Use Of Virtual Teams Research Articles

Dialectical Behavior Therapy in College Counseling Centers: Current Trends and Barriers to Implementation

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this study was to examine trends and barriers in implementation of dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) programs in college counseling centers (CCCs). Participants were 107 CCC employees who participated in an electronic survey. One third of respondents endorsed use or planned use of DBT at their centers. The most prevalent primary mode of DBT offered was group skills training. Highly endorsed barriers to implementation included productivity demands and lack of individual therapists, time for team consultation, and willingness to offer phone coaching. Suggested implementation strategies include developing community partnerships, use of virtual teams, supporting programs with campus data, and adapting DBT strategically.

"Addressing the Gaps: Understanding the Inputs, Processes, and Outputs of Virtual Teams"

Although an increasingly global economy and advancements in communication technology have encouraged the use of virtual teams in organizations, our understanding of how these teams function remains...

Intelligent Virtual Assistant's Impact on Technical Proficiency within Virtual Teams

Information-systems development continues to be a difficult process, particularly for virtual teams that do not have the luxury of meeting face-to-face. The research literature on this topic reinforces this point: the greater part of database systems development projects ends in failure. The use of virtual teams to complete projects further compounds these failures. However, recent developments in intelligent virtual assistants (IVAs), such as Siri, Cortana, or Watson, have created opportunities to automate the systems-development process and improve success rates. Specifically, the use of a virtual assistant possessing key knowledge about database systems development can increase virtual team member technical proficiency in project-based skills. In addition, a virtual assistant can contribute to the development of higher-quality virtual team projects—in this case, database management systems. This observational study found that while the result of statistical analysis was not quite significant, teams that used the IVA did develop higher-quality team projects.

Millennial Leadership

The development of information systems is a difficult process that often ends in failing to meet the project's initial goals. Typical outcomes for information systems development projects include delivering promised products & services on time and within budget. These pressures are now compounded by the use of virtual teams that present a new set of challenges related to the cohesion, organization, and functioning of the team process. Specifically, virtual teams must contend with problems in team formation, the organizational environment in which the team operates, and the technology used for collaboration and communication. As more organizations use virtual teams, these problems present real and pressing obstacles to the successful completion of database systems development. The goal of the study was to determine whether leadership type, transformational, transactional, or management-by-exception was significantly related to leadership effectiveness in a virtual team tasked with developing a database management system. This study targeted millennial students at the Maine Business School who were assigned to virtual teams tasked with developing a database management system. Specifically, this study sought to answer three hypotheses: 1) what is the effect of leadership type, as self-reported through the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire on the quality of completed team projects?; 2) What is the impact of type of leadership on virtual team effectiveness as measured by the Virtual Teams Survey?; and, 3) Are there interactions between leadership style and virtual team effectiveness on the quality and uniqueness of the completed team project? Findings suggest leadership style and virtual team effectiveness did predict project quality, Transformational and Management-by-exception leadership styles had a negative relationship with virtual team effectiveness. Findings further suggest that Transactional leadership style influenced project quality directly, while transformational and management-by-exception styles influenced project quality indirectly through their direct influence on virtual team effectiveness. These findings suggest that traditionally effective leadership types do not work well for Millennial Generation teams in virtual environments

Shared Leadership in Virtual Teams: Contingencies of Collective Team Leadership in Virtual Teams

Virtual teams work together over geographical distances to achieve interdependent organizational goals. The use of virtual teams has increased rapidly, due to factors such as globalization, organizations’ need for rapid product development and innovation, distributive expertise of employees, and improved networking and collaboration technologies that support e-collaboration (Kozlowski & Bell, 2003; Mathieu, Maynard, Rapp, & Gilson, 2008). With the proliferation of the use of virtual teams, the question has arisen regarding how to best manage virtual teams. In spite of advantages of virtual teams, scholars have argued that team management and leadership is more difficult in virtual teams than in co-located teams. Geographic dispersion in virtual teams results in lower co-presence of leaders and team members and virtual team leaders having less ability to monitor their teams, less influence and information about the team’s situation and team processes and team dynamics, thus hindering the management of the team in general. Because of these challenges, researchers have suggested that leadership in virtual teams should be distributed among team members and performed through shared leadership. Currently, however, little knowledge exists regarding what important antecedents, mediators and moderators and outcomes of shared leadership in virtual teams are. In drawing from a contingency framework approach, the papers in this symposium discuss critical predictors, moderators and processes that can positively influence the emergence of shared leadership, and ultimately impact virtual team effectiveness and performance. The papers provide both unique and important extensions to existing research knowledge and theory as well as needed guidance to managers regarding the development of shared leadership in virtual teams Team Member Personality Composition as Antecedents of Shared Leadership in Virtual Teams Presenter: Julia E. Hoch; California State U., Northridge Shared Leadership: Investigating the Contingency Factors Influencing Virtual Team Effectiveness Presenter: Julia Eisenberg; Pace U. Presenter: Jennifer Gibbs; Rutgers U. Presenter: Niclas Erhardt; U. of Maine

Group development in virtual teams: An experimental reexamination

Virtual teams are thought to be experienced differently and to have poor outcomes because there is little or no face-to-face interaction and a tendency for virtual team members to use different communication techniques for forming relationships. However, the expanding use of virtual teams in organizations suggests that virtual teams in real world contexts are able to overcome these barriers and be experienced in much the same way as face-to-face teams. This paper reports the result of an experiment in which virtual teams participated in an exercise where they completed an information-sharing task ten times as a team. The results suggest that, contrary to one-shot, ad hoc virtual teams, longer-lived virtual teams follow a sequential group development process. Virtual team development appears to differ from face-to-face teams because the use of computer-mediated communication heightens pressure to conform when a virtual team is first formed, meaning trust is most strongly linked with feeling that the team was accomplishing the task appropriately. As the virtual teams developed, trust in peers was more strongly linked with goal commitment. Once the teams were working together effectively, accomplishing the task appropriately was the strongest link with trust in peers. I suggest that virtual team managers should cultivate virtual workspaces that are similar to those proven to work in face-to-face contexts: (1) teams should have clear, specific goals, (2) members should be encouraged or even required to communicate with each other, and (3) team members should feel that they might work with the other team members again.

Virtual Teams and International Business Teaching and Learning: The Case of the Global Enterprise Experience (GEE)

The increasing importance of global virtual teams in business is reflected in the classroom by the increased adoption of activities that facilitate real-time cross-cultural interaction. This article documents the experience of students from two Colombian universities who participated in a collaborative international project using virtual teams as part of the international business (IB) curriculum. The data reveals that in spite of challenges associated with time zone differences, technology limitations, and trust issues, the vast majority of students perceived that the use of virtual teams as a teaching tool facilitates cultural understanding and IB-relevant learning. The findings of this research suggest that online experiential exercises can be an effective approach in teaching and in the development of virtual collaboration skills.

The management of virtual teams and virtual meetings

Most organizations now make use of virtual teams. Many of these virtual teams started out as physically co-located teams but with the need to reduce travel and related costs, audio and video technologies were introduced. However, the dynamics and management of virtual teams are different in almost every respect to co-located teams. The benefits and challenges of virtual teams are outlined, with particular reference to the effective management of language, cultural, time and location aspects of virtual teams and virtual meetings.

The Role of Swift Trust in Virtual Teams and Implications for Human Resource Development

The Problem The combination of flatter organizational structures, globalization, cost-saving initiatives, and the increased emphasis on knowledge sharing has been a contributor to the use of virtual teams in U.S. organizations. The Solution To perform efficiently in a virtual environment, team members must develop swift trust, which does not come inherently with team membership. Understanding the individual, team, organizational, and technological barriers affecting the development of swift trust is critical to an appreciation of how such barriers can be overcome. The Stakeholders In this article, we indicate how virtual human resource development (VHRD) can assist virtual teams, managers, and HR professionals overcome swift trust development barriers. The intended audience for this article includes HRD scholars, scholar-practitioners, practitioners, and students interested in understanding how trust is fostered in virtual teams and how HRD practitioners can make a valuable contribution to the effectiveness of virtual teams.

The Use of Virtual Project Teams for Project Management in Jordanian Corporations

Jordanian companies need virtual project teams that can use advanced technology to solve problems and make specialist multi perspective decisions when working across different and distance location. The main mission of the team is to make decisions through interdependent specialists and perspectives. In terms of its use and application, the virtual project team is a difficult challenge for Jordan corporations. This study aims to explore such applications and to detect which factors face virtual project teams in the Jordanian situation. The author focused on how to explore and gain a deeper understanding from a virtual team’s perspective, and team members’ opinions of the factors in the organization that support or hinder the mission. More specifically, this research sought to discover precisely which factors in an organization support virtual project teams, and how they can develop a support system which enables their work in an Arab environment. The main objective was to identify the effects of all factors on the efficiency of virtual teams. The research used empirical case studies from three Jordanian corporations in the communication sector which operate in a high-tech environment, and used surveys to collect data. Structured interviews with both management and team members during the study discovered that the use of virtual teams within Jordanian companies is still limited, and detected that the main factors which hinder their development in many corporations is the level of trust in the ability of virtual teams, together with the high level of centralized decision making in Jordanian corporations. Additionally, communication and coordination affect the execution of work processes and methods for virtual teams, together with a general weakness which exists in terms of infrastructure, resources and technology within the corporation, which then impacts on the efficiency of virtual team work.

"Perceived Differences, Team Empowerment and Shared Leadership in Virtual Teams"

Information and communication technologies (ICT) have facilitated the use of virtual teams. The use of virtual teams allows organizations to assemble individuals with different backgrounds and experiences to address complex problems irrespective of their geographic location. However, diversity can present new challenges for virtual teams. In addition, virtual teams are often assumed to operate under some type of shared leadership. Yet we know very little about the impacts of perceived differences and shared leadership in virtual teams despite their importance. To address these issues, this paper presents a research model that proposes that perceptions of differences reduce the willingness of virtual team members to engage in shared leadership by reducing team empowerment. To empirically test the proposed model a cross-sectional study was conducted involving 44 virtual teams. Results generally support the research and the implications are discussed.

Identification of risk factors that have significantly different degrees of impact on the introduction of IS, a project with virtual teams than traditional project teams: a Serbian perspective

Although the introduction of information systems projects is increasingly involving virtual project team members, most of the research are about the risks on projects implemented in projects who use a traditional project teams and which include face-to-face communication. The aim of this study is to identify the set of risk factors which would influence introduction of information systems projects which include virtual project teams. The results were obtained by surveying 150 participants on projects implementation of the information systems, based on the real project experience. Out of fifty-eight risk factors that are involved in the study, seven factors have significant differences that affect successful completion of project implementation of information system. The results showed significantly greater influence in all seven risk factors in the virtual environment compared to the traditional use of project teams. This increased risk is called the ‘magnifying glass’ effect. This effect can enable managers who manage projects introduce information systems in a virtual environment to anticipate and mitigate the additional risk which causes the use of virtual teams.

Virtual team leadership and implementation in the US Air Force

One approach to transformation is the use of virtual teams. This qualitative phenomenological study employed a random sampling technique of a United States Air Force (USAF) virtual team for the study's population. Interviews uncovered insights and perceptions of team members as related to the operation, leadership, and collaboration of a virtual team in the USAF. Data revealed 15 themes that may enhance virtual team operation. Virtual teams need a defined purpose and charter to maximise effectiveness. Additionally, virtual teams present unique leadership challenges including having a clearly designated leader, the leader serving as a facilitator, and choosing the appropriate leadership style. Finally, virtual teams provide an avenue to enhance collaboration, but require the proper tools to promote information sharing.

Managing and training for virtual teams in India

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate the current and potential use of virtual teams in the Indian context.Design/methodology/approachThe use of virtual styles and strategies was assessed through a series of questionnaires, focusing on managerial aspects. The sample consisted of companies and individuals from Europe, who work on virtual assignments. The results were analysed, paying particular attention to the actual usage and potential future usage of virtual assignments.FindingsIt was found that a disparity between the actual and the potential use of virtual delegates exists. Furthermore, the increasing use of virtual delegates requires tailored intercultural training, which meets the specific demands of these delegates and the requirements of virtual teamwork. The paper goes on to discuss how traditional training can be adapted for the training of virtual assignees.Originality/valueThe findings have implications for both academics and practitioners, as they indicate that there is significant potential for further growth in the use of virtual assignments. In particular, the paper highlights the need for specific, dedicated training in virtual assignments, as this has a substantial impact on their success.

A cross-disciplinary literature review: Examining trust on virtual teams

Effective and efficient teams communicate, collaborate, and perform, even if these teams are not co-located. Although much is known about enabling effectiveness on face-to-face teams, considerably less is known about similarly enabling effectiveness on virtual teams. Yet the use of virtual teams is common and will likely become more commonplace as organizations continue to update and use increasingly sophisticated technology. Cohort and individual trust between team members is a significant component on most effective teams, virtual or face-to-face. This paper examines research on virtual teams and trust across disciplines, including management, e-learning, business communication, decision making, human resource management, psychology, and IT, to identify major characteristics that increase our knowledge of how to establish and maintain trust in the virtual environment and on virtual teams.

Real Problems with Virtual Teams: An Analysis of the Factors Leading to Dysfunctional Online Collaboration

ABSTRACT In online education, virtual teams play an important role in collaborative and peer learning. Unlike traditional face-to-face teams, the students in a virtual team may be geographically distributed, work in different time zones, and may never physically meet face-to-face. Universitas 21 Global, one of the new breed of online universities, has incorporated the use of virtual teams in its pedagogy since the inception of its MBA programme in August 2003. In their capacity as lead instructors, whose role it is to oversee the smooth running of individual class sections, the researchers report on some of the problems that have been observed with virtual teams. INTRODUCTION In courses which are conducted online, virtual teams play an important role in collaboration and peer learning (Bailey & Luetkehans 1998). In a virtual team, students may be geographically distributed, work in different time zones, and may never physically meet face-to-face. Virtual teams rely on asynchronous (discussion boards, email) and, to a lesser extent, synchronous (video-conferencing, chat) collaboration tools to support interaction between team members. While the dynamics of face-to-face teams in educational settings have been well-studied (Slavin 1989), the use of virtual teams raises new issues in relation to how physical, temporal and social separation of students affect the learning process. Some researchers argue that virtual teams can increase interaction and productivity (Townsend et al 1996). Others argue that virtual teams are less effective than face-to-face teams with less interaction between team members (Potter & Balthazard 2002), are more to prone to misunderstanding (Warkentin et al 1997), and suffer from a general lack of co-ordination (Burke & Chidambaram 1994). This paper reports on the formative experiences of using virtual teams in the MBA programme offered at Universitas 21 Global.

How Do Virtual Teams Work Efficiently

Virtual teams are groups of members collaborating in the execution of a specific task from disperse locations. Increasing use of virtual teams has highlighted the need for organizations to focus on ways to improve their performance. The key issues of concern include both technical and social dimensions, and this research study addresses the latter. Hence, this study derives a social relationship model from a comprehensive literature review and conducts an experiment to validate this through SEM (structural equation modeling). The results reveal: (1) communication has a direct positive impact on relationship building, but indirect positive effects on performance and satisfaction; (2) relationship building impacts directly with strong and positive impacts on cohesion and trust, but indirectly with strong impacts on performance and satisfaction; (3) cohesion has a direct, strong, and positive impact on performance, but a strong indirect impact on satisfaction; (4) trust has a positive direct impact on performance, but an indirect positive impact on satisfaction; and (5) performance has a strong and positive impact on satisfaction. In addition, this study confirms that relationship building is a vital mediator in the social relationship model. Managerial implications and future research directions are identified.

THE VIRTUAL TEAM CHALLENGE: IS IT TIME FOR TRAINING?

There has been considerable growth in the use of Virtual Teams in the past decade, and further growth is broadly assumed. Researchers investigating Virtual Teams describe problems these teams encounter, assert that training for virtual team assignments is necessary, and offer suggestions on the issues that such training should address. Further evidence of the training need is that a fortune 100 company employed the primary author to develop the initial version of a virtual team training simulation for their internal use. The 'Virtual Team Challenge' is being used in the Rose-Hulman Project Management course. Participants manage a simulated project for three hours. To successfully complete the project within schedule, they must avoid or resolve problems typically encountered by virtual teams. Participants receive advice and are guided to adopt best practices as defined by our literature review and those offered by the client.

Managing Virtual Teams: Strategies for Team Leaders

Organizations' increasing use of virtual teams has emphasized the importance of effective virtual team leadership. Yet the distribution of team members complicates typical leader functions, such as supervision and support, which the leader must now perform through technology. In this article, we present 10 strategies for managing virtual teams, focusing on the role of technology and training. Our hope is that these strategies will inform designers and guide them in developing collaborative support tools and procedures for these tools and in designing training for the use of these tools.

The effects from technology-mediated interaction and openness in virtual team performance measures

As globalisation continues concurrent with mergers and acquisitions, transnational organisations are increasingly turning to the use of virtual teams in which members collaborate through technology-mediated interaction. Although collocated teams and virtual teams share many common characteristics including performance measures, the nature of the environments differ along several dimensions. In particular, members of virtual teams cooperate on global projects while resident in their home geographies and cultures and using various technologies to facilitate. From that context, this field study investigated virtual team performance using organisational culture as a framework.