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Control enactment in global virtual teams
textThis dissertation examines how control is enacted in global virtual teams.
Literature on virtual teams asserts this phenomenon has features, such as limited
physical observation of behavior, that diminish the usefulness of control.
Theories about formal control support this prediction, although little is known
empirically about the development of any form of control in such a context.
Global virtual teams are distributed work groups whose members focus on
a global task, span multiple boundaries, and interact primarily via communication
technologies. Control enactment refers to the development of processes and
structures that attempt to influence members to engage in behaviors that
accomplish collective goals.
Background literature for this study examines small groups, information
technology, and control, revealing the need to examine processes and structures
internal and external to the team and consider the development of control over
time. This dissertation presents a longitudinal, qualitative analysis of the
communication archives for three virtual teams.
The results suggest that control enactment includes team processes such as
specifying control structures, pressuring teammates, terminating team
membership, as well as team and member monitoring. Team processes, along
with team structures and external processes and structures, are integrated in a
framework for control enactment in global virtual teams; this framework differs
from much of the literature that has adopted (or actively rejected) cybernetic
conceptions of control theory.
Also, the results suggest that, although members frequently relied on their
teammates for information about their activities, members in some instances were
able to monitor the behaviors of other members based on their electronic
communication and work products. Specifying task activities to combine task
coordination with technology appropriation enabled this process. As such, the
concept of behavior observability may need to be reconceptualized for virtual
work.
These findings are based on analyses of teams formed for an eight-week
student exercise coordinated by the author. Teams in field settings or with
different external environments may have occasioned different control processes
from those observed here. Further, the data were primarily archival in nature, so
access to member perceptions was somewhat limited. The reader should examine
the appropriateness of generalization to other settings.Information, Risk, and Operations Management (IROM