Virtual environments for work, study and leisure

Virtual environments have the potential of adding a new dimension to the concept of a community. In this paper, we describe our work on a text-based virtual environment. Although our focus is on work applications, the environment is equally suited for educational and recreational uses. The paper is presented in the context of the needs of a software development team but can be applied to other work teams as well. Two essential characteristics of successful work teams are good communication and efficient access to project information. Maintaining both of these becomes more and more difficult as the size of the team grows, and gets very difficult when the team is geographically dispersed. We describe a project that could be used to test the hypothesis that a collaborative environment using text-based virtual reality would alleviate these problems by relieving physical separation through virtual proximity. In the first phase of the project, we adapted and extended Jersey, a Smalltalk-based MOO (Multi-user domain Object Oriented) with collaborative virtual environment (CVE) features. On the basis of our experience, we then started designing and implementing MUM, a Multi-Universe MOO. When completed, the more extendable and customisable MUM will provide novel features and encourage developer experimentation. We describe some of MUM's features and our plans for it.     

Training to improve virtual team communication

Abstract. Organizations are utilizing virtual teams, comprising workgroup members who communicate and collaborate with technology, to accomplish tasks. These teams are geographically distributed and communicate via computer-mediated communication systems (CMCS), and may never or rarely meet face-to-face. Relational links among team members have been found to be a significant contributor to the effectiveness of information exchange in the use of CMCS. In most cases, team members receive little or no training to improve the effectiveness of this form of communication. When training is used, it often focuses on software utilization skills, not on interpersonal communication dynamics. This paper discusses the effect of virtual team communication training on group interactions, especially for enhancing these relational links and thereby improving communication and information exchange in virtual teams. It was found that teams that were given appropriate training exhibited improved perceptions of the interaction process over time, specifically with regard to trust, commitment and frank expression between members. Discussion of the role of training on virtual team processes and outcomes is discussed and future research implications are presented.     

Conceptualizing the Awareness of Collaboration: A Qualitative Study of a Global Virtual Team

Innovative organizations are increasing their use of distributed teamwork, but there are several difficulties in reaching shared understanding between the team members in these settings. A lack of awareness of other team members’ working processes is one of the drawbacks that a virtual team may face while attempting to collaborate on a shared task. In this study virtual teamwork was supported with a specific working model. The aim was to investigate virtual team members’ awareness of collaboration. One global team (N=19) within a single organization worked as a distributed team in a shared web-based workspace for three months. The data were gathered by means of questionnaires, log-files of the shared virtual workspace and collected company documents in order to find out how team members perceive their collaboration. Based on qualitative data analysis, three different aspects of collaboration awareness were identified: an awareness of the possibility for collaboration, an awareness of the aims of collaboration, and an awareness of the process of collaboration. The results presented in this paper give guidelines for discussing what the awareness of collaboration means in the context of distributed collaboration.     

The impact of team task and job engagement on the transfer of tacit knowledge in e-business virtual teams

This research focuses on the initiative to integrate team task and job engagement as related to the transfer of tacit knowledge. The aim of this study is to investigate if team task and job involvement enhances the overall work efficiency through transfer of tacit knowledge between e-business virtual teams. We develop a model that is based on the relationship between tacit degree of knowledge, job engagement, team tasks, and their effect on knowledge transfer. The conceptual model is validated with the data collected from a survey. The results indicate that the tacit knowledge does not have a positive effect on team tasks and job engagement, and the team tasks and job engagement have a significant positive effect on knowledge transfer. In addition, the study found that team tasks and job engagement have mediating effects in the process of tacit knowledge transfer. Also, we discuss the theoretical and practical implications and contributions of this study.     

Organizational change and virtual teams: strategic and operational integration

Abstract. This paper focuses on the challenges involved in integrating virtual teams strategically and operationally into organizational systems. It argues that an understanding of virtual team integration must consider both the context within which virtual teams are being introduced and processes involved in their implementation. Such an approach demands that we consider the strategic rationales involved in teamworking generally, and virtual teams in particular. By looking at change processes, attention is drawn to the social, cultural and political dynamics that affect the implementation and operation of virtual teams. This analysis is used to suggest further avenues for research on virtual teams, as well as pointing to practical considerations     

Team-based work and work system balance in the context of agile manufacturing

Manufacturing agility is the ability to prosper in an environment characterized by constant and unpredictable change. The purpose of this paper is to analyze team attributes necessary to facilitate agile manufacturing, and using Balance Theory as a framework, it evaluates the potential positive and negative impacts related to these team attributes that could alter the balance of work system elements and resulting "stress load" experienced by persons working on agile teams. Teams operating within the context of agile manufacturing are characterized as multifunctional, dynamic, cooperative, and virtual. A review of the literature relevant to each of these attributes is provided, as well as suggestions for future research.     

Team experiential cognitive style and team performance: The moderating impact of workplace setting

With an increasing need in organizations to come up with novel and useful ideas to renew and survive, team creativity has grown in importance to managers and researchers. As the cognitive resources of team members are the core input for team creativity, researchers increasingly look at team cognition in general and team cognitive styles in particular. In this research stream, the environmental context in which team members are embedded has received limited attention. We therefore experimentally test variation in the physical workplace environment and how it influences the relationship between team experiential cognitive styles and team creativity. Manipulating the nature of architectural elements in the room, we distinguish between a physical workplace with (i) experiential cues and (ii) rational cues. We also use a control condition where architectural elements are absent in the workplace environment. We rely on resource‐matching theory to build our hypotheses. Using data of 75 student teams of a Dutch university, we find that the relationship between teams' experiential cognitive style and team creativity was positive in the control condition. This positive relationship became insignificant in the two conditions where experiential or rational cues were introduced. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Contextualising collective efficacy in virtual team research: The essential role of collaborative technologies in the virtual team efficacy conceptual framework

One factor receiving contemporary interest from virtual team researchers is collective-level efficacy, that is, a team's shared belief in its collective abilities to work effectively. However, our understanding of this literature leads to two concerns. First, depending on traditional team-focused collective-level efficacy concepts conveys an indifferent view of technology that ignores decades of research explaining how virtual teams' reliance on collaborative technologies differentiates them from traditional teams. Second, the information systems literature has largely ignored the concept of collective-level efficacy in virtual team research. That collective-level efficacy is underexamined in IS research is disappointing, given the growing recognition (outside the IS literature) that it is crucial to virtual team success. This absence becomes even more concerning given that IS researchers developed the concept of virtual team efficacy (VTE) specifically for virtual team settings. Unlike collective-level efficacy measures designed for traditional team settings, VTE incorporates technology into its conceptual definition and the operationalization of its measurement indicators. Thus, it is a stronger predictor of virtual team outcomes. To demonstrate its importance to IS research, we used a deductive theory-driven approach to propose and empirically evaluate whether VTE indirectly acts on virtual team effectiveness through the critical concepts of trust and participants' perceptions of problems associated with the collaboration inhibitors of time difference, geographical separation, and cultural differences. This research contributes significantly to the literature by confirming VTE's relationship to important virtual team success factors and informing IS researchers about the appropriate choice of constructs when studying collective-level efficacy in virtual team settings.     

Intelligent support for activity management (ISAM): an architectureto support distributed supervisory control

Distributed supervisory control is the monitoring and control of complex, dynamic, highly automated systems by a team of human operators. As such, it is an example of a cooperative work environment. The goal of this paper is to analyze the nature of cooperative work in distributed supervisory control environments and describe implications for computer support. In particular, we argue that flexible support for activity management is a key requirement for computer support for distributed supervisory control, and we propose the intelligent support for activity management (ISAM) architecture as one infrastructure for doing so. The design and implementation of ISAM draws from previous work on intelligent operator's associate systems and computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW) systems. A graphical user interface to ISAM and an evaluation study of this system in the context of team supervisory control are also described     

Utilizing knowledge context in virtual collaborative work

The understanding of knowledge can be impaired if it is isolated from the proper context. Despite the importance of contextual information, there has been limited support for utilizing context in current knowledge management and collaborative systems. This paper presents a knowledge context model, called KC-V, which facilitates the use of contextual information in virtual collaborative work. Four benefits of using KC-V are suggested: evolutionary accumulation of knowledge aligned with collaborative activities, supporting the virtual team lifecycle, improved understanding by rich navigation paths, and searching for knowledge with similar context. A web-based collaboration system called VWSS is developed using KC-V.     

The effects from technology-mediated interaction and openness in virtual team performance measures

As globalisation continues concurrent with mergers and acquisitions, transnational organisations are increasingly turning to the use of virtual teams in which members collaborate through technology-mediated interaction. Although collocated teams and virtual teams share many common characteristics including performance measures, the nature of the environments differ along several dimensions. In particular, members of virtual teams cooperate on global projects while resident in their home geographies and cultures and using various technologies to facilitate. From that context, this field study investigated virtual team performance using organisational culture as a framework.     

Gaming the system: The effects of social capital as a resource for virtual team members

Increasingly individuals interact with one another through information and communication technologies in virtual teams. Leveraging the resource-based view of the firm and social capital theory, we examine how a team member’s social capital (a resource) affects the team member’s perception of the quality of knowledge shared within the team (a capability) and the benefits to the individual team member (an outcome). Using the context of massively multiplayer online role-playing games, we find that within virtual teams, relational and cognitive social capital contribute to knowledge quality, which in turn positively benefits the outcomes of individual team members.     

Creativity in virtual teams: Systematic review,synthesis and research agenda

Virtual teams are gaining increasing momentum in contemporary organizations. Although it is becoming clear that virtual teams will play a major role in shaping the future of work, we still know relatively little about their creative performance. Because of the disproportionate focus on conventional, face-to-face working practices, much of the literature remains centred around co-located teams. In this review, we integrate existing research on team creativity and virtual work to identify the relevant factors, processes and contextual conditions that have been shown to influence creativity in virtual teams. We highlight the major challenges that are likely to impede team creativity and assess their relevance to contemporary virtual work practices. We conclude by presenting promising avenues for future research in this area.     

Virtual team collaboration: building shared meaning, resolving breakdowns and creating translucence

Managing international teams with geographically distributed participants is a complex task. The risk of communication breakdowns increases due to cultural and organizational differences grounded in the geographical distribution of the participants. Such breakdowns indicate general misunderstandings and a lack of shared meaning between participants. In this paper, we address the complexity of building shared meaning. We examine the communication breakdowns that occurred in two globally distributed virtual teams by providing an analytical distinction of the organizational context as the foundation for building shared meaning at three levels. Also we investigate communication breakdowns that can be attributed to differences in lifeworld structures, organizational structures, and work process structures within a virtual team. We find that all communication breakdowns are manifested and experienced by the participants at the work process level; however, resolving breakdowns may require critical reflection at other levels. Where previous research argues that face-to-face interaction is an important variable for virtual team performance, our empirical observations reveal that communication breakdowns related to a lack of shared meaning at the lifeworld level often becomes more salient when the participants are co-located than when geographically distributed. Last, we argue that creating translucence in communication structures is essential for building shared meanings at all three levels.     

Situated learning with co-operative agent simulations in team training

The paper describes pedagogic aspects of the theory, design, analysis techniques used and implementation experience acquired during the development of a team training simulation system with a virtual reality interface for learning from emergencies. In particular we demonstrate: the desirability of team training strategies; the value of using training scenarios for constructing shared mental models with intelligent agents, and the use of a virtual reality interface. We present a tool designed and developed to reify the communication acts of team members that demonstrates support for reflective learning. An evaluation tests the acceptability of the simulation and provides feedback from an observation study. The paper then shares some of the emergent questions raised through the project particularly those relating to the management of errors, the fidelity of simulations for training and communications between agents, and the organisational context of integration.     

The impact of personality type on purchasing decisions in virtual stores

Despite the proliferation of virtual stores, research into the consumer personality characteristics that influence consumer interactions with virtual stores has been lagging. In this paper we propose and test a model linking consumer personality type with a decision to purchase from a virtual store. The results indicate that a consumer’s personality type has an effect on perceived ease of use and peer influence; and those two variables, together with perceived usefulness, have an effect on a consumer’s eventual decision to purchase from a virtual store. The practical implications of the findings are that consumer perceptions and attitudes towards virtual stores can be altered by personalizing virtual stores in a manner which will increase their likelihood of making a purchase.     

虚拟团队:一个典型的CSCW应用系统

虚拟企业的出现,带来了企业产品开发模式及对应的组织形式的转变。虚拟企业下,产品开发的一种重要组织形式就是虚拟团队。文章先将传统产品开发模式与虚拟企业的产品开发模式进行对照,然后提出了虚拟团队的概念,重点分析了虚拟团队作为一个典型的CSCW应用系统其角色分工和内在的协作机制,最后指出了虚拟团队进行协同工作所需的技术支持。     

Genetic learning of virtual team member preferences

Virtual team members do not have complete understanding of other team members’ preferences, which makes team coordination somewhat difficult and time consuming. Traditional approaches for team coordination require a lot of inter-agent electronic communication and often result in wasted effort. Methods that reduce inter-agent communication and conflicts are likely to increase productivity of virtual teams. In this research, we propose an evolutionary genetic algorithm (GA) based intelligent agent that learns a team member preferences from past actions, and develops a team-coordination schedule by minimizing schedule conflicts between different members serving on a virtual team. Using a discrete event simulation methodology, we test the proposed intelligent agent on different virtual teams of sizes two, four, six and eight members. The results of our experiments indicate that the GA-based intelligent agent learns individual team member preferences and generates a team-coordination schedule at a lower inter-agent communication cost.     

The Effect of Similarity and Dissimilarity on Information Network Formation and Their Implications in Accurate Information Identification

In the context of the Bitcoin market and its virtual investment communities, this paper demonstrates that both similarity and dissimilarity in social media messages’ contents can be associated with high quotation probability among them. This finding advocates new understandings beyond the mainstream conclusion that network connections increase with similarity. It is also found that message networks offer significant implications to distinguish between accurate information and noise. Evidence shows that popular messages frequently quoted by others and redundant messages confirmed from different sources contain more accurate information for Bitcoin market predictions. Theoretical contributions and practical implications are discussed.     

Store selection criteria and sales prediction in virtual worlds

Virtual worlds (VWs) have emerged as a new context for gaming, collaboration, social networking but also commercial activity. This paper focuses on the latter, and investigates how consumers behave in this virtual context when selecting stores they visit or buy from. The paper explores store selection criteria in virtual world stores and extends earlier research in both offline and online commercial environments, taking into account the novel IT capabilities that VWs exploit. Theoretical insights drawn from the marketing and information systems literature have been used to guide the design of a survey conducted in the virtual world Second Life. In addition to identifying the factors influencing store selection, the paper investigates how these differ between shoppers and non-shoppers, and identifies the factors that affect the amount of money spent in virtual world shopping environments. The findings suggest that “Core Store Features” and “Security and Privacy” constitute the most important store selection factors in virtual environments and that sales in VWs are predicted by the frequency of visiting and the time spent within VWs’ stores. Building on these findings, the paper discusses theoretical and practical implications and further research perspectives in the context of (3D) online commerce.