A multiple case study involving three three-person virtual teams was conducted. The three teams in this study, labeled as teams A, B and C, were made
up of undergraduate students from a Management of IS course teaching virtual team skills. They were all in the 2nd or 3rd year of their studies with an average age of 22.1. To complete the course, students needed to finish two projects in virtual teams. The first project was to list and describe the various aspects of the Hewlett-Packard organizational culture. The other was to identify Google’s best competitive advantage and give justifications. Both projects were based on the course curriculum; however, students still had to do further research.
Students were allowed to form the group themselves. At end of the group registration, the instructor helped students without a group to form a group. Students were told to use the collaborative technologies of instant messaging software and email only to accomplish the project. These were popular tools used by students for their day-today communication and learning. Students were instructed to discuss and finish the project during their computer laboratory period only. All communication between team members was logged and collated. Finally, three teams were selected that met the criteria of our study as shown in Tablel.