What can be learned from 10 years of virtual team research?

Over two-thirds of global organizations are utilizing virtual teams. This number will continue to grow in the future as technology advances. Researchers summarized 10 years of virtual team research in an article entitled Virtual Teams Research: 10 Years, 10 Themes, and 10 Opportunities in the Journal of Management. The areas that received the most attention across 243 empirical studies include: team leadership, trust, team processes, and outcomes for measuring team success. Below are key findings from each of these key areas.

Team leadership

• Team members perceived relation-oriented leaders as intelligent and creative.
• Team members perceived task-oriented leaders are more authoritarian and confident.
• Virtual team leadership influences workers’ motivation to perform and the team’s adaptability to challenges.

Trust

• Communication practices, responsiveness, knowledge sharing, and feedback impact trust within a virtual team.
• Swift trust (trust that forms quickly in short-term relationship) is crucial to teams with tight deadlines.
• Lack of trust in team members and/or technology can lead to reduced knowledge sharing.

Team processes

• There are three types of team processes: action (ie.., communication, coordination, knowledge sharing, etc.), interpersonal (i.e., interaction between individuals) and transitional.
• As teams become more virtual, actions processes, such as team coordination, decline.
• Geographical dispersion and unmotivated workers lead to interpersonal conflict.
• Predictors of team success include: efficacy, team commitment, cohesion, team empowerment, and psychological safety.
• Lack of research on transitional processes.

Outcomes for measuring team success

• The most researched outcomes are team effectiveness and team member satisfaction.
• Decision-making processes are longer for virtual teams.
• Team member satisfaction occurs when teams can manage conflict, have reliable technology, are committed to goals, and demonstrate learning behavior.
• The mechanisms by which to increase virtual team success include: quality and connectedness to the team, early goal creation, positive social environment, predictable communication, structured procedures, group-based rewards, and training.