Virtual Teams: Effects of Technological Mediation on Team Performance.

Recent advances in networking environments and telecommunications have led to the proliferation of teams that do not work face-to-face but interact over a computer-mediated communications network. Although some have asserted that virtual teams transcend boundaries of time or distance, others have claimed that working remotely in a mediated team environment differs in significant ways from working face-to-face. In this article, the authors examine the effects of technological mediation on team processes such as cohesiveness, status and authority relations, counternormative behavior, and communication. They discuss conditions under which distance matters in virtual team interaction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Culture wars in the workplace: Interpersonal subtlety, emotional expression, and the self-concept.

Culture wars can occur when the beliefs and habits of one cultural group come to dominate the norms of the workplace, making it difficult for members of other groups to be included, understood, and to attain success. It is proposed that a role for psychology is to find applications for the knowledge and understanding the psychologists have gained from decades of research on interpersonal communication, emotional expression, and the self-concept, and how culture influences each of these. Consulting psychologists are increasingly being called upon to address the challenge of working effectively in global and diverse teams. To respond at a state-of-the-art level, the consultants need to provide research-based training materials and knowledge to managers and other leaders. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)