Although cosmopolitan or global leaders are essential to the success of multinational organizations, teams do much of the decision-m  aking in these companies. Therefore, one of the critical competencies of lesdership is being able to lead a team. At the same time, it is estimated that over 30 million virtual teams are in existence, requiring new skills for leaders and team members. Today's cosmopolitan leaders must negotiate the complexities of multicultural, multinational teams located around the world whose primary communication is mediated via technology. This challenge includes managing cultural diversity, differences, and conflicts; handling geographic distances; dealing with coordination and control issues; maintaining communication richness over distances; and developing and maintaining a team identity among members.
    * GLOBAL TEAMS
  Currently it is reported that more than 60 percent of professional emplyees work in virtual teams. Barczak and McDonough cite several reasons to form global teams: to address global market issues by identifying common product platform, to identify unique needs of local markets and offer customized products, to create knowledge experts whose skills can be accessed from any country, and to bring together dispersed resources.
   Indeed, virtual teams are ubiquitous, yet the speed at which they are initiated often makes it difficult to understand the dynamics that emerge. Therefore, it is useful to define the various types of teams emerging in today's organizations. Lipnack and Stamps (1997) define a virtual team as "a group of people who work independently with shared purpose across space, time and organizational boundaries using technology. Included in this definition are telecommuters who work from home offices and do most of their work via the computer, telephone or fax. Others include cultural diversity and geographic dispersion in their definition of virtual teams, stating that virtual teams can be global, multicultural, local or any combination of these components. A global team specifically refers to groups of poeple who are working together across cultures and time zones for extended periods of time, and by nature of their geographic separation, they are also virtual teams. According to this definition, a global team is multicultural multinational and virtual.
   Stohl (2001) provides a matrix that further shows the different organizational structures for various teams. She includes the structure and management models evidenced in the five predominant team orientations: domestic, multicultural, multinational, international and global. A domestic organization is hierarchical, using bureaucratic and matrix structures typically located in a central headquarters. The management model is conocultural differences tend to be ignored or not recognized. A multicultural organization uses teamwork and is less hiererchical but also tends to have one centrally located headquarters. The management model typically has one culture that predominates, and differences are expected to be accommodated through assimilation with that dominant culture. The multinational organization is usually managed from a central location in essentially a hierarchical manner; however, national subsidiaries create miniature replicas of the corewhere teamwork is employed. It is centralized and globally scaled, and overseas operations implement parent company strategies. The management model recognizes cultural differences, and they are somewhat accepted, but the dominant culture is typically enacted in the task domain. The international organization uses a joint hierarchy in which international divisions intergarate global activities and joint ventures. There is extensive teamwork with subsidiaries and some decentralized decision making. The management model embraces cultural synergy, and members work together to try to build a third culture. Finally, the global organization incorporates decentralization of decision-making and sharing of responsibilityes. The headquarters and subsidiaries see themselves as part of an organic worldwide entity with a strong global strategy and dominant global alliances. The management model promotes cultural integration that recognizes diverse cultures and business conditions. Cultural adaption is experienced in the task realm, and cultural integrity is seen in the expressive realm.
  * GLOBAL TEAM CHALLENGES
  Eisenberg and Riley observe that "globalization is one of the drives of growing workforce diversity in almost every industry, raising critical questions about ways to coordinate people of markedly different backgrounds to promote organizational and personal goals". All groups have some element of diversity, yet from a team perspective it becomes significant when it affects a group's performance. Maznevski identifies two different types of diversity: role-related and inherent. It is often these differnces that allow a group to make decisions from a wider perspective. For example, if a company is marketing a product to women in France, having women and team members from France can assist the group in its advertising approach. Similarly, having team members from trainning, sales, and finance can help the group look holistically at various facets of the project and develop a comprehenvive timeline for product release. Although diversity in a team is valuable, the benefits of multiculturalism are not automatically positive or easily accomplished. In fact, more effort is usually required to establish the team's communication strategy and working relationships so that productivity is achieved. Parker perceptively observes that " the communication modes that make virtual group status possible are the same modes that make  group interaction difficult".