1112 Online Corporate Collaborative Teams Hélder Fanha Martins Lisbon Polytechnic Institute, Portugal Maria João Ferro Lisbon Polytechnic Institute, Portugal Copyright © 2008, IGI Global, distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. INTRODUCTION Given the growing demand for the use of teams as fundamental building blocks in organizations (Furst, distributed teams, it is essential to establish a means to ensure their high performance and productivity. The these teams effective is to identify a series of best prac- tices that should be followed by all those involved in what we call online collaborative teams (OCT): their organizations, leaders and members. OCT are groups of individuals who work on inter- dependent tasks, share responsibility for outcomes, and join their efforts from different locations. These teams are now being used by many organizations to enhance the productivity of their employees and to reach a diversity of skills and resources. Information technology can support their activities by reducing travel costs, enabling expertise to be captured where it is located, and speeding up team communication and coordination processes. Unfortunately, these distributed teams are not always productive. BACKGROUND There are several “how-to” books on virtual teamwork and online collaboration. We reviewed some of these academic literature for articles that dealt with best practices for OCT. Groups in organizations have been formally studied for over half a century, resulting in thousands of studies Fortunately, there are already several reviews of the al., 2000), and these reviews were used as the basis for our understanding of traditional team best practices. MAIN FOCUS OF THE ARTICLE We have organized the best practices according to three separate sets, which we will look at in detail: organizational practices, management practices and team member practices. Organizational Practices In order to succeed, OCT need some help from the organizations that have created them, not only to en- Organizational Practices Management Practices Team Member Practices Diversity Resources and Support Human Resource Policies Team Autonomy Standardization Information Sharing Goals and Direction Feedback Trust Empowerment Motivation Leadership Self-control Communication Support Skill sets Motivation Table 1. OCT best practices