Trust and psychological empowerment in global virtual teams: quantitative ethnography research

Although global virtual teams are becoming more commonplace because of their many benefits, they are also challenged by a lack of interpersonal and emotional trust between team members. Based on this problem, this study adopted a quantitative ethnographic methodology to explore team members\u27 perceptions of the relationship between trust and psychological empowerment components, such as the meaning of work, competence, self-determination, and impact, in global virtual teams. In addition, this study examined how the team members\u27 perceptions of trust and psychological empowerment differ based on their attributes. To achieve this research purpose, the researcher collected data via semi-structured interviews with 16 employees in global virtual teams of five consulting firms headquartered in the U.S. and South Korea. This study utilized the Epistemic Network Analysis (ENA) as an analysis tool to investigate the perception patterns of participants. As a result, the study found that trust is primarily linked to competence, responsible behavior, and communication between employees. In contrast, competence is related to communication, recognition, self−determination, and impact on the team or society. Furthermore, the study found the differences in employees\u27 perceptions according to characteristics−age, gender, nationality, working period, and role−excluding the expertise realm. The findings could aid organizations in developing strategies for global virtual teams and contribute to developing academic fields related to psychological empowerment and trust. More research is needed on segmented global virtual team types, cultural diversity, and team leadership

Working together apart? building a knowledge-sharing culture for global virtual teams

A new impetus for greater knowledge-sharing among team members needs to be emphasized due to the emergence of a significant new form of working known as ‘global virtual teams’.As information and communication technologies permeate every aspect of organizational life and impact the way teams communicate, work and structure relationships, global virtual teams require innovative communication and learning capabilities for different team members to effectively work together across cultural, organizational and geographical boundaries.Whereas information technology-facilitated communication processes rely on technologically advanced systems to succeed, the ability to create a knowledge-sharing culture within a global virtual team rests on the existence (and maintenance) of intra-team respect, mutual trust, reciprocity and positive individual and group relationships.Thus, some of the inherent questions we address in our paper are: (1) what are the cross-cultural challenges faced by global virtual teams?; (2) how do organizations develop a knowledge sharing culture to promote effective organizational learning among culturally-diverse team members? and; (3) what are some of the practices that can help maximize the performance of global virtual teams? We conclude by examining ways that global virtual teams can be more effectively managed in order to reach their potential in this new interconnected world and put forward suggestions for further research

Trust development in virtual teams: an investigation of leader-member sales team dyads

In recent decades trust has become a major field within management and organisational studies. Researchers have focused on a range or inter- and intra-organisational trust relationships, with the manager-employee dyad identified as a particularly important trust relationship. However, much of the extant research is unidirectional, concerned with employees’ trust in managers rather than seeking both parties’ perspectives. Furthermore, research has been largely focused within traditional co-located contexts, despite the continued growth of Virtual Teams (VTs). Guided by a critical realist philosophy, this thesis focuses on the underlying generative mechanisms which influence leader-member trust in virtual sales teams. Utilising a case study strategy, research was conducted within three global technology companies. Data were collected through 33 in-depth interviews, conducted across twenty dyads and eleven teams. Thematic analysis of the data revealed four key themes and informed the development of a new framework for VT leader-member trust: Firstly, from a behavioural perspective, trusted virtual leaders display many of the characteristics of transformational leaders, being highly ‘member centric’ in their leadership style and demonstrating trust through autonomy, respect and openness. Trusted members demonstrate both reliability and openness. Leaders strongly believe that virtual leadership is a unique form of leadership and that a greater effort is required, especially when it comes to remote members of hybrid teams. Secondly, a range of dyadic mechanisms influence VT leader-member trust. High trust relationships are characterized by mutual benevolence, and openness, felt trust, connection, alignment of expectations and mutual reliability. Communication plays an important role and dyad members must go beyond the ‘agenda-focused’ nature of virtual communications in order to build connection and trust. Virtual leaders need to be able to utilise a variety of communication tools to drive clarity and to make themselves available to support members, creating a sense of perceived proximity, while members must also be proficient communicators to ensure that their performance and impact is visible. Face to face communication is extremely beneficial and can have a transformational impact on relationships. Thirdly, extra-dyadic mechanisms such as organisational supports, team structures and third parties influence trust levels in variety of ways; and fourthly, personal mechanisms such as trusting disposition, experience and values can have both a positive and negative impact on leader-member trust. In presenting a new framework for VT leader-member trust, informed by field research with both VT leaders and members, this research makes a significant contribution to the trust and VT literatures and provides guidance to organisational actors seeking to build trust in virtual dyads. Moreover, this research reveals that while trust building in virtual environments requires a more conscious effort, trust is not only possible in virtual leader-member dyads, it can be stronger than in co-located relationships

Managing global virtual teams

Advances in technology-enabled communication and a constant search for economic advantage have led global organizations to rely on virtual collaboration. Together with rapid changes in working life, virtuality has also altered the context for leadership and has had a significant impact on the work of managers. This study addresses managerial work in global virtual teams. In my study, I give voice to the managers themselves with the aim of enhancing our understanding of what the work of virtual managers is all about. The current scholarly literature on global virtual teams has examined virtual work mainly from the perspective of global teams. My study complements the extant literature by explicitly and uniquely focusing on managers' own experiences and their talk about making sense of their work. On the basis of an analysis of how the managers of a Finland-based multinational corporation talk about their work, I argue that virtuality alters the nature of cross-cultural managerial work. Managers of global virtual teams cannot achieve the quality of managerial work they seek; the reality of a hectic pace, multiple stakeholder demands, and virtual communication with people from different nationalities, cultures, and languages hinder achievement of their personal leadership goals. Virtual contexts limit and narrow the latitude of managers to do their job. Consequently, conflicting expectations create pressure on them and lead to feelings of inadequacy. In addition to an introductory essay, this thesis contains a series of four essays that elucidate different aspects of the work of global virtual team managers. The first essay explores the attempts of managers to exert influence in a virtual context. The second essay aims to understand the dynamics of trust and commitment in virtual teams and shows that relationships of trust and commitment are challenged in a virtual context. The third essay explores cross-cultural encounters and suggests that the reality of virtual work limits the opportunities of managers to communicate and take close personal interest in their employees and that these challenges lead managers to engage in task-oriented managerial activities. The fourth essay examines the emotions of managers in attempting to meet all the expectations they face and to cope with the various demands of a global virtual environment. They felt that they could not do enough and described emotions of inadequacy and guilt in their work. This research brings new insight to the understanding of the managerial work, management practices, and emotions of global virtual team managers. My study shows that virtuality changes the nature of cross-cultural management, to which conflicting expectations pose constant challenges. My findings call for new leadership competences such as virtual communication and recruitment skills for the managers of global virtual teams.

Virtual Teams: Human Resources’ technology preferences for better communication, increased trust and performance.

AbstractVirtual Teams (VTs) are increasingly being adopted by companies. Being geographicallyand time dispersed, human resources of VTs are totally dependent upon the use ofinformation and communication technologies (ICT) to support their communicationalsuccess. Although much research has already been done on several aspects of VirtualTeams, very little has focused on the relation between the virtual team communicationperformance and the selection of tools available to the team members. Additionally,most of the theories related to tool selection concentrate in the combined characteristicsof task and technology, disregarding human factors based in personal characteristics,comfort and preferences.To detect which technology workers of Virtual Teams prefer for accomplishing eachone of their communicational needs and to analyze the impact of personal characteristicsbased technology choice, on cohesion, leadership, knowledge share and trust,leading to virtual team performance, an electronic questionnaire has been sent tomembers of virtual teams in several companies from different sectors of activity, and79 valid answers were received.The analysis looked at the data from different perspectives: Is there, globally, a preferredtechnology? Do personal characteristics of workers - Gender, Age Group, EducationLevel and IT use Proficiency – influence the choice? And, does the choice ofthe preferred technological tool that best suits each of the four HRM themes – Trustbuildup, Management, Knowledge Share and Cohesion – follow the global preference?The results have shown that e-Mail is the preferred technology choice and that thischoice is not influenced by gender. The other three sets of personal characteristicsinfluence the choice. For building Trust and Cohesion, the preferred technology is videoconference,contradicting the global tendency whereas for Knowledge Share andfor Management activities e-Mail is again the preferred technology, in line with themain choice.Keywords: virtual teams, communication technology, channel selection, human resources,cohesion, trust, performanceResumoA adoção de Equipas Virtuais pelas empresas tem vindo a aumentar. Encontrandosedispersos, geograficamente e no tempo, os recursos humanos das equipas virtuaisdependem totalmente da utilização de tecnologias de informação e comunicação (TIC)para suportar as suas necessidades comunicacionais. Embora exista muita investigaçãoefetuada sobre inúmeros aspetos das equipas virtuais, muito pouca se focou narelação entre o desempenho comunicacional destas e a seleção das ferramentas disponíveispara os membros. Além disso, a maior parte das teorias relacionadas com aselecção de ferramentas concentra-se na combinação de características tarefa/tecnologia,descurando factores humanos baseados nas características pessoais, no confortoe nas preferências.Com o fim de detetar qual a tecnologia preferida pelos trabalhadores das equipas virtuaispara a satisfação das suas necessidades comunicacionais e ainda para analisaro impacto da escolha tecnológica - baseada em características pessoais - na confiança,coesão, liderança e partilha de conhecimento foi enviado um questionário eletrónicoa membros de equipas virtuais de empresas operando em diferentes sectores, tendosido recebidas 79 respostas válidas.A análise dos dados centrou-se em diferentes perspetivas: Existe uma tecnologia preferida?As caraterísticas pessoais dos trabalhadores – género, faixa etária, escolaridade ecapacidade de utilização de tecnologia – influenciam a escolha? A escolha da tecnologiaque melhor se adapta a cada um dos 4 temas de GRH - confiança, coesão, liderançae partilha de conhecimento – segue a preferência global?Os resultados mostraram ser o e-Mail a tecnologia preferida e que esta escolha nãoé afetada pelo género. Os outros três tipos de caraterísticas pessoais mostraram terinfluência na seleção da tecnologia. Para o estabelecimento de confiança e coesão, atecnologia preferida foi a vídeo-conferência enquanto para a partilha de conhecimentoo e-Mail voltou a ser a escolha principal.Palavras chave: equipas virtuais, tecnologia de comunicação, seleção de canais, recursoshumanos, coesão, confiança, performance

Building Teams from a Distance

[Excerpt] Virtual teams are comprised of individuals that are separated geographically or organizationally and that rely primarily on technology to complete tasks (Powell, Piccoli & Ives, 2004). This work arrangement has been found to be advantageous for many firms because it reduces the costs and time associated with employee travel. It also permits organizations to attract and retain top talent because workplace flexibility is increasingly seen as a crucial aspect of job satisfaction for many employees (Bergiel, Bergiel & Balsmeier, 2008). Virtual teams are also valuable to many businesses because team members commonly focus their interests on tasks instead of shared social or cultural environments, which often impact the dynamic within conventional teams (Hamilton & Scandura, 2003). This fosters a working environment that encourages innovation and decreases discrimination by hierarchy, employee impairments, race or age because productivity is more important than other characteristics (Bergiel et al., 2008). While virtual teams have many advantages, they frequently struggle to establish a strong sense of trust between individuals, frequent team member intercommunication, and effective leadership; all of which are necessary for team success

Cultural diversity and information and communication technology impacts on global virtual teams: An exploratory study.

Modern organizations face many significant challenges because of turbulent environments and a competitive global economy. Among these challenges are the use of information and communication technology (ICT), a multicultural workforce, and organizational designs that involve global virtual teams. Ad hoc teams create both opportunities and challenges for organizations and many organizations are trying to understand how the virtual environment affects team effectiveness. Our exploratory study focused on the effects of cultural diversity and ICT on team effectiveness. Interviews with 41 team members from nine countries employed by a Fortune 500 corporation were analyzed. Results suggested that cultural diversity had a positive influence on decision‐making and a negative influence on communication. ICT mitigated the negative impact on intercultural communication and supported the positive impact on decision making. Effective technologies for intercultural communication included e‐mail, teleconferencing combined with e‐Meetings, and team rooms. Cultural diversity influenced selection of the communication media

Developing Global Mindset and the Impact on Virtual Teams

[Excerpt] Increasingly global and competitive in nature, today’s work environment necessitates more cooperation, collaboration, and cross-cultural understanding than ever before. Many significant changes have altered the way companies conduct business. Companies now compete in a global economy that demands quality goods and services at competitive prices. Consumers, through increasing demand for better quality, force companies to remain competitive by providing (1) tailored solutions for specific needs and (2) responding rapidly to market changes. In this global context, speed and personalized solutions create customer growth. But how do multinational companies respond to these two often competing forces? Expanding on the concept of traditional teams, one solution has been to institute virtual teams composed of diverse members best suited to a variety of projects. Consistent with the increasingly global context in which these teams operate, members of virtual teams must be dynamic, flexible, and culturally intelligent in order to speedily deliver tailored products and services globally. Considering the increased use of virtual teams, this paper aims to explore the role of a global mindset in overcoming the challenges associated with working across cultures, especially when such teamwork occurs at a distance. Next, the differences between local and global mindsets will be discussed and essential global competencies identified. Finally, strategies for developing a global mindset in leaders and employees will be outlined

Virtual Leadership: Required Competencies for Effective Leaders

There are countless books, articles, and resources available which attempt to identify the competencies and qualities of effective leaders. Traditionally, leaders have been at the center of a community, be it work, church, or social groups. In these communities, face-to-face meetings and close personal interaction have dominated the way leaders interact with their members. However, with the advent of the internet and the host of communication tools that followed, teams today are becoming increasingly dispersed and diverse. Studies are now being done to understand how leadership has or should evolve in order to meet the changing needs and demands of these new and different communities. Some argue that leadership in the virtual environment is simpler as fewer tools are available to virtual leaders. Others may argue that access to fewer tools makes virtual leadership more complex and challenging than traditional leadership. This paper will explore leadership in virtual settings and how it’s changing as more teams move away from traditional team environments. I’ll review the responsibilities and roles of virtual leaders in an effort to better highlight the core competencies needed in today’s virtual settings. I’ll also look at competencies required of global virtual leaders and I’ll address how these competencies can be cultivated to ensure leaders are more effective in leading teams in these new environments

Educating future product developers in collaborative product development : lessons learned from the european global product realization (EGPR) international course

Changes in the business environment, responses of companies to these changes and the available information and communication technologies (ICT) pose a number of challenges to present and future product developers, as well as to educational institutions. An appropriate response to these challenges is to create a solid basis for strategies to combat stronger competition, since existing educational programs have provided this only to a small extent. In our opinion, the E-GPR course carried out by 5 European universities reflects the tasks of professional product development teams and their work conditions as realistically as possible and will enable students attending the E-GPR course who will soon enter the professional world to later progress along a steeper learning curve. This paper focuses on the role of communication between members of virtual teams and presents experiences gathered during the organization, designing and performance of each year’s courses