Conflict, Value Diversity, and Performance in Virtual Teams

While most studies investigating culture in the context of conflict in teams have been using culture dimensions such as collectivism this study centers on another measurement of culture, namely individual values. In this investigation we examined how individual value diversity influences the relationship between team conflict and performance in virtual teams. Assessing two types of conflict, namely task and process conflict, the results revealed that task conflict had no unique effect beyond the impact of process conflict. Contrary to previous findings relating to group culture, this study found that value diversity has no influence on the relationship between conflict and performance in virtual teams. While individuals come to groups with their own values, they may be less powerful predictors of their behavior in groups where there are strong prevailing group values and norms to act a certain way

A Multi-Level View of the Antecedents and Consequences of Trust in Virtual Leaders

Although trust is widely acknowledged as critical to virtual teams, little is known regarding the causes and consequences of trust in leaders of virtual teams. This paper examines the antecedents and consequences of trust in virtual team leaders. Using survey and archival data from a massively multiplayer online game (MMOG), this study’s findings show that trust in the leader is affected by team members’ use of synchronous communication and breadth of communication with leaders as well as team members’ distance from each other. Furthermore, reasoning that team size and culture create a shared context qualifying team members’ experiences, we found that team size and collectivistic values diminished the benefits of synchronous communication and breadth of communication, respectively. The findings also revealed that trust in leaders had a positive relationship to team performance. Detailed discussion of the findings is provided in the conclusion of the paper

The Arctic

peer reviewe

Conflict, Conflict Management and Performance in Virtual Teams

Although conflict is widely acknowledged as critical to virtual teams, little is known regarding the interplay between different types of conflict and the corresponding conflict management styles in virtual teams. This paper examines the influence of relationship as well as process conflict on team performance together with adequate conflict management styles. Using survey and archival data from a massively multiplayer online game (MMOG), this study’s findings show that team performance is strongly influenced by conflict and that this relationship is moderated by conflict management style. While relationship conflict negatively influenced team performance, process conflict positively influenced performance. Furthermore, we found competitive conflict management moderated the relationship of process conflict and performance while relationship conflict was moderated by collaborative conflict management. Detailed discussion of the findings is provided in the conclusion of the paper