Virtual Teams and their Search for Creativity

2011 ◽  
pp. 213-231 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mila Gasco-Hernandez ◽  
Teresa Torres-Coronas
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Environment ◽  
Virtual Teams ◽  
Team Performance ◽  
Virtual Team ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Definition Of

In this chapter, we examine the differences in processes and results when creativity techniques are used in the management of traditional and virtual teams. To do this, we discuss the following three main elements: the definition of creativity and its relationship with team performance; the variables that enhance creativity in a virtual team; and the most suitable creativity techniques for a virtual environment. We draw two main conclusions. First, creativity can help virtual teams become more effective, and second, not all the methods that foster creativity in a face-to-face context are appropriate in the virtual environment.

Improving Virtual Teams through Creativity

2011 ◽  
pp. 1893-1898
Author(s):  
Teresa Torres-Coronas ◽  
Mila Gascó-Hernández
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Environment ◽  
Virtual Teams ◽  
Team Performance ◽  
Virtual Team ◽  
Definition Of

Many studies have already shown how a team can become more creative, and therefore more efficient, but only a few researchers have focused on how a virtual team can use creativity techniques to perform better. In this article, we study what differences there are (both in terms of processes and in terms of results) when creativity techniques are used in the management of traditional and virtual teams. To do this, we discuss three main elements: the definition of creativity and its relationships with team performance, the variables that enhance creativity in a virtual team, and the most suitable creativity techniques for a virtual environment.

Improving Virtual Teams through Creativity

2008 ◽  
pp. 1679-1686
Author(s):  
Teresa Torres-Coronas ◽  
Mila Gasco-Hernandez
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Environment ◽  
Virtual Teams ◽  
Team Performance ◽  
Virtual Team ◽  
Definition Of

Many studies have already shown how a team can become more creative, and therefore more efficient, but only a few researchers have focused on how a virtual team can use creativity techniques to perform better. In this article, we study what differences there are (both in terms of processes and in terms of results) when creativity techniques are used in the management of traditional and virtual teams. To do this, we discuss three main elements: the definition of creativity and its relationships with team performance, the variables that enhance creativity in a virtual team, and the most suitable creativity techniques for a virtual environment.

Improving Virtual Teams through Creativity

2005 ◽  
pp. 1419-1424 ◽  
Author(s):  
Teresa Torres-Coronas ◽  
Mila Gasco-Hernandez
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Environment ◽  
Virtual Teams ◽  
Team Performance ◽  
Virtual Team ◽  
Definition Of

Many studies have already shown how a team can become more creative, and therefore more efficient, but only a few researchers have focused on how a virtual team can use creativity techniques to perform better. In this article, we study what differences there are (both in terms of processes and in terms of results) when creativity techniques are used in the management of traditional and virtual teams. To do this, we discuss three main elements: the definition of creativity and its relationships with team performance, the variables that enhance creativity in a virtual team, and the most suitable creativity techniques for a virtual environment.

Managing in the Time of Virtualness

2010 ◽  
pp. 62-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Traci Carte ◽  
Heather King
Keyword(s):  
Change Management ◽  
Virtual Teams ◽  
Team Performance ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Virtual Team ◽  
Effective Practices ◽  
Team Processes ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Collaborative Technologies ◽  
Communication Practices

Virtual teams are increasingly being utilized by organizations in order to bring together far-flung expertise using collaborative technologies rather than physical relocation. While many organizations have been quick to utilize technology to enable this new virtual team structure they have been slower in recognizing the needed complementary shifts in management practices surrounding such teams. This chapter seeks to offer advice to managers in this new time of “virtualness.” Interviews were conducted with a variety of individuals engaged in virtual team activities asking about communication practices, performance, change management, and leadership. The authors further probed about what technologies were in use by teams and what areas of the team processes could be improved. Finally, they asked the participants to draw distinctions between their views on effective practices of face-to-face teams and effective practices of virtual teams. From this interview data, insights are offered into social and managerial issues that drive virtual team performance.

Trust, Rationality and the Virtual Team

Virtual Teams ◽  
2011 ◽  
pp. 316-342 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Murphy
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Environment ◽  
Virtual Teams ◽  
Virtual Team ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Virtual Collaboration ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Collaborative Environment ◽  
Group Cooperation ◽  
National Organizations

Virtual teams need trust in order to function. Trust is an efficient way of gaining group cooperation. Online, trust is more effective than instruction or authority or status in getting people who are largely strangers to one another to work together. But trust is not a simple quality. The kind of trust that is the cement of distance relations of a global or virtual kind is different from the type of trust that binds face-to-face interactions and from the procedural kind of trust that operates in regional or national organizations of a traditional managerial kind. This study looks at the ways in which trust between virtual team members is generated. “Trust between strangers” is optimally generated when persons are allowed to self-organize complex orders and create objects and processes of high quality. Also looked at are the kinds of personalities best suited to working in a virtual collaborative environment. The study concludes that persons who prefer strong social or procedural environments will be less effective in a virtual environment. In contrast, self-steering (“stoic”) personality types have characteristics that are optimally suited to virtual collaboration.

Organizational Success and Failure Criteria in Virtual Team Maturity

2018 ◽  
pp. 169-200
Author(s):  
Andrea Keil ◽  
Ralf Friedrich ◽  
Dirk Doppelfeld
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Teams ◽  
Team Performance ◽  
Virtual Team ◽  
Failure Criteria ◽  
Project Managers ◽  
Maturity Model ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Work Habits ◽  
Global Projects ◽  
Effective Assessment

As global projects get more complex, virtual teams are established to bring together experts from different fields and cultures. Challenged by different work habits and communication patterns, these teams need fast and effective assessment of their teamwork to install efficient adjustments. In this chapter, the authors introduce an assessment for virtual teamwork based on the virtual team maturity model (VTMM®). The model focuses on internal team processes necessary to compensate for missing face-to-face communication. The VTMM® model defines meta-processes that help create a highly motivated virtual project team, leading to trust, cohesion, and consequently, an improved team performance. In a case study, the authors examine the effects of an VTMM® assessment and implementation of corresponding measures for improvement on virtual team performance. The outcomes are compared to the results of a recent survey on success and failure in virtual team maturity implementation, where project managers from different backgrounds and experience reported their practical observations.

scholarly journals The power of individual cultural values in global virtual teams

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-210 ◽  
Author(s):  
Audra I. Mockaitis ◽  
Elizabeth L. Rose ◽  
Peter Zettinig
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Virtual Teams ◽  
Virtual Team ◽  
Global Teams ◽  
Global Virtual Teams ◽  
Team Processes ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
The Relationship

This paper investigates the perceptions of members of 43 culturally diverse global virtual teams, with respect to team processes and outcomes. Despite widespread acknowledgement of the challenges presented by cultural differences in the context of global teams, little is known about the effect of these differences on team dynamics in the absence of face-to-face interaction. Using a student-based sample, we study the relationship between global virtual team members’ individualistic and collectivistic orientations and their evaluations of trust, interdependence, communication and information sharing, and conflict during the team task. Our results suggest that a collectivist orientation is associated with more favorable impressions regarding global virtual team processes and that cultural differences are not concealed by virtual means of communication.

Learning together and working apart: routines for organizational learning in virtual teams

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 138-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy Dixon
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Learning ◽  
Virtual Teams ◽  
Virtual Team ◽  
Critical Issue ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Information Industry ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Virtual Teaming

Purpose Research suggests that teaming routines facilitate learning in teams. This paper identifies and details how specific teaming routines, implemented in a virtual team, support its continual learning. The study’s focus was to generate authentic and descriptive accounts of the interviewees’ experiences with virtual teaming routines. Design/methodology/approach This case study gathered concrete, practical and context-dependent knowledge about virtual teaming routines in a specific environment. The main source of data was narrative expert interviews with working members of the team. Findings This study illustrates how a mix of face-to-face and virtual routines can ensure organizational learning in virtual teams. Research limitations/implications This case study is limited to one virtual team in the information industry. Future research could build on this research to study virtual teams in other industries. Practical implications This research offers specific examples of teaming routines that managers of virtual teams might adapt in managing their own teams. Social implications Given that the use of virtual teams is a growing phenomenon, understanding how to help those teams learn effectively is a critical issue. Originality/value This case study extends the research on teaming routines to virtual teams.

Removing Space and Time

2011 ◽  
pp. 14-23
Author(s):  
Christie L. McDaniel
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Teams ◽  
Virtual Team ◽  
Communication Barriers ◽  
Team Cohesion ◽  
Team Dynamics ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Managerial Styles ◽  
Geographic Boundaries ◽  
The World

Virtual teams are become more and more popular as the world becomes more connected; furthermore, research is suggesting that virtual teams are as effective as face-to-face teams (Baker, 2002). This chapter compares and contrasts virtual teams with face-to-face teams in order to determine what differences exist as the workplace become virtual. It investigates how relationships between team members change when geographic boundaries are removed and how managers should adjust managerial styles when leading a virtual team. Also, a discussion of team dynamics—including the development of trust, team cohesion, and communication barriers—is included. Tips and techniques for developing an effective team are provided for virtual team managers.

Gender and Anonymity in Virtual Teams

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Koh ◽  
Na Liu ◽  
John Lim
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Teams ◽  
Group Dynamics ◽  
Team Performance ◽  
Group Performance ◽  
Virtual Team ◽  
Process Variables ◽  
Team Collaboration ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
Research Fields ◽  
Collaboration Process

With the advancement of information and communication technology, virtual teams are becoming more popular as geographical constraints in collaboration have become a non-issue. Features of the technology and characteristics of the group influence interaction processes and outcomes. Two elements are the focus of this paper. The first is anonymity, which has been made feasible by technology. The other concerns gender. Gender is an important research target, and its role in groupwork must not be overlooked. Both elements have aroused much interest across multiple research fields. The existing literature shows their potential in influencing team collaboration processes, satisfaction, and performance. In this paper, the authors present a process-based interpretation of virtual team collaboration, incorporating the anonymity of technology and the gender difference of team members. Using a multiple case study approach, the paper identifies a key set of process variables that shape team performance. The study also examines the interdependencies among the processes. Task-related activity that occurred during team discussion was affected by gender anonymity, and this influenced group performance and members’ satisfaction toward the collaboration process. Group dynamics, including member awareness, leader emergence, and member’s conformity, are salient process variables that affect the virtual team performance as well.

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