Virtual Teams That Work: Creating Conditions for Virtual Team Effectiveness

Virtual Teams That Work offers a much–needed, comprehensive guidebook for business leaders and managers who want to create the organizational conditions that will help virtual teams thrive. Each chapter in this important book focuses on best practices and includes case studies and illustrative examples from a wide variety of companies, including British Petroleum, Lucent Technologies, Ramtech, SoftCo, and Whirlpool Corporation. These real–life examples demonstrate how the principles identified in the book play out within virtual teams.

Virtual Teams That Work shows how organizations can put in place the structure to help team members who speak different languages and have different cultural values develop effective ways of communicating when there is little opportunity for the members to meet face–to–face. The authors also reveal how organizations can implement performance management and reward systems that will motivate team members to cooperate across multiple boundaries. And they offer the information to determine which technologies best fit a variety of virtual–team tasks and the level of information technology support needed.

Tables, Figures, and Exhibits xiii

Acknowledgments xvii

The Authors xix

1 In the Beginning: Introduction and Framework 1
Susan G. Cohen, Cristina B. Gibson

PART ONE: ESTABLISHING THE FOUNDATION: SHARED UNDERSTANDING, INTEGRATION, AND TRUST 15

Part One Introduction 17

2 Knowledge Sharing and Shared Understanding in Virtual Teams 21
Pamela J. Hinds, Suzanne P. Weisband

3 Managing the Global New Product Development Network: A Sense–Making Perspective 37
Susan Albers Mohrman, Janice A. Klein, David Finegold

4 Building Trust: Effective Multicultural Communication Processes in Virtual Teams 59
Cristina B. Gibson, Jennifer A. Manuel

Part One Summary 87

PART TWO: THE RAW MATERIALS: PEOPLE AND CONTEXT 89

Part Two Introduction 91

5 Building a Winning Virtual Team: KSAs, Selection, Training, and Evaluation 95
Richard Blackburn, Stacie Furst, Benson Rosen

6 Pay Systems for Virtual Teams 121
Edward E. Lawler III

7 Meeting the Performance Challenge: Calculating Return on Investment for Virtual Teams 145
Alec R. Levenson, Susan G. Cohen

Part Two Summary 175

PART THREE: CONSTRUCTING THE DESIGN: LEADERSHIP, KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT, AND INFORMATION SHARING 177

Part Three Introduction 179

8 Exploring Emerging Leadership in Virtual Teams 183
Kristi Lewis Tyran, Craig K. Tyran, Morgan Shepherd

9 Designing the Knowledge–Management Infrastructure for Virtual Teams: Building and Using Social Networks and Social Capital 196
Martha L. Maznevski, Nicholas A. Athanassiou

10 Overcoming Barriers to Information Sharing in Virtual Teams 214
Catherine Durnell Cramton, Kara L. Orvis

Part Three Summary 231

PART FOUR: WIRING THAT CONNECTS: IMPLEMENTING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY 233

Part Four Introduction 235

11 Context, Task, and the Evolution of Technology Use in Global Virtual Teams 239
Kenneth Riopelle, Julia C. Gluesing, Tara C. Alcordo, Marietta L. Baba, David Britt, Willie McKether, Leslie Monplaisir, Hilary Horn Ratner, Kimberly Harris Wagner

12 Technology Alignment and Adaptation for Virtual Teams Involved in Unstructured Knowledge Work 265
Nelson King, Ann Majchrzak

13 Team or Community of Practice: Aligning Tasks, Structures, and Technologies 292
Arjan Raven

Part Four Summary 307

PART FIVE: IT S ALL ABOUT ACTION: PROCESSES AND DEVELOPMENT 311

Part Five Introduction 313

14 Influence and Political Processes in Virtual Teams 317
Efrat Elron, Eran Vigoda

15 Conflict and Virtual Teams 335
Terri L. Griffith, Elizabeth A. Mannix, Margaret A. Neale

16 The Development of Global Virtual Teams 353
Julia C. Gluesing, Tara C. Alcordo, Marietta L. Baba, David Britt, Kimberly Harris Wagner, Willie McKether, Leslie Monplaisir, Hilary Horn Ratner, Kenneth Riopelle

17 Closing the Time Gap in Virtual Teams 381
Janice A. Klein, Astrid Kleinhanns

Part Five Summary 401

18 The Last Word: Conclusions and Implications 403
Cristina B. Gibson, Susan G. Cohen

Name Index 423

Subject Index 429

Cristina B. Gibson is associate research professor at the University of Southern California′s Center for Effective Organizations and has also taught at the University of Wisconsin. Her research on teams has appeared in numerous journals, and she is coauthor of a recent book on multinational teams.

Susan G. Cohen is senior research scientist at the University of Southern California′s Center for Effective Organizations and an organizational effectiveness consultant. She is the author of numerous journal articles and several books on the topic of teams.