EXPLORING THE IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY CAPABILITIES ON TRUST IN VIRTUAL TEAMS

Purpose – In an environment of constant technological change, the use of virtual teams has become commonplace for many organizations. Virtual teams (VTs) bring together dispersed individuals with varying knowledge and skill sets to accomplish tasks. VTs rely heavily on information technology as the medium for communication and coordination of work. The issue of establishing and maintaining trust in VTs poses challenges for these dispersed workers. Previous research has established that higher trusting teams have better cooperation and experience improved outcomes. We hope to contribute to the literature on trust in VTs by exploring how technology can facilitate high trusting teams. Specifically, this paper reports the results of our research addressing the following questions: How does the use of technology capabilities afforded by virtual worlds affect the development of trust in virtual teams? Design/methodology/approach: We employed a multiple case study research design. Each case spanned a two-week period allowing for longitudinal data collection. Findings: We found that communication, rendering, and interaction technology capabilities allowed participants to use the technology to assess individual capabilities. While this paper answers some questions about how technology capabilities can help develop trust in VTs, it also raises many questions. This study offers a model and framework for further work on this topic and encourages researchers to investigate other social and behavioral issues faced by VTs in a virtual world setting. Originality/value: – This paper offers practical implications for developing trust in VTs, specifically, how the use of information technology capabilities can facilitate trust development. Our goal was not to recommend a specific technology platform, but rather explore how unique technology capabilities impact behaviors in VTs. The study identified interesting findings relating to how people use technology on a team. These findings may be used to help develop guidelines and recommendations for using technology to enhance work practices in VTs

UNDERSTANDING THE ADAPTIVE USE OF VIRTUAL WORLD TECHNOLOGY CAPABILITIES AND TRUST IN VIRTUAL TEAMS

In an environment of global competition and constant technological change, the use of virtual teams has become commonplace for many organizations. Virtual team members are geographically and temporally dispersed, experience cultural diversity, and lack shared social context and face-to-face encounters considered as irreplaceable for building and maintaining trust. Previous research has established that higher trusting teams have better cooperation and experience improved outcomes; however, trust building in a team where members are from different backgrounds, time zones and cultures is a considerable challenge. Virtual teams (VTs) rely heavily on technology to facilitate coordination, communication, and control in the team. One particular technology that has generated great interest as a viable tool in VTs is broadly referred to as metaverses. Metaverses provide unique technology capabilities that allow individuals to interact in a three-dimensional space. Unique capabilities such as visual communication among avatars, video and audio chat, and the communication of deliberate body language through gestures and other nonverbal cues may provide opportunities for VTs, particularly in relation to trust building. The broad goal of this research is to increase our understanding of the relationship between virtual team members and information technology during the development of trust. Specifically, this thesis focuses on understanding the relationship between metaverse technology capabilities and trust development between VT members by studying how technology capabilities are used and modified to shape trust in general and interpersonal trust in particular

Communication and Trust in Virtual and Face-to-Face Teams

Virtual teams (VTs) accomplish shared goals by relying on technology-mediated communication to counteract geographic disparities. Rapid advances in technology have led to the near-ubiquity of VTs within modern organizations, but gaps in existing research designs afflict extant empirical VT research. This experiment evaluates the constructs of trust, communication, and effectiveness in VTs. Two-hundred six participants (103 teams) completed an interdependent task either face-to-face, mediated by a videoconferencing telepresence robot, or mediated by a voice call. I collected measures of cognitive trust, trust propensity, communication quality, and team effectiveness, and conducted in-depth communication analyses. Results suggest that while virtual teamwork does not result in effectiveness decrements, it does result in team trust decrements, but video teams demonstrated smaller trust decrements than voice-only teams. The expansive communication analyses utilized in the study produced inconclusive findings. Given the large sample size used and the breadth of constructs assessed, this experiment sets a milestone in empirical virtual teamwork research for future work to build upon

Diversity, Group Behavior, and Performance of Short Duration Ad Hoc Virtual Teams: Findings from a Laboratory Experiment

The purpose of this research is to examine whether the team diversity and psychological factors (such as, trust andmotivation) can influence performance of short-duration, ad-hoc virtual teams engaged in problem solving tasks. We focuson the diversities of the members of virtual teams across national culture, educational specialization, and collaborationtechnology proficiency. A laboratory experiment was conducted involving virtual teams that were engaged in data modeldesign. The results indicate that educational specialization diversity affects trust and motivation in the virtual teams. We alsofind that both trust and collaboration technology proficiency diversity influence performance of the virtual teams. Thefindings of the study highlight the importance of diversity and psychological factors in shaping the performance of shortdurationvirtual teams

Trust and Technologies: Implications for Information Technology Supported Work Practices

In this paper we empirically investigate the concept of trust using organizational work practices in three groups: within the team, between teams and when interacting with technology. This study adopts Repertory Grid methodology as an interview based technique to elicit important constructs of trust to team members working in two organizations within the energy distribution industry. Thirteen key constructs of trust were identified using content analysis. Drawing on the understanding gained, this paper discusses the implications for theories on trust within teams working with information technology and provides a grounded perspective that could be used as a basis for further research

The Impact Of Human Interaction On The Development Of Virtual Teams

Virtual teams have revolutionized the ways in which organizations are able to improve business efficiency and productivity in the new era of globalization and information technology. Despite constant advancements in computer technology, virtual teams success continues to depend heavily on the ability of their members to communicate well and trust each other. This paper presents elements of successful virtual teams and accentuates the need for improved human interaction skills

Exploring the Influence of Trust in the Development of Transactive Memory Systems in Virtual Project Teams

Virtual project teams fulfill business strategies and realize business objectives in a competitive business environment. However, these teams work together over a limited period of time across geographical distances and varied time zones, which pose risks on the team’s performance as knowledge that is necessary to accomplish crucial project tasks may be impeded. Through information technology, these teams are able to communicate and develop their respective transactive memory systems—a concept known to help teams pool together a collective working knowledge to improve team performance. In addition, trust among team members plays an equally crucial role in the development of transactive memory systems. By presenting a conceptual model and a set of propositions, this study explores the interrelationships between trust, transactive memory systems, information technology and their consequential impacts to team performance in a virtual project context

An Exploration of Trust in Virtual Teams Using Three Perspectives

With the recent advancements in technology and the development of sophisticated tools for collaborative work, the use of computer-mediated groups in organizations has increased rapidly. Further, the need for globalization has forced members of such teams to be dispersed in both time and space, and has paved the way for the development and implementation of the concept of “virtual teams.” In this paper, we examine one of the primary factors leading to virtual team effectiveness, namely, the issue of trust. One of the objectives of this paper is to investigate the applicability of the research findings on trust in traditional face-to-face teams in a virtual context. Drawing on prior literature, the present study uses three perspectives to trust and proposes a model for trust development in virtual teams. Further, prior research has always treated trust as a static concept, and researchers appear to have assumed that it is always the same factors that influence trust at any point in a cooperative interaction. In this paper, a more dynamic model is proposed, which suggests that, different factors explain the level of trust in different points of team development. By uncovering some unique concepts leading to trust development in virtual teams, it is hoped that a contribution will be made to the existing literature on factors leading to virtual team effectiveness and success. Future research directions include an attempt to validate this dynamic model in a quasi-experimental setting of virtual teamwork

Virtual International Leadership Within Organizations: Overcoming Cultural, Language, and Physical Barriers

Advances in technology are allowing members of a team to collaborate while being geographically and spatially apart. These new teams, known as virtual teams, have benefits for both the organizations to which they belong and to the individual members. Organizations are able to utilize highly-skilled experts without the associated relocation costs. Team members are able to contribute to projects in their field of expertise without having to leave their homeland. These teams require a leader whose interactions build trust and loyalty without the benefit of face-to-face contact with other team members. Although virtual teams are rapidly growing, research is lacking on leadership styles that emphasize interpersonal relationships and building trust within virtual teams, thus increasing their loyalty to organization. As with face-to-face teams, the leader’s style will affect the team’s response that manifests itself in their loyalty and trust. This qualitative study explores the effect that the leader’s style has on a virtual team and the level of engagement amongst members. Current and past members of virtual teams are interviewed and asked to reflect whether certain styles of leadership and communication, as well as expressions of empathy, either by a leader to the team members or between team members, significantly impacted their performance and feeling of belonging