Virtual management, is the supervision, leadership, and maintenance of virtual teams—dispersed work groups that rarely meet face to face. As the number of virtual teams has grown, facilitated by the Internet, globalization, outsourcing, and remote work, the need to manage them has also grown. The following article provides information concerning some of the important management factors involved with virtual teams, and the life cycle of managing a virtual team. Due to developments in information technology within the workplace, along with a need to compete globally and address competitive demands, organisations have embraced virtual management structures. As in face-to-face teams, management of virtual teams is also a crucial component in the effectiveness of the team. However, when compared to leaders of face-to-face teams, virtual team leaders face the following difficulties: (a) logistical problems, including coordination of work across different time zones and physical distances; (b) interpersonal issues, including an ability to establish effective working relationships in the absence of frequent face-to-face communication; and (c) technological difficulties, including finding and learning to use appropriate technology. In global virtual teams, there is an additional dimension of cultural differences which impact on a virtual team's functioning. Management factors For the team to reap the benefits mentioned above, the manager considers the following factors. Trust and Leader Effectiveness A virtual team leader must ensure a feeling of trust among all team members—something all team members have an influence on and must be aware of. However, the team leader is responsible for this in the first place. Team leaders must ensure a sense of psychological safety within a team by allowing all members to speak honestly and directly, but respectfully, to each other. For a team to succeed, the manager must schedule meetings to ensure participation. This carries over to the realm of virtual teams, but in this case these meetings are also virtual. Due to the difficulties of communicating in a virtual team, it is imperative that team members attend meetings. The first team meeting is crucial and establishes lasting precedents for the team. Furthermore, there are numerous features of a virtual team environment that may impact on the development of follower trust. The team members have to trust that the leader is allocating work fairly and evaluating team members equally. An extensive study conducted over 8 years examined what factors increase leader effectiveness in virtual teams. One such factor is that virtual team leaders