Communication Context-Dependent Technology Use in Virtual Teams

Global virtual teams (GVT) are increasingly using virtual workspace technology (VWT) which allow for multiple forms of interaction between team members. However, there is limited empirical and theoretical research on how the use of these technologies depends on the communication context of the teams. We extend recent theorizing about technology support for virtual communication to suggest that VWTs afford team members different forms of interaction. Further, we suggest that, to achieve better performance, teams choose interaction forms (using VWT) that match their communication context. More specifically, we propose that GVTs vary particularly along two dimensions of communication contexts: diversity and task innovativeness, and that VWTs can be used for two forms of interaction: virtual co-presence and knowledge evolution. We hypothesize that higher performing GVTs with high diversity use VWT for virtual co-presence and higher performing GVTs with high innovativeness of task use VWT for knowledge evolution. Data from 54 GVTs provide empirical support for our hypotheses

Perceived faultline in virtual teams: The impact of norms of technology use

As virtual teams are naturally distributed and diverse, they are susceptible to faultline, causing teams fracturing into subgroups.The current works examining perceived faultline have mostly concentrated on collocated teams.Examining these phenomena in virtual teams deserves more attention due to the greater possibility of members making an inaccurate impression from the limited cues available. To address this need, this research presents a novel study among 200 virtual team members from various industries. The empirical findings suggested that perceived faultline negatively impact team performance through task conflict. This negative effect of task conflict however can be attenuated by norms of technology use.This emphasize the need for cultivating or deliberate creation of norms of technology use among distributed team members in helping them coping with the negative effect resulted from faultline and conflict

Designing Collaborative Systems to Enhance Team Performance

Collaborative technologies are widely used to enable teams to function effectively in today’s competitive business environment. However, prior research has been inconclusive regarding the impacts of collaborative technologies on team performance. To address the inconsistencies in prior work, this paper seeks to understand the mediational mechanisms that transmit the effect of collaborative technologies on team performance. Specifically, we theorize that there is a relationship between design features and knowledge contextualization. We further theorize relationships between knowledge contextualization and a team’s capability for collaboration, specifically examining collaboration know-how and absorptive capacity, both of which are expected to influence team performance. We conduct a field study including 190 software project teams from a large organization in China. The results support our theoretical model and demonstrate that design features have an impact on performance outcomes, mediated by collaboration know-how and absorptive capacity