Virtual teamwork in the context of technological and cultural transformation

Abstract

Megatrends affect all individuals and organizations in our society. Mobility and flexibility are examples of megatrends that influence our everyday lives and also intensely alter the ways we work. The deployment of virtual teams meets the new chances emerging with these trends. Employees aspire to work virtually due to benefits, such as flexibility regarding the locations and hours for working. Organizations deploy virtual teams to remain competitive regarding new technological opportunities, employee retention and cost efficiency in an increasingly digital environment. Organizations can guide their change towards virtuality by building on the knowledge of practice as well as scientific insights regarding the deployment of virtual teams. In order to provide a holistic view on the structures and processes affected by such a change and thus provide guidance, a framework for analyzing and planning organizational change is adapted to virtual teamwork and presented in this paper. The framework shows that the deployment of virtual teams affects the whole organization. This comprehensive view on the implementation of virtual teamwork allows an integration of virtual teams and focusses on their performance. The adapted framework furthermore provides links for further in-depth research in this field.

Innovative Approaches to Management of Virtual Teams Leading to Reliability and Retention

“…The use of virtual teams holds great promise for the future (Dulebohn and Hoch, 2017). Mobility and flexibility are examples of megatrends that influence everyday life and also intensively change the way we work (Großer and Baumöl, 2017). The use of virtual teams thus represents a new chance in this context.…”

“…From the point of view of competitiveness on the labour market, it is about offering a work environment that provides time flexibility. The deployment of virtual teamwork is not only supported by technological and societal changes, but also seems relevant for employee retention (Großer and Baumöl, 2017).…”

The Role of Informal Communication Within Multinational Interior Design Teams During Virtual Collaboration

“…Teams working in virtual environments or virtual teams, are defined as teams working completely virtually and only interacting via information and communication technology (ICT) (Kankanhalli et al, 2006). They may be multinational and multicultural collaborations and their members are geographically dispersed, often even worldwide, and they furthermore communicate and perform their tasks asynchronously or synchronously (Großer & Baumöl, 2017). Figure 2 tries to visualize the concept of a multinational team collaborating in a virtual environment.…”

“…According to the results, "Time" seems an important factor in the collaborative work and deadlines or fixed schedules might rush conversations, especially in virtual format. According to Großer and Baumöl (2017), if teams have more time to chat, they may develop more informal communication leading to more teamwork . Moreover, how the work environments are designed also has an impact on the the time employees have informal communications (Berman et al, 2002).…”

“…Koch and Denner, 2022;Rashdan and Ashour, 2022;Serttaş, 2021). In contrast, other authors consider "Time" as an important factor in team communications and if teams have more time to chat, they may develop more informal communication, leading to better teamwork and lack of it may rush conversations, especially in a virtual format (Garro-Abarca et al, 2021;Großer & Baumöl, 2017;Kraut et al, 1990). None of this research elaborated on "time" as a factor in relation with the informal communication among teams.…”