اعتماد و به اشتراک گذاری دانش در تیم های مجازی جهانی متنوع

Global virtual teams (GVTs) allow organizations to improve productivity, procure global knowledge, and transfer best practice information instantaneously among team members. GVTs rely heavily on IT and have little face-to-face interaction, thereby increasing problems resulting from geographic barriers, time language, and cultural differences, and inter-personal relationships. The purpose of our study was to design a normative framework that would assist organizations in understanding the relationship between diversity, mutual trust, and knowledge sharing among GVTs, with additional focus on understanding the moderating impact of collaborative technology and task characteristics. Empirical data was collected from 58 GVTs and analyzed using a Hierarchical Multiple Regression technique. Results showed that in GVTs, deep level diversity has a more significant relationship with team processes of mutual trust and knowledge sharing than visible functional level diversity. This relationship is moderated by the collaborative capabilities of available technology and levels of interdependence of the task. Furthermore, knowledge sharing and mutual trust mediate the relationship between diversity levels and team effectiveness.

Global virtual teams (GVTs) are groups that (a) are identified by their organizations and group members as being a team; (b) are responsible for making and implementing decisions important to the organization's strategy [8]; (c) use technology-supported communication more than face-to-face communication; and (d) work and live in different countries. Compared to virtual and co-located traditional teams, GVTs connect people across organizational units whose policies, systems, and structures may not mesh together easily. They involve people from multiple disciplines, functions, location, and culture; organizations work together on specific opportunities. Also, their major use of electronic medium is to aid the GVTs; team members must operate quickly and effectively and this requires high levels of technological support. Technology has therefore become absolutely critical for GVTs in carrying out their basic team functions: communicating, decision-making, learning, collaborating, and managing knowledge. GVTs allow organizations to improve efficiency and productivity, procure global expert knowledge from internal and external sources, and provide best practice information nearly instantaneously. GVTs thus have little face-to-face (F2F) interaction and are seen as a new form of organizational structure [26]: they cut across organizational and national cultures and functional areas, increasing team diversity which may result in less effective performance. While GVTs offer an expanded range of benefits, their implementation is at risk if organizations fail to address the many challenges they present [23]. Challenges are caused by distance and time zone changes, by language and cultural differences, by adoption and implementation of technology, by member interaction, and by a lack of trust and shared understanding among the team members. Project failures have been reported and calls for better understanding of GVT problems have been made. Three areas must be considered when designing a collaborative GVT environment: people, process, and technology. Members of the GVT have no history of working together and may lack the skills needed to work effectively with people of different cultures, working in different time zones, and using incompatible systems. Members who are not competent in using new technologies present further challenges to team performance and member satisfaction [3]. Recent literature in GVT highlights the importance of relationship building, cohesion, and trust as processes that foster team effectiveness. GVTs also face significant difficulty in achieving such processes. To date, the majority of virtual team research has focused on conflict, interpersonal trust, group and individual identity, and group cohesiveness [16]. Little empirical research has explored the socio-emotional processes inherent in the virtual work environment. Models that could be used to understand better team development and effectiveness have been limited to those based on the traditional co-located teams. GVTs can potentially bring together people with knowledge and perspectives from different parts of the world to meet their objectives. But problems are complicated, because team members may be unwilling to share knowledge, and lack trust that their knowledge will be “stolen” and used by potential competitors. For teams unable to establish a shared knowledge base, problems include a failure to communicate, difficulty in understanding the importance of information, and difficulty in interpreting the meaning of silence by others [6]. Compared to FTF interaction, GVT members find it hard to establish trust in a new working relationship: it is also difficult to assess teammates’ trustworthiness without ever having met. Although various technologies offer many benefits, technological differences can result in delayed communication, frustration, and with decreased productivity and effectiveness. Thus the purpose of our study was to design a normative framework to assist organizations in understanding trust and knowledge sharing among diverse GVTs, with a focus on understanding the impact of task interdependence.

The purpose of our research was to understand the different facets of diversity present in global virtual teams and to show how differences among individual members can be harnessed by developing a trusting and sharing environment, leading to greater GVT effectiveness. Furthermore, in understanding the relationship between mutual trust, knowledge sharing, and diversity, our research demonstrated the moderating effects of collaborative technology and task interdependence. We explored the mediating effects of trust and knowledge sharing in mitigating the negative effects of diversity in the team and found that it is essential in such an environment to motivate mutual trust and knowledge sharing. We also established that task interdependence and collaborative capabilities of technology have significant impact on the functioning of team processes.