Media Use in Virtual Teams of Varying Levels of Coordination

2017 ◽  
Vol 81 (2) ◽  
pp. 222-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jolanta Aritz ◽  
Robyn Walker ◽  
Peter W. Cardon
Keyword(s):  
Social Networking ◽  
Virtual Teams ◽  
Complete Understanding ◽  
Team Coordination ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Virtual Teamwork ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Study Participants ◽  
Student Team ◽  
Selection Of

This study was undertaken to provide a more complete understanding of how the selection of various media in virtual team settings affects student team coordination. A total of 75 teams of 304 undergraduate participants took part in the study. Participants were asked to complete surveys before and after the project. Findings suggest that well-coordinated teams appeared to have anticipated the usefulness of social networking and richer communication channels earlier in the project than less well-coordinated teams. After engaging in virtual teamwork, team members identified rich and social channels as more effective while finding less rich channels to be less effective.

Job-related demands and resources for employees working on virtual teams: A qualitative-study

Work ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Nora Schröder ◽  
Ann-Christin Kordsmeyer ◽  
Volker Harth ◽  
Stefanie Mache
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Teams ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Job Demands ◽  
Virtual Team ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Work Related ◽  
Virtual Teamwork ◽  
Study Participants ◽  
Job Demands And Resources

BACKGROUND: The increasing globalization and the advances in communication technology have expedited the formation of virtual teams. The geographical distribution of virtual team members entails significant changes in working conditions. There is limited knowledge about the demands and resources virtual team members experience and how these can affect their mental health. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to identify the work-related psychological demands and resources of virtual team members. METHODS: 14 semi-structured interviews with virtual team members were conducted. Study participants were recruited based on the gatekeeper principle and the snowball principle. The interviewees were asked about self-perceived job demands and resources of virtual teamwork. The interviews were analyzed according to Mayring’s structuring content analysis. RESULTS: Based on the qualitative analysis, the following job demands were explored among virtual team members: challenges due to permanent availability, technical conditions, and communication issues with other virtual team members. Job-related resources among virtual team members were also identified and are reflected in increased autonomy, flexibility and improved compatibility of private and professional working life. CONCLUSION: This study contributes to the understanding of the specific working conditions of virtual team members and identified job demands and resources of virtual teamwork. In addition, this study can be used as a basis for further quantitative investigations.

Process-Aware Information Systems for Virtual Teamwork

2005 ◽  
pp. 2314-2320 ◽  
Author(s):  
Schahram Dustdar
Keyword(s):  
Information Systems ◽  
Virtual Teams ◽  
Business Processes ◽  
Contextual Information ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Collaborative Systems ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Work Activities ◽  
Virtual Teamwork ◽  
The Right

The question of the “right” organizational form and the appropriate information systems support remains of paramount importance and still constitutes a challenge for virtually all organizations, regardless of industrial background. Organizations distribute their required work activities among groups of people (teams), with teams constituting the main building block for implementing the work (tasks). In most cases, team members are organized as “virtual (project) teams.” These teams are under heavy pressure to reduce time to market of their products and services and lower their coordination costs. Some characteristics of distributed virtual teams are that team (member) configurations change quite frequently and that team members report to different managers, maybe even in different organizations. From an information systems’ point of view, distributed virtual teams often are self-configuring networks of mobile and “fixed” people, devices, as well as applications. A newly emerging requirement is to facilitate not just mobility of content (i.e., to support a multitude of devices and connectivity modes) to team members, but also to provide contextual information on work activities to all distributed virtual team members (Dustdar, 2002a, 2002b, 2002c). By context, we mean traceable and continuous views of associations (relationships) between artifacts (e.g., documents, database records), resources (e.g., people, roles, skills), and business processes. Context is composed of information on the “who, when, how, and why.” The remainder of this chapter is organized as follows: The next section provides an overview of related work on classification systems of collaborative systems and provides an overview on evaluation aspects of current collaborative systems for virtual teamwork. Section 3 discusses some issues and problems related to the integration of artifacts, resources, and processes. Section 4 presents one proposed solution. Finally, Section 5 discusses some future trends and concludes the chapter.

Improving Virtual Design Team Performance Through Use of a Collaborative Sketching Application

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Brett Stone ◽  
John Salmon ◽  
Ammon Hepworth ◽  
Steven Gorrell ◽  
Michael Richey
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Teams ◽  
Process Time ◽  
Virtual Design ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Virtual Teamwork ◽  
Design Activities ◽  
Virtual Design Team ◽  
Virtual Setting ◽  
Collaborative Sketching

As virtual teamwork in engineering becomes more central to the daily design activities of organizations around the world, it is increasingly important for team members to be able to easily and effectively share their visual ideas with remote teammates. However, sharing visual representations of ideas among virtual teammates is generally difficult and commonly hampered by various factors, making the process time-consuming and non-intuitive. In laboratory experiments and a case study, involving students from six different universities across the U.S. working as teams to build unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), the authors quantify how a collaborative sketching application (CSA) provides a significant benefit to design engineering activities for virtual teams. From the experiments and the case study, it was observed that such a tool improved users' understanding of each other's ideas when working in a virtual setting, improved the perceived equality of teammate contribution, and decreased the level of frustration experienced when working remotely.

Communication in Construction Design Teams

2010 ◽  
pp. 218-234
Author(s):  
Sue Sherratt ◽  
William Sher ◽  
Anthony Williams ◽  
Rod Gameson
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Teams ◽  
Communication Skills ◽  
Design Activity ◽  
Design Teams ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Virtual Teamwork ◽  
Construction Design ◽  
Social Settings ◽  
The Social ◽  
Information And Communication

Construction design involves communication and interaction between individuals and groups in complex social settings. Therefore, the social character of design activity cannot be separated from the technical results (Minneman, 1991). The challenge of collaborating within design teams has been intensified by increased globalization and the trend towards virtual teamwork, using information and communication technology. Although these virtual teams have resulted in increased client satisfaction, specific communication skills may be needed for team members to function efficiently and effectively in these environments. Using two analyses, derived from Systemic Functional Linguistics (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004), communication in design teams operating in three environments was examined. Tensions between the efficient exchange of information and effective collaboration between team members were highlighted by these analyses; using these findings, specific strategies which facilitate communication and collaboration in these differing environments may be developed.

Process-Aware Information Systems for Virtual Teamwork

2011 ◽  
pp. 3125-3131
Author(s):  
Schahram Dustdar
Keyword(s):  
Information Systems ◽  
Virtual Teams ◽  
Business Processes ◽  
Contextual Information ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Collaborative Systems ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Work Activities ◽  
Virtual Teamwork ◽  
The Right

The question of the “right” organizational form and the appropriate information systems support remains of paramount importance and still constitutes a challenge for virtually all organizations, regardless of industrial background. Organizations distribute their required work activities among groups of people (teams), with teams constituting the main building block for implementing the work (tasks). In most cases, team members are organized as “virtual (project) teams.” These teams are under heavy pressure to reduce time to market of their products and services and lower their coordination costs. Some characteristics of distributed virtual teams are that team (member) configurations change quite frequently and that team members report to different managers, maybe even in different organizations. From an information systems’ point of view, distributed virtual teams often are self-configuring networks of mobile and “fixed” people, devices, as well as applications. A newly emerging requirement is to facilitate not just mobility of content (i.e., to support a multitude of devices and connectivity modes) to team members, but also to provide contextual information on work activities to all distributed virtual team members (Dustdar, 2002a, 2002b, 2002c). By context, we mean traceable and continuous views of associations (relationships) between artifacts (e.g., documents, database records), resources (e.g., people, roles, skills), and business processes. Context is composed of information on the “who, when, how, and why.” The remainder of this chapter is organized as follows: The next section provides an overview of related work on classification systems of collaborative systems and provides an overview on evaluation aspects of current collaborative systems for virtual teamwork. Section 3 discusses some issues and problems related to the integration of artifacts, resources, and processes. Section 4 presents one proposed solution. Finally, Section 5 discusses some future trends and concludes the chapter.

The Multi-Faceted Nature of Virtual Teams

Virtual Teams ◽  
2011 ◽  
pp. 1-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Line Dube ◽  
Guy Pare
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Teams ◽  
Virtual Team ◽  
Embryonic Stage ◽  
Academic Press ◽  
Extensive Review ◽  
Review Of The Literature ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Virtual Teamwork ◽  
Key Characteristics ◽  
Depth Interviews

Despite their growing popularity in organizations, our understanding of virtual teams is still at an embryonic stage. As of today, the term “virtual team” has been loosely defined in the academic press, and empirical findings have been generalized across all types of virtual teams. Based on an extensive review of the literature and a series of in-depth interviews with more than 40 experienced virtual team members and leaders, we identified the key characteristics of virtual teamwork as well as those characteristics that distinguish among various virtual team configurations. We posit that researchers must now adopt a multidimensional view of virtual teams in order to adequately compare empirical findings, build a cumulative tradition in this field of research, and provide practitioners with a framework to help them manage virtual teams effectively. Researchers and practitioners must not only recognize the diversity of possible virtual team arrangements but also identify strategies and draw lessons that are contingent upon particular virtual team configurations.

scholarly journals Relationship between Social Networking Platforms and Performance of Virtual Teams in Nigeria Telecomunnication Industry

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 30
Author(s):  
Fasanmi, Samuel Sunday ◽  
Ogunyemi, A.O.
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Social Networking ◽  
Virtual Teams ◽  
Significant Relationship ◽  
Virtual Team ◽  
Model Fit ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Log Likelihood ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Job Position

The study examined a relationship between social networking platforms and performance of virtual teams in Nigeria telecommunication industries. Opinions of one hundred and eleven virtual team members from three giant telecommunication firms in Enugu and Lagos, Nigeria participated in the study.MTN Nigeria, Globacom Nigeria and Airtel Nigeria were sampled using self-designed questionnaire. Two research hypotheses were tested. It was found out that that there was a significant relationship between types of social networking platforms used (Facebook, Skype, MySpace, Instagram. and Linked) in the workplace on performance of virtual teams {X2 (2) =211.108; p<.05}. Regression results indicated that the overall model fit five predictors (types of organization, team membership, job position, social networking platforms, and sex) was questionable (-2 Log Likelihood = 92.683) but was statistically reliable in distinguishing between virtual team performances X2 (5) = 54.352, p < .05). Useful recommendations that would enhance a synergy between virtual team members and healthy social network platforms were suggested. 

scholarly journals Intercultural Challenges in Virtual Teams

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 69-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beata Krawczyk-Bryłka
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Teams ◽  
Goal Setting ◽  
Internal Communication ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Mutual Understanding ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Virtual Teamwork ◽  
Geographically Dispersed ◽  
Intercultural Collaboration ◽  
Communication Processes

Abstract Virtual teams are usually geographically dispersed and consist of members from different countries and cultures. They influences internal communication processes and can cause personal conflicts, misunderstandings or lack of trust. Intercultural diversity is also significant for goal setting and team effectiveness. The aim of this article is to check if virtual team members appreciate the cultural diversity or rather suffer from lack of team cohesion and mutual understanding. The article presents research conducted among specialists from IT sector who have experience in working in virtual teams. They perceive intercultural collaboration in virtual teams as the opportunity to exploit the potential of specialists from all over the world but they also point to some challenges related to cross-cultural virtual teamwork.

scholarly journals MCR: Open-Source Software to Automate Compilation of Health Study Report-Back

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (11) ◽  
pp. 6104
Author(s):  
Erin Polka ◽  
Ellen Childs ◽  
Alexa Friedman ◽  
Kathryn S. Tomsho ◽  
Birgit Claus Henn ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Control ◽  
Open Source ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
Research Team ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Health Study ◽  
Equitable Access ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Study Participants ◽  
The Impact

Sharing individualized results with health study participants, a practice we and others refer to as “report-back,” ensures participant access to exposure and health information and may promote health equity. However, the practice of report-back and the content shared is often limited by the time-intensive process of personalizing reports. Software tools that automate creation of individualized reports have been built for specific studies, but are largely not open-source or broadly modifiable. We created an open-source and generalizable tool, called the Macro for the Compilation of Report-backs (MCR), to automate compilation of health study reports. We piloted MCR in two environmental exposure studies in Massachusetts, USA, and interviewed research team members (n = 7) about the impact of MCR on the report-back process. Researchers using MCR created more detailed reports than during manual report-back, including more individualized numerical, text, and graphical results. Using MCR, researchers saved time producing draft and final reports. Researchers also reported feeling more creative in the design process and more confident in report-back quality control. While MCR does not expedite the entire report-back process, we hope that this open-source tool reduces the barriers to personalizing health study reports, promotes more equitable access to individualized data, and advances self-determination among participants.

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