function on a virtual basis, during the course of their employment, or for a specific project. Therefore, this thesis focuses on presenting the main challenges that these global virtual teams typically face and the practices to implement as a way to resolve them. Data were obtained from both a literature study and interviews run with a total of six experts. Four of them being managers and two, employees so that varying perspectives on different organizational levels could be covered. The findings emphasize that the virtual element significantly impacted communication, coordination, collaboration, and the social aspect. Hence teams and/or management need to dedicate more time to collectively decide on and elaborate a set of common guidelines, best practices, and tools to address this. Whilst maintaining openness and a sense of trust throughout, as incidents or interactions can come up that normally prompt unintended assumptions. For reoccurring issues or generally to ensure the team’s performance and well-being though, companies and/or top management need to regularly follow up and be prepared to intervene.