IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nms/mamere/10.5771-0935-9915-2019-1-93.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Exploration of Team Mental Model Characteristics to Identify Opportunities and Hindrances in Global Virtual Teamwork

Author

Listed:
  • Florea, Liviu
  • Stoica, Michael

Abstract

While there is a significant volume of literature that studies teamwork, the research in virtual teams and global virtual teamwork is still developing. The current research acknowledges the popularity of virtual teamwork in today’s organizations and sheds light on the differences between global virtual and other forms of teamwork using different features of the team mental model. Compared to traditional or face-to-face teams, global virtual teams can usually achieve more significant team process gains, suggesting the existence of opportunities, while disengagement might lead to losses, indicating potential hindrances. This research aims to identify particular features of global virtual teamwork and ways in which they impact performance, using the concept of team mental model. The model is conceptualized as teams’ thought processes reflected in their members common knowledge. We examine the concept of team mental model in the form of cohesiveness, task abilities, and social loafing. We propose that virtual teams’ cohesiveness can present both opportunities and hindrances for team performance, promoting performance orientation, stimulated by the use of communication and collaboration technologies, while potentially hurting outcomes depending on the level of individualistic value orientations or anti-work norms are prevalent within the team. We also propose that global virtual teams benefit from epistemic opportunities because they have access to wide-ranging and far-reaching perspectives generated by diverse team members, as well as knowledge heterogeneity and within team cross-learning potential. Conversely, motivational losses in the form of social loafing and trust development hinder processes and outcomes of global virtual teamwork.

Suggested Citation

  • Florea, Liviu & Stoica, Michael, 2019. "Exploration of Team Mental Model Characteristics to Identify Opportunities and Hindrances in Global Virtual Teamwork," management revue - Socio-Economic Studies, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 30(1), pages 93-119.
  • Handle: RePEc:nms:mamere:10.5771/0935-9915-2019-1-93
    DOI: 10.5771/0935-9915-2019-1-93
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nomos-elibrary.de/10.5771/0935-9915-2019-1-93
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.5771/0935-9915-2019-1-93?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mădălina-Elena Stratone & Elena-Mădălina Vătămănescu & Laurențiu-Mihai Treapăt & Mihaela Rusu & Cristian-Mihai Vidu, 2022. "Contrasting Traditional and Virtual Teams within the Context of COVID-19 Pandemic: From Team Culture towards Objectives Achievement," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-19, April.
    2. Elena-Mădălina Vătămănescu & Elena Dinu & Mădălina-Elena Stratone & Roxana-Maria Stăneiu & Florina Vintilă, 2022. "Adding Knowledge to Virtual Teams in the New Normal: From Leader-Team Communication towards the Satisfaction with Teamwork," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-17, May.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nms:mamere:10.5771/0935-9915-2019-1-93. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nomos.de/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.