Team member selection decisions for virtual versus face-to-face teams

We compared the importance placed on task skills and four personal characteristics when selecting members of virtual and face-to-face teams. We expected that task skills would be most important in selection decisions for virtual teams due to the lack of physical proximity and visibility, whereas personal characteristics would be more important for face-to-face team selection. In a policy capturing study, 100 undergraduates’ decision policies indicated that task skills had a greater impact on selection decisions for virtual teams. Gender also influenced selection decisions, with women choosing more female than male applicants for both types of teams. Applicants’ race, physical attractiveness, and attitudinal similarity to participants did not influence selection decisions for either type of team; however, when assessed by self-report evaluations, these characteristics and gender, had a greater influence for face-to-face teams.     

Knowledge transfer in globally distributed teams: the role of transactive memory

This paper explores the role of transactive memory in enabling knowledge transfer between globally distributed teams. While the information systems literature has recently acknowledged the role transactive memory plays in improving knowledge processes and performance in colocated teams, little is known about its contribution to distributed teams. To contribute to filling this gap, knowledge‐transfer challenges and processes between onsite and offshore teams were studied at TATA Consultancy Services. In particular, the paper describes the transfer of knowledge between onsite and offshore teams through encoding, storing and retrieving processes. An in‐depth case study of globally distributed software development projects was carried out, and a qualitative, interpretive approach was adopted. The analysis of the case suggests that in order to overcome differences derived from the local contexts of the onsite and offshore teams (e.g. different work routines, methodologies and skills), some specific mechanisms supporting the development of codified and personalized ‘directories’ were introduced. These include the standardization of templates and methodologies across the remote sites as well as frequent teleconferencing sessions and occasional short visits. These mechanisms contributed to the development of the notion of ‘who knows what’ across onsite and offshore teams despite the challenges associated with globally distributed teams, and supported the transfer of knowledge between onsite and offshore teams. The paper concludes by offering theoretical and practical implications.     

Dynamic nature of trust in virtual teams

We empirically examine the dynamic nature of trust and the differences between high- and low-performing virtual teams in the changing patterns in cognition- and affect-based trust over time (early, middle, and late stages of project). Using data from 36, four-person MBA student teams from six universities competing in a web-based business simulation game over an 8-week period, we found that both high- and low-performing teams started with similar levels of trust in both cognitive and affective dimensions. However, high-performing teams were better at developing and maintaining the trust level throughout the project life. Moreover, virtual teams relied more on a cognitive than an affective element of trust. These findings provide a preliminary step toward understanding the dynamic nature and relative importance of cognition- and affect-based trust over time.     

Group development in virtual teams: An experimental reexamination

Virtual teams are thought to be experienced differently and to have poor outcomes because there is little or no face-to-face interaction and a tendency for virtual team members to use different communication techniques for forming relationships. However, the expanding use of virtual teams in organizations suggests that virtual teams in real world contexts are able to overcome these barriers and be experienced in much the same way as face-to-face teams. This paper reports the result of an experiment in which virtual teams participated in an exercise where they completed an information-sharing task ten times as a team. The results suggest that, contrary to one-shot, ad hoc virtual teams, longer-lived virtual teams follow a sequential group development process. Virtual team development appears to differ from face-to-face teams because the use of computer-mediated communication heightens pressure to conform when a virtual team is first formed, meaning trust is most strongly linked with feeling that the team was accomplishing the task appropriately. As the virtual teams developed, trust in peers was more strongly linked with goal commitment. Once the teams were working together effectively, accomplishing the task appropriately was the strongest link with trust in peers. I suggest that virtual team managers should cultivate virtual workspaces that are similar to those proven to work in face-to-face contexts: (1) teams should have clear, specific goals, (2) members should be encouraged or even required to communicate with each other, and (3) team members should feel that they might work with the other team members again.     

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     

The challenges of virtual partnerships: Critical success factors in the formation of inter-organisational teams

Virtual teams formed across organisational boundaries and organised around an opportunity are a relatively new area of research. A review of previous research shows that, although virtual teams have been well defined as a concept, only a few studies have contributed to the understanding of the processes of assembling and maintaining effective inter-organisational teams enabled by new modes of communication. By combining cross-disciplinary theoretical approaches, the reported study presents a conceptual overview for collective teaming in virtual settings. The findings of the study confirm that inter-organisational teams follow special development patterns, which can be described as cyclical self-energising processes.     

Process and technology challenges in swift-starting virtual teams

Virtual teams often face tight schedules and a need to start quickly and perform instantly. The goal of our study was to enhance understanding of the challenges faced by such teams. We used time–interaction–performance theory as the framework for following the processes and functions within virtual teams working on a systems development task. Our study provided a detailed examination of the group process, applied to virtual teams working under time pressure. The challenges faced by virtual teams in such settings showed that teams must work to enhance their effectiveness in multiple dimensions.     

The contingent effects of leadership on team collaboration in virtual teams

Decision-making in virtual teams creates challenges for leaders to structure team processes and provide task support. To help advance our knowledge of leadership in virtual teams, we explore the interaction effects between leadership styles and media richness on task cohesion and cooperative climate, which in turn influence team performance in decision-making tasks. Results from a laboratory study suggest that transactional leadership behaviors improve task cohesion of the team, whereas transformational leadership behaviors improve cooperative climate within the team which, in turn, improves task cohesion. However, these effects of leadership depend on media richness. Specifically, they occur only when media richness is low. Our results also suggest that task cohesion leads to group consensus and members’ satisfaction with the discussion, whereas cooperative climate improves discussion satisfaction and reduces time spent on the task.     

Network-aware support for mobile distributed teams

An experiment evaluated network-aware support to increase understanding of the factors that are important for successful teamwork in mobile geographically dispersed teams of first responders. Participants performed a simulated search and rescue team task and were equipped with a digitized map and real-time situation updates on the location of other participants in a simulated disaster area. The connection to a server, however, was made deliberately error-prone, leading to occasional losses of network connections. Consequently, participants were not provided with real-time situation updates. To deal with this problem we equipped team members with a network-aware application that signaled network loss to them and adapted the graphical representation of the location of fellow team members accordingly to the quality of location information present. The experiment revealed that presenting complete and reliable geospatial information improves teamwork. Teams connected to a server over a fast and reliable link showed superior performance over teams with no network connection whatsoever to a server. The present study failed, however, to demonstrate the added value of network-aware support when teams had to collaborate in the presence of an unreliable communications infrastructure. Although participants indicated a slight preference for the network-aware application over a condition without support signaling network loss, no differences were observed in team process and outcome measures.     

Managing distributed business processes in the virtual enterprise

In this work the supply–chain coordination in the virtual enterprise environment is subject of analysis. The system developed by UFSC-DBPMS—for the management of distributed business process is presented and some basic concepts for its definition and development are detailed. The DBPMS provides means for getting, analyzing, making available and managing the information from and about a virtual enterprise, enabling the enterprises to make their logistics more efficiently by means of an integrated information-based supply-chain management. All the work presented in this paper was developed within the scope of the ESPRIT project PRODNET-II (production planning and management in an extended enterprise).     

Use of collaborative technologies and knowledge sharing in co-located and distributed teams: Towards the 24-h knowledge factory

The relocation of knowledge work to emerging countries is leading to an increasing use of globally distributed teams (GDT) engaged in complex tasks. In the present study, we investigate a particular type of GDT working ‘around the clock’: the 24-h knowledge factory (Gupta, 2008). Adopting the productivity perspective on knowledge sharing ([Haas and Hansen, 2005] and [Haas and Hansen, 2007]), we hypothesize how a 24-h knowledge factory and a co-located team will differ in technology use, knowledge sharing processes, and performance. We conducted a quasi-experiment in IBM, collecting both quantitative and qualitative data, over a period of 12 months, on a GDT and a co-located team. Both teams were composed of the same number of professionals, provided with the same technologies, engaged in similar tasks, and given similar deadlines. We found significant differences in their use of technologies and in knowledge sharing processes, but not in efficiency and quality of outcomes. We show how the co-located team and the GDT enacted a knowledge codification strategy and a personalization strategy, respectively; in each case grafting elements of the other strategy in order to attain both knowledge re-use and creativity. We conclude by discussing theoretical contributions to knowledge sharing and GDT literatures, and by highlighting managerial implications to those organizations interested in developing a fully functional 24-h knowledge factory.     

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.     

Knowledge processes in virtual teams: consolidating the evidence

This article takes stock of the current state of research on knowledge processes in virtual teams (VTs) and consolidates the extent research findings. Virtual teams, on the one hand, constitute important organisational entities that facilitate the integration of diverse and distributed knowledge resources. On the other hand, collaborating in a virtual environment creates particular challenges for the knowledge processes. The article seeks to consolidate the diverse evidence on knowledge processes in VTs with a specific focus on identifying the factors that influence the effectiveness of these knowledge processes. The article draws on the four basic knowledge processes outlined by Alavi and Leidner (2001 Alavi, M.Leidner, D.E., 2001. Review: knowledge management and knowledge management systems: conceptual foundations and research issues. MIS Quarterly, 25 (1), 107–136. doi: 10.2307/3250961[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) (i.e. creation, transferring, storage/retrieval and application) to frame the investigation and discuss the extent research. The consolidation of the existing research findings allows us to recognise the gaps in the understanding of knowledge processes in VTs and identify the important avenues for future research.     

Exploring the effects of trust,task interdependence and virtualness on knowledge sharing in teams

The sharing of knowledge within teams is critical to team functioning. However, working with team members who are in different locations (i.e. in virtual teams) may introduce communication challenges and reduce opportunities for rich interactions, potentially affecting knowledge sharing and its outcomes. Therefore, using questionnaire‐based data, this study examined the potential effects of different aspects of virtuality on a knowledge‐sharing model. Social exchange theory was used to develop a model relating trust to knowledge sharing and knowledge sharing to team effectiveness. The moderating effects of virtuality and task interdependence on these relationships were examined. A strong positive relationship was found between trust and knowledge sharing for all types of teams (local, hybrid and distributed), but the relationship was stronger when task interdependence was low, supporting the position that trust is more critical in weak structural situations. Knowledge sharing was positively associated with team effectiveness outcomes; however, this relationship was moderated by team imbalance and hybrid structures, such that the relationship between sharing and effectiveness was weaker. Organizations should therefore avoid creating unbalanced or hybrid virtual teams.     

Trust and knowledge sharing in diverse global virtual teams

Global virtual teams (GVTs) allow organizations to improve productivity, procure global knowledge, and transfer best practice information instantaneously among team members. GVTs rely heavily on IT and have little face-to-face interaction, thereby increasing problems resulting from geographic barriers, time language, and cultural differences, and inter-personal relationships. The purpose of our study was to design a normative framework that would assist organizations in understanding the relationship between diversity, mutual trust, and knowledge sharing among GVTs, with additional focus on understanding the moderating impact of collaborative technology and task characteristics. Empirical data was collected from 58 GVTs and analyzed using a Hierarchical Multiple Regression technique. Results showed that in GVTs, deep level diversity has a more significant relationship with team processes of mutual trust and knowledge sharing than visible functional level diversity. This relationship is moderated by the collaborative capabilities of available technology and levels of interdependence of the task. Furthermore, knowledge sharing and mutual trust mediate the relationship between diversity levels and team effectiveness.     

ViWoSG: A distributed scene graph of ultramassive distributed virtual environments

An ultra-massive distributed virtual environment generally consists of ultra-massive terrain data and a large quantity of objects and their attribute data, such as 2D/3D geometric models, audio/video, images, vectors, characteristics, etc. In this paper, we propose a novel method for constructing distributed scene graphs with high extensibility. Thismethod can support high concurrent interaction of clients and implement various tasks such as editing, querying, accessing and motion controlling. Some application experiments are performed to demonstrate its efficiency and soundness. Supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2004CB719403), the National High-Tech Research & Development Program of China (Grant Nos. 2006AA01Z334, 2007AA01Z318, 2009AA01Z324), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 60573151, 60703062, 60833007), and the Marine 908-03-01-10 Project     

Institutional boundaries and trust of virtual teams in collaborative design: An experimental study in a virtual world environment

Members of virtual teams often collaborate within and across institutional boundaries. This research investigates the effects of boundary spanning conditions on the development of team trust and team satisfaction. Two hundred and eighty-two participants carried out a collaborative design task over several weeks in a virtual world, Second Life. Multigroup structural equation modeling was used to examine our research model, which compares individual level measurement between two boundary spanning team conditions. The results indicate that trusting beliefs have a positive impact on team trust, which in turn, influences team satisfaction. Further, we found that, compared to cross-boundary teams, within-boundary teams exhibited not only higher trusting beliefs and higher satisfaction with the collaboration process but also a stronger relationship between team trust and team satisfaction. These results suggest that trust and group theories need to be interpreted in light of institutional affiliation and contextual variables. An important practical implication is that trust can be fostered in a virtual world environment and collaboration on complex tasks can be carried out effectively in virtual worlds. However, within-boundary virtual teams are preferred over cross-boundary virtual teams if satisfaction with the collaboration process is of the highest priority.     

Training individuals for distributed teams: problem solving assessment for distributed mission research

In this paper we describe an effort investigating the feasibility and utility of cognitively diagnostic assessment of problem solving when training for distributed team tasks. We utilized computer-based knowledge elicitation methods to assess both relational problem solving, requiring the semantic integration of concepts, and dynamic problem solving, requiring the ability to integrate and apply these concepts. Additionally, we addressed how metacognitive processes interact with learning outcomes when training for complex synthetic task environments. We find first, that multiple methods of assessing problem solving performance are diagnostic of knowledge acquisition for a complex synthetic team task, and second, that general metacomprehension predisposition is related to metacomprehension accuracy in synthetic task environments.     

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.