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Indeed, a key difference involved with managing a global matrix comprised of virtual cross-functional teams is that this challenge requires roles and rules that are even more clear than the roles and rules that would be "adequate" where team members have the advantage of working together and working it out regularly on a face-to-face basis.

The very technology that makes the virtual team possible, e.g., cell phone, e-mail, voicemail, fax machine, overnight packages, etc., defines some key differences between virtual teams and conventional teams. Even with open, visible, and instantaneous information in a shared digital space that prompts cooperative action, employees cannot communicate as robustly with one another in virtual environments as they do in traditional offices. Spontaneous synergy, brainstorming chemistry, instant innovation — call this what you will, but "in-the-same-room" results can yield more, better, and faster than electronic groupware for more complex issues, projects or challenges. Mind you, there's no guarantee that non-virtual collaboration will achieve superior results, but it can.