Coming together is beginning. Keeping together is process. Working together is success.

Henry Ford.

Raising global competition, increasing customer demand, requests to deliver just-in-time, and an increasing pressure to cut costs are only a few examples to express the need for more flexibility, speed and agility of organizations. Companies in different industry segments can achieve this requirement by flexible organizational structures, a knowledgeable and motivated workforce, and the application of technology and communication media. In this context the composition of teams plays an important role because it has proven to be a fast and comprehensive way to solve problems, to fulfill customer demand, and to develop new products and processes. Over the past decade the construct of teams has further developed into so called virtual teams. Virtual teams are teams which include team members who work together remotely from various locations around the globe. Lipnack and Stamps (1997) characterize virtual teams as the peopleware for the 21st century.

The modality of working in virtual teams becomes more popular as the world's population becomes more connected. Research proposes that virtual teams are as effective as traditional teams. Virtual teams offer the opportunity to meet the challenges of cost effectiveness, product quality, and speed in an international setting that is driven by customer orientation and a rapidly changing economy. Furthermore, people with the most experience and knowledge for a specific business topic can be brought together no matter where they are located in the world. In a virtual team setting, modern communication technology plays an important role because it brings together the virtual team members that are located in various places around the globe. Formerly, members of a traditional team had many opportunities to meet in-person to discuss business and project issues. But with team members working from distributed locations, meeting in-person is hindered. In such cases a team depends heavily on communication technology that offers some kind of substitution for meeting in-person.

Video conferencing has long been known as one option to meet distributed team members face-to-face. Baker (2002) concludes in his study that video conferencing is the best way of communication in virtual teams. Because traditional video conferencing had its limitations, vendors lately have introduced telepresence systems. These systems are designed to counteract the hindrances of traditional video conferencing. Thus, the purpose of this master thesis is to investigate whether, or not the modern communication technology has the capability to support managing from a geographical distance. Furthermore, it is to find out whether telepresence can facilitate virtual team work in the major tasks. According to Lipnack and Stamps (2000), in future most of the people will work in virtual teams for at least some part of their job. Therefore, this master thesis further explores if this statement can be supported.

After a brief introduction into the research topic, chapter 2 defines important terms that are used throughout the thesis. The chapter outlines the various roles of virtual team leaders, and the requirements on team members in a virtual work environment. Chapter 2 closes with a description of what it takes to effectively collaborate in virtual teams. Various communication media that are used by virtual teams are discussed in chapter 3. In this context, the chapter introduces telepresence as a form of video conferencing technology and briefly explains the different categories of telepresence systems. In chapter 4 the major task categories of virtual teams are discussed. The chapter further explains the factors that affect the usage of communication technology. By arranging the major task categories, and the communication media, the Task-Communication-Media-Matrix is established and described.

To illustrate theory in practice, chapter 5 first gives a brief overview of today's application of telepresence systems. After that a company of the communication industry is used as an example to demonstrate telepresence in business practice. A questionnaire regarding the usage of telepresence within the sample company investigates the contribution of telepresence to support distance management. Chapter 5 ends with an evaluation of the survey's findings and a statement whether telepresence has the capability to support managing from a geographical distance.

Before the master thesis closes with a conclusion and some suggestions for future research, chapter 6 discusses the advantages and limitations of telepresence from a social, financial, and technical perspective.