scholarly journals 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.

scholarly journals Keeping Up Long Distance

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.

Virtual Prowess

2014 ◽  
pp. 270-289
Author(s):  
Shelly R. Roy
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Teams ◽  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Instant Messaging ◽  
Leadership Skills ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
Relationship Building ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Practical Applications ◽  
Supportive Environment ◽  
E Mail

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.

Trust in Virtual Multicultural Teams

2008 ◽  
pp. 1292-1308
Author(s):  
Iris C. Fischlmayr ◽  
Werner Auer-Rizzi
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Teams ◽  
Business Students ◽  
Illustrative Case ◽  
Multicultural Teams ◽  
Cultural Backgrounds ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Geographically Dispersed ◽  
Team Projects ◽  
Illustrative Case Study

This chapter analyses the phenomenon of trust with regard to its significance for virtual teams. Guided by the existing literature on trust, this chapter presents different kinds of trust and the development of trust over time. The challenges inherent to virtual multicultural teams, thus to working teams, which are geographically dispersed and communicate with the help of electronic media, raise the questions of their consequences on trust. As virtual teams are mostly used in companies operating in different countries all over the world, the different cultural backgrounds of the team members are taken into account as well. To give an example for the relevance of this issue in practice, an illustrative case study on experiences international business students have made during virtual team projects is presented.

IT Project Managers' Perceptions and Use of Virtual Team Technologies

2011 ◽  
pp. 25-43
Author(s):  
Catherine M. Beise ◽  
Fred Niederman ◽  
Herb Mattord
Keyword(s):  
Project Management ◽  
Virtual Teams ◽  
Collaborative Work ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Fortune 500 ◽  
Project Managers ◽  
Team Members ◽  
It Project ◽  
Information And Communication

This chapter presents the results of a case study pertaining to the use of information and communication media to support a range of project management tasks. A variety of electronic communication tools have evolved to support collaborative work and virtual teams. Few of these tools have focused specifically on the needs of project managers. In an effort to learn how practicing IT project managers employ these tools, data were collected at a North American Fortune 500 industrial company via interviews with IT project managers regarding their use and perceptions of electronic media within the context of their work on project teams. In this study, “virtual” describes the extent to which communication is electronic rather than the extent to which team members are geographically separated. Although the number of respondents was limited, the richness of the data collected leads to the conclusion that successful project managers and teams become skilled at adapting a variety of existing communication technologies to match the project task or process, the receiver, their own role as sender, and the content of the message. Groupware designers and developers need to better understand project management methods and best practices in order to provide better tools for practitioners, particularly as organizations expand globally and increasingly outsource various functions of their IT development and operations.

Diagnosing Macroergonomic Problems: A Case Study in the Use of Concept Mapping for TQM Initiatives

1993 ◽  
Vol 37 (12) ◽  
pp. 873-876 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian S. Zaff ◽  
Edward R. Hughes ◽  
Michael D. McNeese ◽  
Clifford E. Brown ◽  
Maryalice Citera
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Acquisition ◽  
Concept Mapping ◽  
Graphical Representation ◽  
Team Building ◽  
Mapping Technique ◽  
Total Quality ◽  
Group Setting ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Domain Experts

This paper presents the results from a case study involving the use of concept mapping in a Total Quality Management (TQM) program. Concept mapping is a knowledge acquisition technique that has proven successful in a variety of instances when it was necessary to elicit information directly from domain experts and communicate that information to other individuals needing the information. The concept mapping technique produces, during the course of an interview, a graphical representation that becomes a communications medium through which ideas can be easily shared in a group setting. In TQM programs it may be necessary to elicit detailed information from employees about the nature of their work domain and about the various problems they may be encountering. The success of TQM programs often depends on establishing open lines of communications through which employees can articulate their concerns and upon the ability of TQM team members to uncover hard-to-detect problems. Concept mapping proved successful in the TQM setting. The concept mapping technique facilitated the uncovering of insights that were not obvious to the TQM team during their initial brainstorming sessions or from the use of a survey. In addition it appears that the concept mapping technique has other significant TQM advantages over and above its utility as a knowledge elicitation technique. Concept mapping, not only facilitates user-centered knowledge acquisition, but also appears useful as a means of facilitating team-building.

scholarly journals Building Interdisciplinary Teams in Emergency Care to Respond to National Emergencies: Addressing the Opioid Epidemic

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erick Guerrero ◽  
Jemima A. Frimpong ◽  
Angelique Hearn ◽  
Veronica Serret ◽  
Welmoed K. van Deen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Emergency Care ◽  
Qualitative Methodology ◽  
Team Building ◽  
Relationship Building ◽  
Opioid Epidemic ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Interdisciplinary Knowledge ◽  
Building Activities

This study responds to the gap in knowledge in translating team members’ interdisciplinary knowledge to address wicked problems. We use qualitative methodology to understand the team-building process and response to the opioid epidemic in emergency care. We collected data through direct observation of nine health system science researchers and thought leaders as they performed in team-building activities and semi-structured interviews. The cultural exchange framework informed our selection and assessment of team-building activities, and the science of team science (SciTS) framework informed our understanding of promoting interdisciplinary collaborations. We identified six themes representing three areas: (1) Knowledge Building and Strategy Development (need for interdisciplinary understanding of substance abuse and mental health in the emergency department (ED); interdisciplinary approaches to fight the opioid epidemic in the ED); (2) Team Demographics and Collaboration (prescribing and collaboration; the role of interdisciplinary team composition and effectiveness in the ED); and (3) Identity and Relationship Building (role of professional identity in contributing to interdisciplinary research; building effective organizational relationships in the ED). Members’ personal and professional connections are fundamental for developing nuanced interdisciplinary strategies to respond to the opioid epidemic in the ED. We discuss implications for strategies that promote team building and improve treatment practices.

The Effect of Cultural Dimensions on the Development of Intra-Team Trust in Global Virtual Teams

2011 ◽  
pp. 64-81
Author(s):  
Kurt D. Kirstein
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Teams ◽  
Power Distance ◽  
Virtual Team ◽  
Uncertainty Avoidance ◽  
Cultural Dimensions ◽  
Team Leaders ◽  
Global Virtual Teams ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Widespread Adoption ◽  
Team Trust

The widespread adoption of global virtual teams has been driven by an unprecedented need to draw upon talents of employees from around the globe in a manner that is both organizationally and financially feasible. The success of these teams depends largely on the levels of intra-team trust and collaboration they are able to establish throughout the life of their projects. Team members on global virtual teams may differ substantially on a number of cultural dimensions including preferences for individualistic versus collective teamwork, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and contextual communication. This chapter will investigate how these four cultural dimensions are likely to impact intra-team trust within a global virtual team. Suggestions that team leaders can utilize to address these cultural dimensions are also presented.

Success Factors for the Management of Global Virtual Teams for Software Development

2012 ◽  
pp. 239-249
Author(s):  
Javier García Guzmán ◽  
Javier Saldaña Ramos ◽  
Antonio Amescua Seco ◽  
Ana Sanz Esteban
Keyword(s):  
Software Development ◽  
Virtual Teams ◽  
Success Factors ◽  
Development Project ◽  
Global Virtual Teams ◽  
Industrial Case Study ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Software Development Project ◽  
Geographical Dispersion

The management of globally distributed software teams is complex because of problems of linguistic differences, geographical dispersion, different time zones, and the cultural diversity of the team members; what is particularly common in software development environments. These problems are amplified when a single software development team is composed of highly skilled individuals working in dispersed geographical locations, and they have to work as a team across distances. This paper describes several of the most important factors that contribute to the correct and effective management of global virtual teams for software development and underlying solutions are addressed to reduce cultural and time barriers. These factors are obtained from an industrial case study, which lasted 36 months, corresponding to a huge software development project that involved several global virtual teams. These success factors consider different perspectives as technology, human factors and process.

Virtual Team Leadership, Operation, and Technology Deployment

2022 ◽  
pp. 165-181
Author(s):  
Anatoli Quade
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Teams ◽  
Success Factors ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Team Building ◽  
Team Leadership ◽  
Virtual Team ◽  
Team Members ◽  
New Ways Of Working ◽  
Critical Success ◽  
Virtual Team Leadership

The COVID-19 situation has shown many leaders that their face-to-face meetings leadership style may well now be a thing of the past. Tech-savvy companies are now deploying new technologies to support the creation and leadership of virtual teams, working remotely in different locations around the globe. This presents a range of new challenges for both project leaders and team members, who must now adopt new ways of working. Using an inductive approach based on an analysis of relevant literature, online surveys, and in-depth interviews with project leaders and other practitioners, this chapter examines the transitioning to virtual team leadership and operation, identifies critical success factors, and discusses the facilitating role of new technologies. An operational model (V-CORPS) to guide the building and operation of virtual teams is developed and explained with the aim of increasing the flexibility and efficiency of virtual project teams and establishing a checklist of action points for team building and leading.

scholarly journals Methodology Proposal for Increasing Swift Trust within Virtual Teams in the Inception Phase of a Project Life-Cycle: Project Manager’s Perspective

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 95-109
Author(s):  
Bojan Morić Milovanović ◽  
Tomislav Krišto ◽  
Stjepan Srhoj
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Virtual Environment ◽  
Virtual Teams ◽  
Team Building ◽  
Project Managers ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Trust Development ◽  
Project Life Cycle ◽  
Swift Trust ◽  
Project Life

AbstractThis paper proposes team building methodology for project managers in virtual teams as means to develop swift trust between new team members in the inception phase of the project life cycle. Proposed methodology encompasses activities within the first three days after the team formation and proposes the measuring tools for monitoring and managing trust development within the project team. Aim of this paper is to provide new insights to various decision makers potentially interested in increasing the performance of project teams operating in virtual environment, such as: investors, business owners and project managers working in virtual environment.

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