COVID-19 and individual performance in global virtual teams: The role of self-regulation and individual cultural value orientations

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, global virtual teams (GVTs) have become increasingly important. Drawing on conservation of resources theory and self-regulation theory, we examined the mechanism and process underlying individuals' performance in GVTs in this specific situation. We posit that the local severity of the pandemic has a negative effect on individuals' performance in GVTs and that self-regulation functions as a coping mechanism in times of pandemic-related ambient stress, reducing its negative effect on performance. We suggest that three cultural value orientations, that is, uncertainty avoidance, collectivism, and long-term orientation, explain different levels of self-regulation, which in turn moderates the relationship between the local severity of the pandemic and individual performance in GVTs. Based on a sample of 2727 individuals from 31 countries participating in an international business consulting project during the early stage of the unfolding pandemic, we show that (a) the local severity of the pandemic had a negative effect on individuals' performance, (b) the negative effect of the pandemic on performance is weaker for individuals with high self-regulation, and (c) uncertainty avoidance and long-term orientation are positively associated with self-regulation, which mediates the moderating relationship between the cultural value orientations and the relationship between the COVID-19 pandemic and individual performance in GVTs.

From the periphery to the centre: a bibliometric review of global virtual teams as a new ordinary workplace

Purpose

This study aims to offer a bibliometric analysis of the already substantial and growing literature on global virtual teams (GVTs).

Design/methodology/approach

Using a systematic literature review approach, it identifies all articles in the Web of Science from 1999 to 2021 that include the term GVTs (in the title, the abstract or keywords) and finds 175 articles. The VOSviewer software was applied to analyze the bibliometric data.

Findings

The analysis revealed three dialogizing research clusters in the GVTs literature: a pioneering management information systems and organizational cluster, a general management cluster and a growing international management and behavioural studies cluster. Furthermore, it highlights the most cited articles, authors, journals and nations, and the network of strong and weak links regarding co-authorships and co-citations. Additionally, this study shows a change in research patterns regarding topics, journals and disciplinary approaches from 1999 to 2021. Finally, the analysis illustrates the position and centrality in the network of the most relevant actors.

Practical implications

The findings can guide management practitioners, educators and researchers to the most meaningful clusters of publications on GVTs, and help navigate and make sense of the vast body of the available literature. The importance of GVTs has been growing in the past two decades, and Covid-19 has accelerated the trend.

Originality/value

This study provides an updated and comprehensive systematic literature review on GVTs. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is also the first systematic literature review and bibliometry on GVTs. It concludes by suggesting future research paths.

Reimagining e-leadership for reconfigured virtual teams due to Covid-19

Driven by an unexpected transition into virtual working worldwide as a result of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic, in this paper, we examine the extent to which existing knowledge from the literature on virtual teams (VTs) spanning two decades can be used to inform how leadership can be exercised in the Covid-19 ‘new normal’, involving ‘reconfigured’ VTs which have both similarities with, and differences from, earlier VTs. Drawing on existing literature on VTs pre-Covid-19, we explore what current (and future) VTs might look like and what this means for leadership in this new context with an emphasis on how leadership, or e-leadership, can be exercised to help the leaders of traditional, physically collocated teams that had to transition into VTs. These new e-leaders need to come to grips with a variety of new challenges in order to create high-performing and sustainable VTs. Following a semi-systematic, state-of-the-art literature review, we: (a) identify key themes and explain with a theoretical model how existing knowledge can lead to new insights for newly transitioned e-leaders; (b) discuss what future information systems (IS) researchers should focus on given the reconfiguration and new characteristics of VTs in the Covid-19 context; and (c) ‘translate’ the findings of our synthesis of the existing literature into prescriptive advice that can be used to inform practitioners.

Working from Home—Who Is Happy? A Survey of Lithuania’s Employees during the COVID-19 Quarantine Period

The virtual way of working is becoming increasingly popular due to its potential for cost savings; it is also a way for an organization to be more agile and adapt to crises such as global pandemics. This innovative way of working brings new challenges to organizations that suddenly have to switch to telework. In fact, telework raises quite a few issues for employees, related to communication, collaboration, and the application of ICT (Information and Communication Technologies). This study examined the evaluation of telework through a questionnaire by different conditional groups of 436 teleworkers in Lithuania. Through a correlation analysis between the study variables, the findings suggest that there are differences in the evaluation of factors affecting telework efficiency and qualities required from a remote worker, depending on gender, age, education, work experience, and experience of telework. The results are discussed in terms of the characteristics of the most satisfied and the most dissatisfied teleworkers.

The Transformative Potential of Disruptions: A Viewpoint

I engage with the impact of disruptions on my work life, and consider the transformative potential that these disruptions offer. I focus on four parts of my life: as a researcher, teacher, administrator and editor. In each, I examine the nature of the disruption and the way I deal with it. I also consider how the present disruption may facilitate a transformation of current practices that lead to a better world at the individual and institutional levels. Rather than lamenting the inconvenience of a crisis, I prefer to celebrate the opportunity to do better.

Team Dispersion and Performance: The Role of Team Communication and Transformational Leadership

Organizations increasingly rely on virtual teams to access geographically dispersed expertise. Yet, team dispersion introduces challenges to team communication that may negatively influence team performance. Using a sample of 53 innovation teams representing a variety of geographic dispersion configurations from completely collocated to highly dispersed, we examined the moderating role of transformational leadership on the relationship between team dispersion, team communication, and team performance. Our findings suggest that while transformational leadership is effective in reducing the negative effects of dispersion in collocated teams or ones with low levels of geographic dispersion, it is less effective helping improve the performance of highly dispersed teams. This effect may be due to a transformational leader’s difficulty in facilitating team communication in highly dispersed teams, where his or her influence might actually have counterproductive effects. We discuss the implications of our findings for theory, future research, and practice.

I think you can: transpersonal efficacy in teams

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to expand the nomological network of a relational efficacy construct, transpersonal efficacy, and examine its effect on attitudes and behaviors important for team performance. The authors identify several antecedents to transpersonal efficacy, including task interdependence, agreeableness and conscientiousness. The authors also find that transpersonal efficacy is related to relational attitudes and behaviors in teams.

Design/methodology/approach

This study consists of an online cross-sectional survey completed by participants representing a wide range of occupations, team types, contexts and industries. Participants reported on their working relationships with team members and various behavioral outcomes. Participants used the Occupational Information Network (O*NET) to describe their teammates’ job requirements and to evaluate each teammate’s ability to complete required tasks. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were used to test hypotheses.

Findings

Findings suggest that people in highly interdependent teams have more confidence in their teammates. Further, transpersonal efficacy predicts relationship, task and process conflict when controlling for team task interdependence and virtualness, along with individual differences including agreeableness and conscientiousness. Transpersonal efficacy also contributes to the prediction of relationship conflict beyond the explained variance of collective efficacy.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to our understanding of individuals in teams by using social cognitive theory, expectancy theory and uncertainty reduction theory as a base for predicting the value of transpersonal efficacy in driving relational team behaviors. The authors uniquely consider efficacy as an interpersonal construct that is related to individual behaviors and attitudes that target specific teammates, rather than the team as a whole.

Framing the Effects of Multinational Cultural Diversity on Virtual Team Processes

Globalization of the economy and the technological revolution has led to increased reliance on teams with geographically distributed membership, which has increased multiculturalism in the workplace. This study identifies factors that affect the processes and performance of nationally and culturally diverse teams working in a virtual environment. A systematic review of the literature was conducted to identify previous empirical studies in global virtual team research published from 1998 to 2014, focusing on the effects of deep diversity in the form of national culture on multinational virtual teams (MNVTs). Sixty of the 268 articles met our criteria for inclusion in this study. We concentrated on the critical factors regarding processes and outcomes in MNVTs. The resulting framework included four socioemotional and four task-related challenges for team leaders to focus on. We found that dynamic interdependency among socioemotional and task process factors affects MNVT performance.

Multilevel interventions: measurement and measures

BACKGROUND

Multilevel intervention research holds the promise of more accurately representing real-life situations and, thus, with proper research design and measurement approaches, facilitating effective and efficient resolution of health-care system challenges. However, taking a multilevel approach to cancer care interventions creates both measurement challenges and opportunities.

METHODS

One-thousand seventy two cancer care articles from 2005 to 2010 were reviewed to examine the state of measurement in the multilevel intervention cancer care literature. Ultimately, 234 multilevel articles, 40 involving cancer care interventions, were identified. Additionally, literature from health services, social psychology, and organizational behavior was reviewed to identify measures that might be useful in multilevel intervention research.

RESULTS

The vast majority of measures used in multilevel cancer intervention studies were individual level measures. Group-, organization-, and community-level measures were rarely used. Discussion of the independence, validity, and reliability of measures was scant.

DISCUSSION

Measurement issues may be especially complex when conducting multilevel intervention research. Measurement considerations that are associated with multilevel intervention research include those related to independence, reliability, validity, sample size, and power. Furthermore, multilevel intervention research requires identification of key constructs and measures by level and consideration of interactions within and across levels. Thus, multilevel intervention research benefits from thoughtful theory-driven planning and design, an interdisciplinary approach, and mixed methods measurement and analysis.

Technology-Mediated Collaboration, Shared Mental Model and Task Performance

This study takes a direct observation research approach to examine how the impact of collaboration mode on team productivity and process satisfaction is mediated by shared mental model. Team cognition and social impact theories are integrated to provide a framework for explaining how technology-mediated collaboration constrains or enhances team shared mental model development and its subsequent impact on task outcomes. Partial least squares analysis revealed that technology-mediated collaboration impacts shared mental model development. The results also demonstrate that timely and accurate development of shared mental model facilitates increases in both productivity and team process satisfaction. Direct observation of team process behaviors suggests that collaboration modes differ not only in their impact on communication facilitation but efficacy-based, motivational, and social influence factors (e.g., self-efficacy and team-efficacy, perceived salience and credibility of contributions, social influence on action, etc.) as well. Shared mental model development requires quality communication among team members that are motivated to participate by a positive team climate that promotes idea convergence.

Collaborating with ‘virtual strangers’: Towards developing a framework for leadership in distributed teams

The current study qualitatively explores emergent leadership themes within distributed teams in a large international Fortune 500 organization. Sixteen employees across different organizational sites were interviewed about experiences in both collocated and distributed teams. Previous research has typically highlighted how these teams fall on a continuum of virtuality, from purely face-to-face to entirely distributed, as well as emphasizing the importance of distributed team leaders using technology to create a virtual presence along this continuum. In addition, extant research emphasizes that leadership functions may need to vary depending on the geographic and temporal dispersion of the team. Consistent with traditional leadership theories, our findings suggest that distributed team leaders play an important role both in structuring group tasks and supporting socio-emotional group processes, and these functions vary by team distribution level. The idea that distributed teams are particularly conducive to more non-traditional forms of leadership also appeared as a consistent theme.

Self-Governance Through Group Discussion in Wikipedia

Virtual teams and other online groups can find it challenging to establish norms that allow them to effectively balance task and relational aspects of their discussions. Yet, in our reliance on organizational and team theories, small group scholars have overlooked the potential for learning from examples offered by online communities. Theories of deliberation in small groups offer scholars a way to assess such discussion-centered self-governance in online groups. The study operationalizes the conceptual definition of deliberative discussion offered by Gastil and Black (2008) to examine the small group discussions that undergird policy-making processes in a well-established online community, Wikipedia. Content analysis shows that these discussions demonstrated a relatively high level of problem analysis and providing of information, but results were mixed in the group’s demonstration of respect, consideration, and mutual comprehension. Network visualizations reveal structural patterns that can be useful in examining equality, influence, and group member roles. The combination of measures has implications for future research in deliberative discussion and virtual teamwork.

Special Review Article: Culture in groups and teams: A review of three decades of research

This article reviews research on culture in groups and teams by analyzing 85 empirical studies published in the 15 leading management journals from 1980 to 2009. At first, we review the culture values used in the 85 articles. We next review how these culture values, as independent variables or dependent variables, were studied in each research topic. Then we review the methodological issues in the 85 articles. The review shows some advances but also many gaps in both theory and methods. Therefore, we highlight critical challenges for future research.

Moving Beyond Conventional Wisdom: Advancements in Cross-Cultural Theories of Leadership, Conflict, and Teams

In this article, we discuss the importance of a cross-cultural approach to organizational behavior. To do so, we illustrate how cross-cultural research in the past two decades has enabled us to reconceptualize constructs, revise models, and extend boundary conditions in traditional organizational behavior theories. We focus on three domains-teams, leadership, and conflict-and review cross-cultural empirical evidence that has extended several theories in each of these domains. We support the claim that even well-established organizational behavior theories vary in the extent to which they may be applied unilaterally across cultures, thus identifying the critical need to advance these theories via a cross-cultural research agenda.

Collaborative Distance

This paper introduces the topic of “Collaborative Distance” within Distributed Collaboration as being an introduction to this Special Issue on Collaborative Working Environments1 (CWE). In this paper, the authors discuss various related concepts, identified during an extensive literature review, on both proximity and distance in distributed collaboration. Then, a Collaborative Distance Framework (CDF) is proposed in deriving its four dimensions and related factors from the existing body of knowledge. The following section discusses the interest of such a CDF and introduces the articles published in this special issue. The concluding section discusses the articles’ contributions, limitations and future work as well as recommendations for future research in this area.

Diffusion of virtual innovation

Drawing on Rogers' diffusion of innovations theory, specifically his innovation decision process model, this paper develops a research framework that identifies the accelerators and inhibitors of virtual world technology adoption. Categorized by level of analysis, specific factors influencing the adoption of virtual world technology by organizations are identified. At the individual level of analysis, factors such as the technology's ease of use and usefulness, as well as the individual's computer self-efficacy, trust, and enjoyment are discussed in terms of their "bottom-up" influence on technology diffusion. At the group level of analysis, different forms of group efficacy (such as computer collective efficacy and virtual team efficacy) are suggested to play a role in virtual world technology adoption and diffusion. Further, group-level technology acceptance factors (including a priori beliefs and attitudes toward the technology, as well as psychosocial variables) are proposed to influence a group's overall valence toward the technology, driving the adoption of the technology Finally, at the organizational level of analysis, technical compatibility, technical complexity, and relative advantage are explored as major factors influencing an organization's willingness to adopt virtual world technology through "top-down" diffusion that follows specific isomorphic processes. Finally, the role of organizational culture is also discussed. Through the identification and discussion of innovation diffusion factors which occur at different levels of analysis and at different stages of the innovation decision process, this study provides a framework for studying the adoption, spread, and continual use of virtual world technology.