Exploring Environmental Factors in Virtual Teams

Author(s):  
Teresa Torres-Coronas

In today’s competitive business world, global competition forces companies to continually seek ways of improving their products/services. The hypercompetitive business environment has been the catalysts for new organizational forms—the virtual organization and its smaller version the virtual team (Jarvenpaa & Ives, 1994). The advent of new communication technologies has given organizations an opportunity to bring together their distributed workforce. The creation of distributed teams makes possible the incorporation of a wide range of both individual knowledge and expertise into a collective body of knowledge needed to conduct effective group problem-solving activities.

Author(s):  
France Bélanger

The paper by Bélanger, Watson-Manheim, and Jordan (2002) addresses the gap between research conducted and practitioner concerns in virtual work. One of the key difficulties in conducting research in this area is the overlap between terms used (McCloskey & Igbaria, 1998; Pinsonneault & Boisvert, 2001). While there are other distributed work arrangements such as hotelling, neighborhood work centers and flextime, most of the previous literature has focused on telecommuting (telework) and virtual teams/ organizations. In this article, the term virtual work represents work environments where individuals spend some time working in a non-face-to-face (FTF) mode, using information and communication technologies to perform work activities. Virtual work environments are increasingly employed by organizations. While there is increased complexity and potential for problems, virtual work strategies allow organizations a great deal of flexibility to compete in a rapidly changing business environment. While existing research provides insights into such environments, it does not clearly deal with major concerns faced by managers (referred to as the “gap” between research and practice). One of the potential reasons for this gap is that practicing managers are concerned with current challenges in their own work setting while academics are concerned with developing more generalizable rules and understanding.


2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-64
Author(s):  
Jiahe Song ◽  
Muhammad A. Razi ◽  
J. Michael Tarn

Virtual communication is a preferred working style for remotely structured teams to remain productivity while reducing cost. A variety of information and communication technologies (ICTs) are available for providing technical support to virtual teams. While companies as a whole have been accumulating a good deal of experience for executing virtual collaboration, challenges still exist due to the nature of different industries or organizations' business environment. The goal of this paper is to explore the types of ICTs adopted and ICT intensity implemented by contemporary virtual teams. Interview-based cases with companies located in U.S., U.K., and China were conducted to achieve our goal. Important insight for research and practice are discussed.


Author(s):  
Kangning Wei ◽  
Chingning Wang

It is a considerable challenge for most of today’s organizations to cope with the rapidly changing business environment, such as global competition and technology revolution (Townsend et al., 1998; Walker, 2000). In response to these changes, organizations must be more dynamic in their organizational operations and adopt innovative approaches to survive and compete effectively (Arnison & Miller, 2002). One of the successful ways is to establish “virtual teams” as organizing units of work. Virtual teams are groups of geographically and/or organizationally dispersed workers assembled together mainly by information and communication technologies (ICT) to accomplish one or more organizational tasks (DeSanctis & Poole, 1997; Townsend et al., 1998). Recent research has studied a wide range of potential benefits virtual teams offer to organizations, but implementations of virtual teams in organizations will be at risk if organizations fail to address many challenges faced in virtual context (Powell, Piccoli, & Ives, 2004). One of the fundamental questions is to understand the nature of virtual teams. Specially, what kind of virtual teams is the best fit with this organization and task? As Bell and Kozlowski (2002) point out, “the literature has tended to treat virtual teams as a single ‘ideal’ type, yet there are several dimensions or characteristics that vary among and distinguish different types of virtual teams” (p.16). This article underlies four conceptual dimensions that distinguish different types of virtual teams from the literature review. The combination of these dimensions yields many possible types of virtual teams. We hope this classification could provide basic information for further research in virtual teams.


Author(s):  
Helio Aisenberg Ferenhof ◽  
Susanne Durst ◽  
Paulo Mauricio Selig

In this paper, we are interested in the knowledge that is “wasted” in organizations, that is existing relevant knowledge that is overlooked in the process of knowledge conversion. Given the competitive pressure firms are facing in today´s business environment, a waste of knowledge is not only costly but also dangerous. This means that we consider knowledge from a knowledge at risk perspective. Having this in mind, the purpose of this paper is to review research on knowledge waste in organizations to establish our current body of knowledge regarding this topic. The study consists of a systematic review of 51 peer-reviewed articles addressing knowledge waste in organizations. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no systematic literature review on this topic has previously been published or presented. The topic seems to be a promising field for intensive research and offers a variety of future research avenues. In view of practitioners, the study´s finding may enable an increased awareness towards the areas where existing knowledge is at the mercy of “waste”. This can assist practitioners to better cope with risks related to this waste and, therefore, better exploit the (limited) knowledge base available.


Author(s):  
T. Kravchenko ◽  
◽  
N. Shymchenko ◽  

The essence and features of the concept of emotional intelligence are considered. The essence of emotional intelligence is defined as a set of cognitive abilities to identify, understand and manage emotions, as well as knowledge, skills and abilities, operations and strategies of intellectual activity related to the processing and transformation of emotional information. The characteristics and prerequisites for the formation of emotional intelligence are identified. The forms and levels of development of emotional intelligence in ontogenesis are analyzed. The main advantages of the formation and development of emotional intelligence for successful employment and personal development are highlighted. A survey of students on awareness in the field of emotional intelligence and assessment of its level, which showed that 24.3% of respondents are interested in this topic in depth, 60% know only general information, and 15.7% first learned about this indicator. Despite the fact that not everyone understands the essence of emotional intelligence, almost half of respondents believe that the level of emotional intelligence is significant. A quarter of students believe that IQ is more important, and another 25% found it difficult to answer this question. The basic methods of development of emotional intelligence are offered. The role of emotional intelligence for managers and business is defined. It is determined that in today's business environment, authoritarian managers are much less likely to succeed in the long run than those who use a democratic style of government. If a manager wants to succeed in the business world now and in the future, it is important to understand the role of emotional intelligence in business today. The possibility of increasing the efficiency of management activities of the specialist through the development of emotional intelligence, which provides prospects for innovative development of the organization (enterprise).


Author(s):  
Helena Heizmann

Effective decision-making in a virtual environment is becoming increasingly important as more and more organizations introduce virtual teams into their global businesses. Critical thinking is a reflective practice that has been suggested to enhance the quality of group decision-making in organizations (Natale & Ricci, 2006). However, little is known about the value of critical thinking in a virtual team environment and the ways in which it can be promoted. This chapter provides a conceptual model of informed decision-making based on critical thinking. It further outlines how critical thinking can be promoted in virtual teams through an active shift towards a dialogic learning culture, constituted by collaborative communication behaviors, authentic leadership, and the use of social Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs).


Author(s):  
Alexandru V. Roman

This chapter draws upon the historical evolution of e-government and at the extant body of knowledge in order to delineate the dimensions that are critical for the success of the use of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) for purposes of governance. Evaluating the impacts of technology adoption in the public sector is an intrinsically complex process. However, given that currently governmental spending on ICT projects rivals and at times even surpasses allocations for capital developments, the need for an evaluative framework becomes rather obvious. Based on multiple scholarly accounts and practical examples, this chapter suggests that the success of e-government should be examined along three chief dimensions: security, functionality, and transformation. All three vectors are highly interdependent, and it can be argued that the success of e-government in the long run is not possible if significant shortcomings are observed along any one of the three aspects.


Author(s):  
Vaggelis Saprikis

Contemporary commerce is completely different as regards features some years ago. Nowadays, a considerable number of individuals and firms take advantage of the information and communication technologies and conduct transactions online. In particular, the mobile industry along with the broad use of social networks and improvements in the internet bandwidth worldwide has created a completely different business environment. Consequently, the technology incited many consumers to cross-border e-shopping, allowing access to a wider variety of products and services, and in numerous circumstances, access to cheaper goods. The purpose of this chapter is to investigate the perceptions internet users have towards e-shops focusing on Greece. More precisely, it aims to find out whether there are contingent differences on customers' perceptions regarding domestic vs. international e-shops, since a gradually augmented number of people have been expressing their preference on non-domestic e-stores for their purchases. Additionally, the chapter intends to shed light on the difficulty in understanding vital aspects of e-consumer behaviour.


Author(s):  
David Croasdell ◽  
Andrea Fox ◽  
Suprateek Sarker

Business organizations and global partners are increasing their utilization of virtual project teams to enhance competitive advantages in the global market. More than ever, organizations are using virtual teamwork to bridge time zones and geographic distances. The use of virtual work environments has spurred interest in understanding how team members interact and collaborate over the life of a project. Not surprisingly, organizations are trying to understand what factors are determinants of success with respect to virtual teams. Increasing network bandwidth, continuously improving communication technologies, shifting global economies, and changes in social practices have caused business managers to reconsider traditional practices. This paper provides a comparative case study of four cross-cultural virtual project teams as they analyze, design, and develop information systems.


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