Creating Value through Virtual Teams: A Current Literature Review

Abstract

Globally, virtual teams (VT) as ICT-enabled emergent network organisation forms have gained international validity by innovative organisations, with a corresponding surge of interest in understanding how organisations can leverage VT to create business value. Despite growing deliberations in VT literature on managing VT, tasks and outcomes, however, creating business value through VT remains an unresolved theoretical and pragmatic conundrum. A review of prior relevant literature is essential to advancing knowledge. The paucity of published review articles seems to have impeded the field's accumulation of VT knowledge. This research, therefore, reviews the current literature on case studies of VT to address the question: What are organisational challenges in creating business value through VT in the organisation? The key challenges found in the literature are effective communication, knowledge sharing, trust, and interpersonal skills in the new virtual boundary-less environment. Drawing on the IT business value model, we also discuss their resource-based implications.

Virtual team professional learning and development for practitioners in education

“…They collaborate, experience openness in their networks and partnerships, and premise interactions on mutual trust, respect, and support (Bolam et al 2005, Stoll et al 2006). Like their face-to-face counterparts, successful virtual teams of teachers ensure effective communication; develop processes for knowledge sharing; ensure relational trust; and support the growth of interpersonal skills in virtual workplace spaces (Chatfield et al 2014). These virtual teacher teams can be explicitly premised on a sociocultural theory of learning where novice participants engage in legitimate peripheral participation and become more proficient in the practices of the group (Lave and Wenger 1991).…”

“…Nevertheless virtual teams of teachers may rarely meet in face-to-face settings and conduct most of their decision making and communication using digital tools. Furthermore, they can support positive outcomes because they enable highly specialised or qualified teachers to contribute to an online group regardless of their geographical location (Chatfield et al 2014).…”

“…Importance is placed on the skills involving relationships between people, communication processes and technology use (Chatfield et al 2014).…”

A social learning theory model for understanding team-based professional communication learning for computer science students

“…In their review of case studies on virtual teams Chatfield et al (2013) identified key organisational challenges in the virtual environment as "effective communication, knowledge sharing, trust, and interpersonal skills". Walther (1996) and Han and Beyerlein (2014, 16) found evidence that "virtual interactions can lead to development of more intense interpersonal relationships than face-to-face interactions, because virtual interactions allow individuals more control over how they present themselves".…”

Work and non-work identities in global virtual teams

“…452-453). The shift toward this new form of working (GVTs) has been reported to have its set of challenges in management (Chatfield et al , 2014; Jimenez et al , 2017; Lukić and Vračar, 2018). Few decades ago these challenges were only confined to expatriates, but due to rapid globalization, employees working in cross-cultural environments across different industries face these challenges on day to day basis (Ng et al , 2012).…”