ABSTRACT
Virtual teams are a necessity in global and even regional businesses today when operations and employees with special talents are not willing or able to relocate to a job or operational site. Traditionally a key employee was relocated to a company site to bring expertise to the team in a face to face environment. These employees were generally experts with technical skills or senior managers who were needed to head up operations in a foreign location. With employees being centralized, traditional leadership styles could therefore be applied relatively comfortably and effectively as the relationship was "face-to-face" (f-2-f). However, the roles and needs of global …