Communication and distributed work

Scholars have been studying distributed work since the 1990s. The proliferation of new communication technologies such as e-mail, computer conferencing, instant messaging, and enterprise social media has enabled and made commonplace geographically dispersed work arrangements such as global virtual teams, mobile work, and telework that span time and space and allow for collaboration at a distance. While distributed work is an interdisciplinary topic that is studied by scholars in management, information systems, and communication (among others), this review is bounded to focus primarily on research by communication scholars or in dealing with communication phenomena. Distributed work is of great interest to communication scholars as it highlights how communication processes such as collaboration, knowledge sharing, and relationship formation are enacted across geographical, temporal, cultural, and organizational boundaries