IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/comaot/v6y2000i4d10.1023_a1009654229352.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Virtual Teams: What are their Characteristics, and Impact on Team Performance?

Author

Listed:
  • Sze-Sze Wong

    (Duke University)

  • Richard M. Burton

    (Duke University)

Abstract

To date, efforts to understand virtual teaming have been largely anecdotal and atheoretical. Therefore, drawing from the extant research in the groups domain, we attempt to ground the definition of a virtual team in well-established group-level constructs, and design a simulation study to investigate the impact of different virtual team characteristics on team performance. Essentially, we argue that the virtual team is defined by three key characteristics—the virtual team context, the virtual team composition, and the virtual team structure. Using the VDT computational discrete event simulation model as our experimental platform, we simulated different virtual team models, and examined their impact on various team performance dimensions. We found that virtual team characteristics have different effects on different aspects of team performance. The virtual context team had a lower rework volume but higher coordination volume and longer project duration than the virtual composition team. Interestingly, we also found that the virtual structure team performed better than the software development team baseline model in all aspects of team performance. Based on these results, we proposed strategies to improve performance in different types of virtual team. Specifically, we propose (1) increasing the ease of communication and availability of routines in the virtual context team; (2) clarifying role expectations and fostering a team culture in the virtual composition team; and (3) implementing a lateral structure in the virtual team. Our results also suggest that firms should consider situational demands, specifically tolerance for errors and coordination volume, when considering the design of virtual teams.

Suggested Citation

  • Sze-Sze Wong & Richard M. Burton, 2000. "Virtual Teams: What are their Characteristics, and Impact on Team Performance?," Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, Springer, vol. 6(4), pages 339-360, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:comaot:v:6:y:2000:i:4:d:10.1023_a:1009654229352
    DOI: 10.1023/A:1009654229352
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1023/A:1009654229352
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1023/A:1009654229352?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lee Sproull & Sara Kiesler, 1986. "Reducing Social Context Cues: Electronic Mail in Organizational Communication," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 32(11), pages 1492-1512, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Chris P. Long & Richard M. Burton & Laura B. Cardinal, 2002. "Three Controls are Better than One: A Computational Model of Complex Control Systems," Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, Springer, vol. 8(3), pages 197-220, October.
    2. Mehdi Hashemipour & Steven Stuban & Jason Dever, 2018. "A disaster multiagent coordination simulation system to evaluate the design of a first‐response team," Systems Engineering, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 21(4), pages 322-344, July.
    3. Ale Ebrahim, Nader & Ahmed Shamsuddin & Abdul Rashid, Salwa Hanim & Taha, Zahari, 2012. "Effective Virtual Teams for New Product Development," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 7(21), pages 1971-1985.
    4. Paul Kintu & André Waal, 2021. "Impact of structure and culture on organizational performance: the case of Uganda’s High Court," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 1(10), pages 1-20, October.
    5. Hong Joo Lee & Hyung Jun Ahn & Jong Woo Kim & Sung Joo Park, 2006. "Capturing and reusing knowledge in engineering change management: A case of automobile development," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 8(5), pages 375-394, December.
    6. Nader Ale Ebrahim & Shamsuddin Ahmed & Zahari Taha, 2009. "Virtual Teams for New Product Development: An Innovative Experience for R&D Engineers," Post-Print hal-00593361, HAL.
    7. Gandal, Neil & Stettner, Uriel, 2014. "Network Dynamics and Knowledge Transfer in Virtual Organizations: Overcoming the Liability of Dispersion," CEPR Discussion Papers 9980, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    8. Ale Ebrahim, Nader & Ahmed, Shamsuddin & Taha, Zahari, 2010. "SMEs; Virtual research and development (R&D) teams and new product development: A literature review," MPRA Paper 26989, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 10 Jun 2010.
    9. Ale Ebrahim, Nader & Ahmed, Shamsuddin & Taha, Zahari, 2008. "Virtuality, Innovation and R&D Activities," MPRA Paper 27267, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 12 Apr 2009.
    10. Debarshi Mukherjee & Nidhi S. Natrajan, 2017. "Comparative Analysis of Social Media Tool Used in Software Projects Deploying Virtual Teams," Vision, , vol. 21(4), pages 397-409, December.
    11. Rutuparn Anil Pandey & Nidhi Shridhar Natrajan & Rinku Sanjeev & Chitra, 2024. "Virtual teams and software project management success in a developing country: an empirical study," International Journal of System Assurance Engineering and Management, Springer;The Society for Reliability, Engineering Quality and Operations Management (SREQOM),India, and Division of Operation and Maintenance, Lulea University of Technology, Sweden, vol. 15(6), pages 2689-2703, June.
    12. Zheng, Sijing & Zeng, Xiaohua & Zhang, Cheng, 2016. "The effects of role variety and ability disparity on virtual group performance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(9), pages 3468-3477.
    13. Tavoletti, Ernesto & Bernhard, Theresa & Dong, Longzhu & Taras, Vas, 2023. "Peer performance evaluations in global virtual teams: A longitudinal analysis of surface- and deep-level attributes," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 29(3).
    14. Marijn A. Keijzer & Michael Mäs & Andreas Flache, 2018. "Communication in Online Social Networks Fosters Cultural Isolation," Complexity, Hindawi, vol. 2018, pages 1-18, November.
    15. Nader Ale Ebrahim & Shamsuddin Ahmed & Zahari Taha, 2009. "Virtual R & D teams in small and medium enterprises: A literature review," Post-Print hal-00593358, HAL.
    16. Ning Nan & Erik W. Johnston & Judith S. Olson, 2008. "Unintended consequences of collocation: using agent-based modeling to untangle effects of communication delay and in-group favor," Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, Springer, vol. 14(2), pages 57-83, June.
    17. Shafia, Mohammad Ali & Ale Ebrahim, Nader & Ahmed, Shamsuddin & Taha, Zahari, 2009. "Consideration of the virtual team work and disabled citizens, as promising opportunity providers for the e government infrastructure's formation," MPRA Paper 27265, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 10 Apr 2009.
    18. Gandal, Neil & Stettner, Uriel, 2016. "Network dynamics and knowledge transfer in virtual organisations," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 270-290.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nault, Kelly A. & Sezer, Ovul & Klein, Nadav, 2023. "It’s the journey, not just the destination: Conveying interpersonal warmth in written introductions," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    2. Alison J. Bianchi & Soong Moon Kang & Daniel Stewart, 2012. "The Organizational Selection of Status Characteristics: Status Evaluations in an Open Source Community," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 23(2), pages 341-354, April.
    3. Stefan Hoffmann & Tom Joerß & Robert Mai & Payam Akbar, 2022. "Augmented reality-delivered product information at the point of sale: when information controllability backfires," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 50(4), pages 743-776, July.
    4. Catherine Durnell Cramton, 2001. "The Mutual Knowledge Problem and Its Consequences for Dispersed Collaboration," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 12(3), pages 346-371, June.
    5. Antoci, Angelo & Bonelli, Laura & Paglieri, Fabio & Reggiani, Tommaso & Sabatini, Fabio, 2019. "Civility and trust in social media," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 83-99.
    6. Sumita Raghuram & Philipp Tuertscher & Raghu Garud, 2010. "Research Note ---Mapping the Field of Virtual Work: A Cocitation Analysis," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 21(4), pages 983-999, December.
    7. Vivi Nastase & Sabine Koeszegi & Stan Szpakowicz, 2007. "Content Analysis Through the Machine Learning Mill," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 16(4), pages 335-346, July.
    8. Yates, JoAnne, 1951- & Orlikowski, Wanda J., 1993. "Knee-jerk anti-LOOPism and other E-mail phenomena : oral, written, and electronic patterns in computer-mediated communication," Working papers WP 3578-93., Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Sloan School of Management.
    9. Eric Buffenoir & Isabelle Bourdon, 2012. "Reconciling complex organizations and data management," Working Papers hal-00744410, HAL.
    10. Fabio Sabatini & Francesco Sarracino, 2017. "Online Networks and Subjective Well-Being," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 70(3), pages 456-480, August.
    11. Sidhu, Jatinder S. & Volberda, Henk W., 2011. "Coordination of globally distributed teams: A co-evolution perspective on offshoring," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 278-290, June.
    12. In Cho, 2015. "Facebook discontinuance: discontinuance as a temporal settlement of the constant interplay between disturbance and coping," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 49(4), pages 1531-1548, July.
    13. Elina H. Hwang & Param Vir Singh & Linda Argote, 2015. "Knowledge Sharing in Online Communities: Learning to Cross Geographic and Hierarchical Boundaries," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 26(6), pages 1593-1611, December.
    14. Eva-Maria Pesendorfer & Sabine T. Koeszegi, 2006. "Hot Versus Cool Behavioural Styles in Electronic Negotiations: The Impact of Communication Mode," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 141-155, March.
    15. Michele Griessmair & Sabine T. Koeszegi, 2009. "Exploring the Cognitive-Emotional Fugue in Electronic Negotiations," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 213-234, May.
    16. Stephanie Watts Sussman & Wendy Schneier Siegal, 2003. "Informational Influence in Organizations: An Integrated Approach to Knowledge Adoption," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 14(1), pages 47-65, March.
    17. Christensen, Peter Holdt & Foss, Nicolai J., 2021. "Present-but-online: How mobile devices may harm purposeful co-presence in organizations (and what can be done about it)," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 84-94.
    18. Nadine Schaarschmidt & Thomas Koehler, 2021. "Experiencing Emotions in Video-Mediated Psychological Counselling Versus to Face-to-Face Settings," Societies, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-10, March.
    19. YunJu Kim & Jong Woo Jun, 2020. "Factors Affecting Sustainable Purchase Intentions of SNS Emojis: Modeling the Impact of Self-Presentation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(20), pages 1-14, October.
    20. Chih-Hung Peng & Nicholas H. Lurie & Sandra A. Slaughter, 2019. "Using Technology to Persuade: Visual Representation Technologies and Consensus Seeking in Virtual Teams," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 30(3), pages 948-962, September.

    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:spr:comaot:v:6:y:2000:i:4:d:10.1023_a:1009654229352. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.