Concept: degree to which your team is dispersed geographically or nationally; and/or communicates via technology
>E.g., what percent of your team is co-located in the same office versus distributed virtually accross geographies?
Effects of virtuality on team performance
- Geographic dispersion reduces contextual knowledge, increases coordination complexity. So you need to foster exchange of contextual knowledge
- National dispersion introduces different communication preferences; reduces identification with the team. So you need to bridge in-group(co-located members or same nationality members) and out-group members(peripheral members); integrate preferences while allowing for uniqueness.
- Electronic dependence reduces control and monitoring, reduces clarity and communication richness. So you need to increase feedback giving and seeking; develop social cues and clear e-comm norms.
Source: Gibson and Gibbs, Administrative Science Quaterly, 2006
Three strategies to improve performance front of virtuality
>Strategy 1: Foster team empowerment
In virtual setting, high empowerment of the team results in better team performance.
Source: Kirkman et al., Academy of Management Journal, 2004
>Strategy 2: Build support structures
Virtuality makes it harder... but building structural support helps.
Example: Clear and fair reward structure | Clear task structures and roles | Consistent information sharing
Source: Hoch and Kozlowski, Journal of Applied Psychology, 2014
>Strategy 3: Build a "Safe"(Psychological) environment
In highly virtual team (e.g:geo dispersed), if you do not build safe environment, team performance suffers dramatically
Source: Gibson and Gibbs, Administrative Science Quaterly, 2006