Key performance measurement capabilities for managing distributed teams

Distributed teams are a reality for several companies nowadays, many authors covered their benefits and problems, and the rate of adoption of such team's structure by companies is growing fast. Since these teams are more present in companies, a performance measurement system must get adapted to fulfill the gap of not having a vast theory about the subject. To fill that gap, this paper brings results from previous steps in the research (Systematic Literature Review and Qualitative analysis of the data). It presents to a group of experts to reach a consensus on which capabilities are essential to managing/developing distributed teams' performance. The experts were exposed to the information following a Delphi Panel format and provided output that reached consensus and refined the list. The experts indicated that a group of six capabilities (engagement, development of a culture of performance measurement, organizational learning, alignment between planning and execution, accurate information and consistency) are essential to have their performance measurement system working correctly and reaching all functions. The work also identified the success factors for virtual teams, providing directions for the adoption and the monitoring of this kind of team that gained importance during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Virtual team performance: E-leadership roles in the era of COVID-19

Purpose: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) situation has led to the emergence of virtual teams in all organizations, and the role of leadership has become more pertinent. The current research focuses on understanding the factors for better team performance in virtual teams. Based on the contingency perspective, the behavioral complexity in leadership (BCL) theory is the most appropriate as BCL requires the leader to demonstrate multiple contrasting leadership behaviors according to the situation. Both internal as well external roles were explored, which could facilitate better communication quality and role clarity to increase interpersonal trust and leadership effectiveness in the current crisis. Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected from employees who have worked in virtual teams during the crisis and who have experience of working in a virtual team environment. A total of 200 questionnaires were distributed, and 175 were received. A path model was built applying partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Findings: Communication quality has come as a partial mediator for the relationship between internal and external leadership roles and trust. Role clarity fully mediated the relationship between external leadership roles and conflict. Internal and external leadership roles showed a significant effect on leadership effectiveness, which were further related to team performance in virtual teams. Additionally, synchronous technology was used more by virtual teams. Research limitations/implications: The study did not examine cultural differences or cultural adaptation in virtual teams. Instead of the BCL theory, future research may apply attribute-based or relational-based theory to examine leadership roles in virtual team performance. Originality/value: Using the BCL theory, the current study contributes to an understanding of virtual team performance and the internal as well as external role of leaders. This is relevant in an environment of extreme ambiguity such as COVID-19. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

How It Started, How It's Going: Why Past Research Does Not Encompass Pandemic-Induced Remote Work Realities and What Leaders Can Do for More Inclusive Remote Work Practices

In response to the increasing prevalence of remote work during and after the pandemic, industrial-organizational psychologists postulated a diverse set of recommendations on key actions based on what we already know about remote work complexities that are well captured in the literature. However, as most recent recommendations were made under light of past studies, which elaborated remote work as a voluntary perk rather than a reactive response under the crisis situation, most of the actual challenges that people experienced while working from home remained untouched. Therefore, with this piece, our aim is to present counterarguments to already published recommendations entailing the core difficulties linked to the forced nature of remote work during the pandemic. We believe that the unique pandemic conditions pose particular complexities that go beyond previously identified ones. Thus, there is a need to underline these unidentified obstacles to better equip leaders and employees working remotely during and after the pandemic conditions. We conclude our article by recommending leaders to evaluate the contextual differences in their organizational settings and take appropriate actions by taking a critical lens in evaluating the latest research.

Zooming in and Zoning out: Remote Deliberation Impairs Team Decision Quality

The sudden shift to remote work offered a unique opportunity to investigate the effect of meeting modality on team decisions. We present data on classroom teams solving a classic team decision task type, the hidden profile, where members each have unique information that must be combined to arrive at the correct solution. Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, we collected data on teams solving hidden profiles in-person, over Zoom, and then in-person while wearing face masks. We first demonstrate the efficacy of the decision task, a space-themed hidden profile where team members bring to bear data on exoplanets to choose which of three planets can best support human colonization. Once validated, the task was implemented as part of a team effectiveness course over four years: two years before the COVID-19 pandemic (2018-2020), one year of remote work (2020-2021), and one year of masked in-person work (2021-2022). Students were randomly assigned to teams and roles within each course and deliberated for 30 minutes to choose the best option. Examining the quality of team decisions shows marked differences based on the modality of team deliberations. Teams deliberating in-person had the greatest chance of solving the hidden profile, followed by teams meeting in-person with face masks;teams deliberating over Zoom were least likely to solve the hidden profile. Practical implications of team decision modalities for hybrid work design are discussed.

The SmithVent Experience and a Framework for Collaborative Distributed Design and Fabrication

This paper addresses the collaborative journey of the SmithVent team, a 30-person distributed group of volunteers, who designed, fabricated, and tested a simplified and cost-efficient ventilator over a three-month period, and won the CoVent-19 Challenge in July 2020. The paper first presents the SmithVent experience through a co-constructed narrative that describes the team's approaches to collaborative distributed design and fabrication. The paper next reviews frameworks from five theoretical lenses and then details the process of extracting, synthesizing, and organizing relevant factors to create a new and emergent framework reflective of the SmithVent experience. Lastly, the paper discusses educational implications of the SmithVent experience and proposed framework, emphasizing that the team's strategies provide a model for educational and industry settings for future collaborative and distributed design and fabrication.

Enhancing Sustainability in Project Management: The Role of Stakeholder Engagement and Knowledge Management in Virtual Team Environments

This research investigated the crucial correlation between stakeholder engagement and knowledge management, and their role in enhancing sustainability in project management, with a specific focus on the virtual environment. With the shift towards virtual solutions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the rise of remote work, it has become increasingly important to understand how these constructs interact in this new context. Through a web-based survey questionnaire and Structural Equation Modeling analysis, we found that both stakeholder engagement and knowledge management have a significant positive effect on sustainability practices in project management. Even more interestingly, these relationships remain consistent regardless of whether the project is conducted in a virtual or traditional environment. These findings have important implications for organizations across industries, as they can use these insights to improve sustainability practices in project management by focusing on the integration of stakeholder engagement and knowledge management in the virtual or presential environment. This study is the first of its kind to quantitatively investigate this connection, making it a valuable contribution to the field.

Global Virtual Team Working during the Covid-19 Pandemic

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: center dot A qualitative study of Global Virtual Teams (GVTs) and their challenges during the Covid-19 Pandemic. center dot GVT members became proactive in dealing with the challenges of 100% remote working. center dot GVTs adapt their methods of working and the tools available to them. center dot Communication failures, building trust and relationships, and resolving conflict are significant challenges. center dot Lack of informal communication opportunities adversely affects relationships in GVTs. center dot Further investigation of gender differences in attitudes and practices are prompted;and the associations between trust and conflict resolution in virtual relationships. Virtual work introduces distinct challenges when compared to face-to-face or on-site work. Communication and collaboration are key factors in team development and in team performance. When teamwork is of a global nature, imposed because of a pandemic, then additional variables are introduced into the equation. The challenges that global virtual teams (GVTs) encounter when communicating and developing in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic impacts how work is structured and teams develop. This qualitative study was conducted just over 1 year after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic when working from home became mandatory and particular challenges for GVTs became apparent. Data are gathered through an online anonymous survey and followed by semi-structured video-mediated interviews with staff in a large multinational software development company. Findings show that GVTs encounter a number of distinct challenges than face-to-face teams. However, individuals are actively adapting to the situation in which they find themselves and are learning to deal with the challenges by being proactive. Even though the tools used previously may not be entirely suitable for virtual work, GVTs learn to change how tools are used to be more productive and collaborative. Challenges continue to exist in areas, such as knowledge gathering and knowledge sharing. Communication failures can lead to delays and confusion. The findings also indicate that even though GVTs are not communicating as much informally or socially with their colleagues because of remote working in the pandemic, being remote is not having a negative effect on the ability to get work done. Some aspects of team development can be negatively affected when working in GVTs. Impacts are identified relating to trust and relationship building, as well as being able to identify and resolve conflict. These results prompt further research opportunities as organizations and individuals continue to adapt and embrace global virtual teamwork.

Employee well-being in global virtual teams

PurposeThis paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.Design/methodology/approachThis briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.FindingsLeaders boasting relevant e-competencies can help employees make a successful transition from conventional to more remote methods of working. This positive influence on global virtual teams (GVTs) can be increased further when such leaders also possess high levels of emotional intelligence.Originality/valueThe briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

Working in a pandemic and post-pandemic period-Cultural intelligence is the key

Working environment has been transformed by this pandemic into flexible work arrangements with a swift acclimatization of technology. The post-pandemic working arrangements are expected to be increasingly driven by technology as business models will also evolve to adopt these changes. Virtual working arrangements bring several challenges like reduced trust, disrupted communication, limited collaboration, lack of role clarity and lowered team performance. The research suggests that the future of work is going to be more dynamic and virtual. The normal physical work arrangements that were in place before the pandemic will evolve to include multiple models. Therefore, the challenges and problems associated with virtual working needs to be addressed along with the increasing adoption. Cultural intelligence helps in fostering 'trust and understanding' even among virtual teams. The study surveyed people working virtually during this pandemic and analysed, if cultural intelligence and its dimensions i.e. cognitive, metacognitive, motivational and behavioural have effect on the challenges faced by the virtual teams. It is observed that the behavioural cultural intelligence predicts virtual team effectiveness and address the challenges faced by virtual teams. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Communication style drives emergent leadership attribution in virtual teams.

Leader selection plays a key role in how human social groups are formed and maintained. Leadership is either assigned through formal processes within an organization, or emerges informally through interactions with other group members-particularly in novel contexts. COVID-19 has accelerated the adoption of virtual meetings and more flexible team structures. However our understanding of how assigned leadership influences subsequent leadership emergence in virtual settings is limited. Here we examine the relationship between assigned leadership within an existing organization and subsequent emergent leadership attributions as members engage in virtual interactions. To do so, we created and implemented a novel virtual group decision-making task designed to support quantification of a more comprehensive set of communication style elements, such as speech dynamics and facial expressions, as well as task behaviors. Sixteen members of a real world organization engaged four repeated rounds of a group decision making task with new team members each time. We found participants made novel attributions of emergent leadership rather than relying solely on existing assigned leadership. While assigned leadership did influence leadership attributions, communication style, including amount of speech but also variability in facial expressions, played a larger role. The behavior of these novel emergent leaders was also more consistent with expectations of leadership behavior: they spoke earlier, more often, and focused more on the correct decision than did assigned leaders. These findings suggest that, even within existing social networks, virtual contexts promote flexible group structures that depend more on communication style and task performance than assigned leadership.

Teaching for a Digital World: Foundations, Practices, and Possibilities

Virtual teams have been adopted by organizations and studied for decades. However, the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of technology-supported collaboration more than ever. This growing importance of virtual teamwork suggests that business education related to virtual team collaboration and communication is critical for students today, and universities play a significant role in equipping students with the knowledge and skillsets necessary to work in a digital world. This work reviews the literature on virtual teams and educational approaches used for teaching virtual team collaboration and communication and presents a framework for virtual team education. Survey findings and illustrative cases are gathered to demonstrate current virtual team education practices. The study concludes with recommendations for the education of virtual team knowledge and skills. © 2023 by the Association for Business Communication.

Impact of virtuality on trust, reciprocal relations, and knowledge-sharing behaviors

This non-experimental quantitative survey research examined the impact of virtuality on knowledge-sharing behaviors (KSB) in teams. It investigated the relationship between trust and reciprocal relations (RR) with KSB amongst virtual teams (VTs). It also explored the differences in teams' trust, RR, and KSB when they moved from a non-virtual to a virtual environment during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study used a sample of non-supervisory employees who had experience working on a non-virtual team (before the pandemic) and a virtual team (during the pandemic) from organizations located in Canada. The study used a random probability sampling strategy to generate the sample. Qualtrics, a third-party survey company, recruited the participants using inclusion and exclusion criteria. The variables were measured using the VTTS (Sarker et al., 2003), ARRS (Yi, 2009), and KSBS (Bock et al., 2005) survey instruments. All survey instruments met sufficient reliability and validity standards. The surveys were administered online to participants who met the inclusion criteria and signed the adult informed consent form. The data collected was analyzed using IBM's SPSS version 28. Spearman's rank-order correlation assesses the relationships between the variables. Virtual team trust and RR significantly and positively correlated with KSB amongst VTs. The t tests were used to evaluate the differences in trust, RR, and KSB between the non-virtual and virtual team environments. There was no significant difference between non-virtual and virtual teams for trust, RR, and KSB. A review of the KSB's mean and median statistics revealed that teams' knowledge sharing is low whether members are in a non-virtual or virtual work arrangement. According to the evidence, trust and RR are essential to social exchange behaviors. The data indicated that virtuality did not impact teams' trust, RR, or KSB during the pandemic. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Transition to Remote Work: Peculiarities of Social Networks Use

The COVID-19 pandemic created conditions for a change of work style when a transition from stationary to remote work became necessary. This change affected a lot of different professions and social groups. However, the pandemic will come to an end, so not all of them stay in telework mode. It is essential to notice that these two years of remote work experience led to knowing the other side of work organizing specifics and opened new horizons for virtual teams or organizations by finding additional tools in such work management. The purpose of this article is to present the results of research carried out in Lithuania concerning the working environment and social media tools for better communication and remote work management. This aspect was chosen because social media is becoming more popular and engaged in business organizations for external communication and internal environment creation to create a positive atmosphere within the organization. The combined research results indicate that employees felt more stressed in transition to remote work process and that some quite simple solutions could help manage the uncertainties and stress employees think. © 2022 IEEE.

Towards a comprehensive conceptual framework for multicultural virtual teams: a multilevel perspective exploring the relationship between multiculturalism and performance

PurposePerformance in virtual teams, which faces cultural and demographic differences, is a relevant phenomenon that has been widely investigated in recent decades, but with opportunities in exploring other levels of analysis as individual and project. This current research aims to understand how multicultural virtual teams affect individual, team and project performance.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted a systematic literature review (SLR) and bibliometric analysis to capture 273 papers from the Web of Science (WoS) database using a snowball approach. In a second approach, the authors selected 130 papers to conduct a content analysis.FindingsThe authors presented a longitudinal overview regarding the adoption of virtual teams in project management (PM) literature. A conceptual framework was proposed to explore the relationship between multicultural virtual teams and performance with three levels of analysis: individual, teams and project. The authors contributed with research hypotheses to be explored in future empirical studies not only at the team perspective but also at the project and individual levels. The thematic analysis suggested that the literature focus has shifted from hard to soft aspects faced by virtual teams. Social identity/categorization theory was the most prominent theory in this body, but it is not fully explored in PM literature. Other opportunities of future studies are to understand the impact of cultural diversity, the sense of belongingness, the project life cycle and the development of a knowledge management program.Originality/valueThe authors developed a 3-level conceptual framework for future empirical studies and demonstrated that cultural differences are mainly approached at the national level in the literature, bringing suggestions for future empirical research.

The effects of COVID-19 on virtual working within online groups

Employees may continue to work remotely for a substantial amount of time, even after the end of the pandemic. Our established theories of group processes and intergroup relations can help us understand these new ways of working and online group experiences. However, there are key differences in computer-mediated and face-to-face (FtF) groups. In this essay, I present some of the extant robust theories and findings from computer communication research to understand virtual working within online groups. These perspectives include that group processes develop over a longer period of time as compared to FtF, informal communication is neglected, computer-mediated groups have some advantages over FtF groups, sociomateriality is a useful theoretical lens, and dispersion affects group member cognitions about each other. I use my own lab's work on entitativity as an example of how moving from FtF to online group research can deepen our understanding of both FtF and online groups. The essay concludes with recommendations for future research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Influencing Factors of Team Effectiveness in Global Virtual Teams

Virtual teams are gaining importance because they have given organisations and employees the ability to work from anywhere in the world without relocating them. The ability to work remotely and collaborate virtually has allowed organisations to expand their reach and tap into a global talent pool. Additionally, COVID-19 has resulted in seeking alternative work arrangements, including the information technology (IT) industry. However, virtual teams also have challenges that can affect team efficiency and effectiveness. Factors such as knowledge sharing, trust, language and cultural differences, distance, and time zone differences can all impact virtual team performance. This research describes several important factors that affect global virtual team efficiency, especially in IT projects, and underlying solutions are addressed to reduce the barriers. By understanding the challenges and implementing effective solutions, organisations can leverage the benefits of virtual teams.

Empowerment and intrinsic motivation of employees: A case study of virtual team leaders

The existing literature on intrinsic motivation and empowerment predates the increased organizational adoption of virtual work arrangements for employees in the United States of America. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the shift toward dispersed teams, highlighting the interest to understand whether existing literature on empowerment and intrinsic motivation still applies in virtual work settings. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the ways that virtual team leaders use empowerment to influence the intrinsic motivation of their direct-line virtual employees. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 U.S.-based virtual team leaders in mid and large-sized software organizations with at least two U.S.-based direct-line virtual employees. The study findings indicated that virtual team leaders use empowerment with their direct-line virtual employees to set expectations, provide autonomy, and encourage risk-taking. The findings also revealed that virtual team leaders believe their employees are motivated by opportunities that provide growth and learning, promote problem-solving and achievement, offer a connection to department or organizational purpose, and appeal to employees' interests. Conclusions drawn from the study underscore the need to continue research on empowerment and intrinsic motivation in various virtual contexts. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

COMMUNICATION CHALLENGES IN DISTRIBUTED STUDENT PROJECTS

Student projects have been widely adopted in software engineering education. Project teams are composed of students in the same institution, and students can meet and communicate face-to-face regularly. The Covid-19 pandemic, however, forced the student projects to rapidly transition to remote mode and adapt to the virtual team. Virtual teams in distributed environments face challenges due to distance factors that separate collaborators from each other. This study aims at investigating the communication challenges student teams encountered and managed to overcome. We report on an analysis of data collected from reports and interviews in the software project course delivered in fall 2020. There were 57 participants, forming 10 project teams in the study. The results show that remote work negatively affects the social aspects of project teams, especially early communication difficulties in a project. The teams were able to handle most identified challenges but had less interest in tackling those that they did not see as a risk to project completion, which would have most likely caused problems in real-world projects. This study improves understanding of communication challenges in student project teams and the findings serve as a resource for course teachers to design student project courses in the context of virtual teams. © 2022 SEFI 2022 - 50th Annual Conference of the European Society for Engineering Education, Proceedings. All rights reserved.

Incorporating the student perspective in designing a virtual team classroom environment: an elaborated action design science research approach

Purpose: This paper aims to address the long-standing problem of suboptimal student team experiences for instructors and students by incorporating the student voice by co-creating a virtual team collaborative environment to improve team collaboration in the online classroom. Design/methodology/approach: This paper presents a novel design science research approach and relates two elaborated action design science research (eADSR) cycles that design, implement and evaluate the student team experience in online courses requiring teamwork. Findings: The outcome is a holistic view of a virtual team classroom environment specified with technologies and practices that may be employed to optimize the student team experience. The eADSR process yields non-obvious diagnoses and actionable steps for continually incorporating the ever-changing social aspects unique to students in addition to the evolving technological landscape. Practical implications: This paper is valuable to faculty members interested in applying eADSR processes to incorporate the student voice to address pedagogical and learning challenges in the classroom. Additionally, it provides a DSR-based model that can be implemented in the classroom to improve student team collaboration as well as transparency for the instructor and the students in terms of team member contributions with the goal to alleviate student and faculty frustrations. This topic is particularly relevant in light of COVID-19 as students and faculty alike are thrust into new online classroom environments. Originality/value: Employing eADSR in the classroom is a novel and unique approach to create a replicable model for virtual team collaboration that can be added to the classroom. © 2022, Diane Kutz, Barry Cumbie and Matthew Mullarkey.

Student innovation capability in virtual team projects: lessons learnt from COVID-19 pandemic era

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine students' innovation capability in virtual team projects from the COVID-19 pandemic era. Design/methodology/approach: The researchers conducted an empirical study and the data were collected from a total of 308 participants engaging in virtual team projects. A structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to assess the relationship of the conceptual framework. Findings: The findings showed that virtual team culture positively influenced propensity to innovate. Also, knowledge management and communication influenced propensity to innovate through the mediation of support for innovation. Practical implications: Developing a strategy for propensity to innovate in any organization demands that project team members should be able to seamlessly communicate. Developing knowledge management, communication and support for innovation strategy in a virtual team may prepare an organization for permanently different post-pandemic events and the future turbulent business environment. Originality/value: This study highlights innovation capability for the propensity to innovate, a topic that is not widely researched, especially in the context of virtual teams. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.