Digital Mastery

With support from the research literature, this chapter argues that in order to lead effectively in virtual environments, and to achieve virtual prowess, the leaders of Virtual Teams (VTs) need (a) relationship building skills, which include (1) trust, (2) embracing diversity, (3) fostering a team spirit, and the ability to (4) motivate team members. The leaders of VTs must also possess (b) technical skills, which include the ability to use (1) video conferencing software, (2) Instant Messaging (IM) and chatroom software, (3) e-mail, (4) virtual worlds and avatars, and (5) be able to communicate effectively. In addition, leaders of VTs must use their (c) leadership skills and lead with (1) trait emotional intelligence, (2) be able to create an open and supportive environment, (3) lead by example, and (4) resolve conflicts. These four keys, their corresponding skills, as well as their practical applications, are discussed in this chapter.

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Keeping Up Long Distance

Mechanical Engineering ◽

10.1115/1.2008-oct-2 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 130 (10) ◽

pp. 28-31

Author(s):

Jean Thilmany

Keyword(s):

Virtual Teams ◽

Instant Messaging ◽

Team Building ◽

Relationship Building ◽

Long Distance ◽

Team Members ◽

Engineering Managers ◽

Collaborative Tools ◽

Phone Calls ◽

Water Cooler

This article discusses managers who must not discount everyday collaborative tools—like phone calls and instant messaging. To help far-flung team members bridge the distance and feel like part of a team while they hash out ideas, engineering managers must call upon a rich technological arsenal of collaborative tools. To keep up with personal events like that and to let team members have the water-cooler confabs necessary for team building, Garton advocates instant messaging. This type of quick back-and-forth messaging encourages relationship building. To ensure participation, trainers call upon a number of interactive features offered within the tool itself. With all advances of the Web, it can be tempting for managers to overlook hardware advances as they seek to build virtual teams. But new approaches, like a recent newly introduced HP Blade Workstation, which allows all team members’ designs to reside on a server rather than on their individual desktops, can keep teams functioning at top speeds.

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Virtual Team Effectiveness

Remote Work and Collaboration ◽

10.4018/978-1-5225-1918-8.ch036 ◽

2017 ◽

pp. 687-706 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

John R. Carlson ◽

Dawn S. Carlson ◽

Emily M. Hunter ◽

Randal L. Vaughn ◽

Joey F. George

Keyword(s):

Virtual Teams ◽

Team Effectiveness ◽

Survey Methodology ◽

Instant Messaging ◽

Virtual Team ◽

Interpersonal Processes ◽

Mediated Communication ◽

Team Members ◽

Main Effect

The work of virtual teams is increasingly important to today's organizations, work that is accomplished predominantly via computer-mediated communication. The authors investigate the moderating role of experience with instant messaging on the team interpersonal processes (cohesion and openness) to team effectiveness relationship in virtual teams. Data were obtained from 365 virtual team members using survey methodology and analyzed using hierarchical moderated regression and multilevel analyses. They found that team cohesion has a main effect on team effectiveness. Team openness has a main effect and is moderated by experience with instant messaging, i.e., strengthens the relationship. Understanding the role of team interpersonal processes and the role of the communication media will allow managers to more effectively build virtual teams and provide effective training and support. Using the theoretical lens of channel expansion theory the authors expand theoretical, empirical and practical knowledge of this area.

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Cross-University Collaborative Learning

Multi-User Virtual Environments for the Classroom ◽

10.4018/978-1-60960-545-2.ch021 ◽

2011 ◽

pp. 333-347

Author(s):

Anne P. Massey ◽

Mitzi M. Montoya ◽

Valerie Bartelt

Keyword(s):

Collaborative Learning ◽

Web 2.0 ◽

Virtual Teams ◽

Virtual Worlds ◽

Relationship Building ◽

Project Work ◽

Collaborative Tools ◽

Successful Student ◽

Student Teams ◽

University Course

Over the last two decades, communication and collaboration tools to support student project work have evolved significantly, with an expanding array of options. Most recently, 3D virtual worlds (VW) have emerged. This chapter explores the use of collaborative tools in a cross-university course where student (“virtual”) teams engaged in a multi-week project. The student project teams had access to a collaborative toolkit that included Web 1.0 (traditional) and Web 2.0 tools, as well as collaboration spaces in a VW. Findings suggest that more successful student teams were better able to match Web 2.0 and VW collaborative technologies to project activities, while other lower performing teams defaulted to more familiar Web 1.0 technologies. The VW played a key role in facilitating relationship building in the collaborative learning process. The findings are particularly relevant to instructors seeking to integrate and use VWs in the classroom for collaborative project work and distance learning settings.

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Mediating Complexity

Virtual Teams ◽

10.4018/978-1-59140-166-7.ch011 ◽

2011 ◽

pp. 255-279 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

David J. Pauleen ◽

Lalita Rajasingham

Keyword(s):

New Zealand ◽

Virtual Teams ◽

Virtual Team ◽

Relationship Building ◽

Boundary Crossing ◽

Working Relationships ◽

Team Leaders ◽

Organizational Boundaries ◽

Interpersonal Dynamics ◽

Team Members

Virtual teams are playing an increasingly important role in organizations. However, virtual teams’ increasing team member interaction beyond traditional organizational boundaries has outpaced our understanding of their interpersonal dynamics and unique communication characteristics. Research shows that the development of interpersonal and group communications between team members is an important factor in effective working relationships; however, little research has been done on the effects of crossing organizational, cultural, and time and distance boundaries on relationship building in virtual teams. This chapter reports on a field study of New Zealand-based virtual team leaders working with boundary spanning virtual teams. From a team leaders’ perspective, boundary-crossing issues (organizational, cultural, language, time and distance) can affect relationship building in many important ways. These effects are explored and the implications for practice and research are also discussed.

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Developing Project Team Cohesiveness in a Virtual Environment

Advances in IT Personnel and Project Management - Strategic Management and Leadership for Systems Development in Virtual Spaces ◽

10.4018/978-1-4666-9688-4.ch009 ◽

2016 ◽

pp. 136-159

Author(s):

Lisa Toler

Keyword(s):

Cultural Differences ◽

Virtual Teams ◽

Technical Skills ◽

Project Managers ◽

Relationship Building ◽

Clear Understanding ◽

Open Communication ◽

Team Cohesiveness ◽

Team Members ◽

Insight Into

As more projects require the specialized technical skills of those who work in virtual environments due to dispersed geographic locations, project managers of these distributed virtual teams (DVT) must gain insight into achieving project success amongst team members who hold varying operational and world perspectives. When organizational managers decide to implement virtual teams (VT), can they develop strategies to overcome the lack of social interaction, cultural differences, and preconceived notions that can hinder the development of a collaborative and cohesive team? In addition, leading DVTs in a manner that encourages collaboration, diversity, competency building, open communication, and overcoming feelings of isolation must be met in this technology-based environment. This chapter addresses the dilemma of managers in which they must have a clear understanding of what communication and relationship-building techniques and management systems are best suited.

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Relationship Building in Virtual Teams: An Academic Case Study

10.28945/3046 ◽

2006 ◽

Author(s):

Kathy Egea

Keyword(s):

Virtual Teams ◽

Time Pressure ◽

Team Building ◽

Relationship Building ◽

Social Mechanisms ◽

Team Members ◽

Design Concepts ◽

Team Functioning ◽

Team Trust

Information Technology (IT) provides the infrastructure for communication and collaboration tools for virtual teams, but Henttonen and Blomqvist (2005) suggest that it is the relational communication and factors of trust, commitment and communication that attention. This case study presents a team building strategy for such interaction. Off-campus students in an undergraduate course apply technological design concepts for social mechanisms in communication and collaboration to virtual teamwork. Students utilise the themes of conversation, awareness and coordination and document their reflection on their use over the team lifecycle. All functioning teams indicated that these social mechanisms helped to build team trust and commitment. Seventy-two percent of students indicated positive team experience, despite constraints of workload, time pressure, technology tools, distance and uncooperative team members. This study argues that use of guided and iterative reflections on social mechanisms support virtual team functioning and strengthen relationships.

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Virtual R&D Project Teams: From E-Leadership To Performance

Journal of Applied Business Research (JABR) ◽

10.19030/jabr.v31i5.9384 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 31 (5) ◽

pp. 1693 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Dominique Bonet Bonet Fernandez ◽

Nabila Jawadi

Keyword(s):

Virtual Teams ◽

Team Performance ◽

High Performance ◽

Work Organization ◽

Development Project ◽

Relationship Building ◽

Project Teams ◽

High Quality ◽

Team Members ◽

Positive Leadership

<p>Recent research on virtual teams highlights the importance of high quality relationships to achieve high team performance. For research and development (R&D) virtual project teams, relationships characterized by cooperation and trust are expected to enhance creativity and innovation among team members. The purpose of this paper is to identify variables enabling high quality relationship building in virtual R&D teams and to analyze their influence on team performance. To this end, this study examines the effects of leadership, work organization and communication practices on the quality of the relationship between team members. The theoretical developments are illustrated through a case study of a car development project in a leading French car-making firm, PSA. Our findings show that dynamic and positive leadership plays an important role in enhancing relationships between team members. The results also highlight the importance of synchronous meetings and frequent and regular interaction to build cooperative and trusty relationships leading to high performance.</p>

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Developing Project Team Cohesiveness in a Virtual Environment

Project Management ◽

10.4018/978-1-5225-0196-1.ch019 ◽

2016 ◽

pp. 403-426

Author(s):

Lisa Toler

Keyword(s):

Cultural Differences ◽

Virtual Teams ◽

Technical Skills ◽

Project Managers ◽

Relationship Building ◽

Clear Understanding ◽

Open Communication ◽

Team Cohesiveness ◽

Team Members ◽

Insight Into

As more projects require the specialized technical skills of those who work in virtual environments due to dispersed geographic locations, project managers of these distributed virtual teams (DVT) must gain insight into achieving project success amongst team members who hold varying operational and world perspectives. When organizational managers decide to implement virtual teams (VT), can they develop strategies to overcome the lack of social interaction, cultural differences, and preconceived notions that can hinder the development of a collaborative and cohesive team? In addition, leading DVTs in a manner that encourages collaboration, diversity, competency building, open communication, and overcoming feelings of isolation must be met in this technology-based environment. This chapter addresses the dilemma of managers in which they must have a clear understanding of what communication and relationship-building techniques and management systems are best suited.

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Relationship Building and the use of ICT in Boundary-Crossing Virtual Teams: A Facilitator's Perspective

Journal of Information Technology ◽

10.1080/02683960110100391 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 16 (4) ◽

pp. 205-220 ◽

Cited By ~ 72

Author(s):

David J. Pauleen ◽

Pak Yoong

Keyword(s):

Information And Communication Technologies ◽

Virtual Teams ◽

Organizational Support ◽

Virtual Team ◽

Relationship Building ◽

Boundary Crossing ◽

Working Relationships ◽

Training Experience ◽

Team Members ◽

Information And Communication

Global virtual teams are playing an increasingly important role in international business by offering organizations the opportunity for reaching beyond traditional boundaries. However, their use has outpaced our understanding of their dynamics and unique characteristics. For example, global, multicultural, interorganizational, virtual teams and the effective use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) present real and compelling challenges to facilitators, but they also present teams with unparalleled opportunities for expanding on perspectives, approaches and ideas. However, crossing organizational, cultural and time and distance boundaries requires training, experience and organizational support. While research shows that the development of personal relationships between virtual team members is an important factor in effective working relationships, little research has been conducted on the effects of crossing organizational, cultural and time and distance boundaries on relationship building in virtual teams. This paper reports on a field study of New Zealand-based virtual team facilitators working with boundary-spanning virtual teams. From a facilitator's perspective, boundary-crossing issues (organizational, cultural, language and time and distance) can affect relationship building in many important ways. For instance, facilitators found that organizational boundary crossing was affected by differing organizational cultures and policies, while working across cultures required awareness and adjustment in relationship-building expectations and strategies. Crossing time and distance barriers necessitated the skilful use of synchronous and asynchronous ICTs and communication channels. These findings will be explored and the implications for practice and research will also be discussed.

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