SS Virtual Teams That Work

1 Virtual Teams that WorkCreating Conditions forVirtual team EffectivenessCristina B. GibsonSusan G. CohenEditorsSSCopyright 2003 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights by Jossey-BassA Wiley Imprint989 Market Street, San Francisco, CA 94103-1741 part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted underSection 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either theprior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through paymentof the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc.,222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400, fax 978-750-4470, oron the web at Requests to the Publisher for permissionshould be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

2 ,111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, 201-748-6011, fax 201-748-6008,e-mail: of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author haveused their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations orwarranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of thisbook and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability orfitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended bysales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies con-tained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with aprofessional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liablefor any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but notlimited to special, incidental, consequential, or other books and products are available through most bookstores.

3 Tocontact Jossey-Bass directly call our Customer Care Department within the 800-956-7739, outside the at 317-572-3986 or fax also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Somecontent that appears in print may not be available in electronic of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataVirtual Teams that work : creating conditions for Virtual teameffectiveness / Cristina B. Gibson, Susan G. Cohen, cm. (The Jossey-Bass business & management series)Includes bibliographical references and 0-7879-6162-0 (alk. paper)1. Virtual work Teams . 2. Teams in the workplace. 3. Leadership. conferencing. I. Gibson, Cristina B. II. Cohen, Susan G..V57 '02 dc212002151295 Printed in the United States of AmericaFIRST EDITIONHB Printing10987654321 The Jossey-Bass Business & Management SeriesCristina dedicates this book to her lifelong collaborator, Stephen Gibson,who has tolerated an often Virtual spouse with the greatest of patienceand has made life a truly grand cross-cultural dedicates this book to her husband, Steve Lampert, and her son,Danny Lampert, who make everything , Figures, and Exhibits xiiiAcknowledgments xviiThe Authors xix1 In the Beginning: Introduction and Framework 1 Susan G.

4 Cohen, Cristina B. GibsonPART ONE: ESTABLISHING THE FOUNDATION: SHARED UNDERSTANDING, integration , AND TRUST 15 Part One Introduction 172 Knowledge Sharing and Shared Understanding in Virtual Teams 21 Pamela J. Hinds, Suzanne P. Weisband3 Managing the Global New Product Development Network:A Sense-Making Perspective 37 Susan Albers Mohrman, Janice A. Klein, David Finegold4 Building Trust: Effective Multicultural CommunicationProcesses in Virtual Teams 59 Cristina B. Gibson, Jennifer A. ManuelPart One Summary 87 SSixPART TWO: THE RAW MATERIALS: PEOPLE AND CONTEXT 89 Part Two Introduction 915 Building a Winning Virtual team : KSAs, Selection,Training, and Evaluation 95 Richard Blackburn, Stacie Furst, Benson Rosen6 Pay Systems for Virtual Teams 121 Edward E.

5 Lawler III7 Meeting the Performance Challenge: Calculating Returnon Investment for Virtual Teams 145 Alec R. Levenson, Susan G. CohenPart Two Summary 175 PART THREE: CONSTRUCTING THE DESIGN: LEADERSHIP, KNOWLEDGEMANAGEMENT, AND INFORMATION SHARING 177 Part Three Introduction 1798 Exploring Emerging Leadership in Virtual Teams 183 Kristi Lewis Tyran, Craig K. Tyran, Morgan Shepherd9 Designing the Knowledge-Management Infrastructurefor Virtual Teams : Building and Using Social Networksand Social Capital 196 Martha L. Maznevski, Nicholas A. Athanassiou10 Overcoming Barriers to Information Sharing in Virtual Teams 214 Catherine Durnell Cramton, Kara L. OrvisPart Three Summary 231 PART FOUR: WIRING that CONNECTS: IMPLEMENTINGINFORMATION TECHNOLOGY 233 Part Four Introduction 23511 Context, Task, and the Evolution of Technology Usein Global Virtual Teams 239 Kenneth Riopelle, Julia C.

6 Gluesing, Tara C. Alcordo, Marietta L. Baba, David Britt,Willie McKether, Leslie Monplaisir, Hilary Horn Ratner, Kimberly Harris WagnerxCONTENTS12 Technology Alignment and Adaptation for Virtual TeamsInvolved in Unstructured Knowledge work 265 Nelson King, Ann Majchrzak13 team or Community of Practice: Aligning Tasks, Structures,and Technologies 292 Arjan RavenPart Four Summary 307 PART FIVE: IT S ALL ABOUT ACTION: PROCESSES AND DEVELOPMENT 311 Part Five Introduction 31314 Influence and Political Processes in Virtual Teams 317 Efrat Elron, Eran Vigoda15 Conflict and Virtual Teams 335 Terri L. Griffith, Elizabeth A. Mannix, Margaret A. Neale16 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 Riopelle17 Closing the Time Gap in Virtual Teams 381 Janice A.

7 Klein, Astrid KleinhannsPart Five Summary 40118 The Last Word: Conclusions and Implications 403 Cristina B. Gibson, Susan G. CohenName Index 423 Subject Index 429 CONTENTSxiTABLES, FIGURES, AND Comparison of Negative Trust Excerpts per team Analysis of Variance Multiple Comparisons: Mean Number of IndividualNegative Expressions of Trust Impact of Job- and Skill-Based Pay Virtual Teams and Skill-Based Pay Impact of Pay for Performance Teams and Pay for Performance Objective Business Outcomes Subjective Business Outcomes Design, Input, and Process Issues Objective Business Outcomes for Consumer DurablesScenario Planning team Subjective Business Outcomes for Consumer DurablesScenario Planning team Design, Input, and Process Issues for Scenario Planning team Range of Expected Benefits from the Scenario PlanningTeam s work Objective Business Outcomes for the Vehicle R&D team Subjective Business Outcomes for the Vehicle R&D team Design, Input.

8 And Process Issues for the Vehicle R&D team Objective Business Outcomes for the Postmerger integration team Subjective Business Outcomes for the Postmerger integration team Design, Input, and Process Issues for the PostmergerIntegration team team Performance and Emergent Leadership Configurations of Social Capital for Virtual team Tasks Case Study Profiles Technology for Global Virtual Teams Characteristics of Unstructured Knowledge work Technological Support of Knowledge as Objectand Knowledge as Action Implications for Technologies Enabling UnstructuredKnowledge work Structures and Technologies Influence Tactics Case Study Details Summary of Learnings Research Framework The Effects of team Characteristics on Shared Understanding Iterative Sense Making 39xivTABLES, FIGURES, AND Interactive Collaboration KSAs for Projects and Tasks, Teams .

9 And Virtual Teams Example of Virtual team Performance Cockpit Example of Virtual team Member Performance Cockpit Social Capital and Virtual team Knowledge Management Social Network Configurations and team MemberPosition Centrality team Advice Network that Leads to Social Capital Complementary Dimensions of Tacit and Explicit Knowledge Types of Information Found in Group Collaboration Task Complexity Typology Illustration of Task Complexity Typology in Global Virtual Teams Key Dimensions of Communities of Practice and Teams Range of Virtualness Levels of Conflict for Colocated and Distributed Teams Process Conflict, Trust, and Distribution Perceived Ability to Notice Conflict, Trust, and Distribution Development of Global Virtual Teams Case Study Profiles The Perils of Time Pressures The Three Phases of team Collaboration Impact of Time Gap on Synchronousand Asynchronous Interaction Sample Interview Questions Trust Words 82 TABLES, FIGURES, AND EXHIBITSxvACKNOWLEDGMENTSThis book is the result of numerous Virtual collaborations among fundingsources, valued colleagues, and superb support staff.

10 The National ScienceFoundation s Innovation and Organization Change Division provided fund-ing to our research team at the Center for Effective Organizations (CEO) (Grant9975612) and to the Laboratory for Information Technology and Culture atWayne State University. Special thanks go to Mariann Jelinek, past program offi-cer at the National Science Foundation, for supporting (and attending!) the proj-ect conference that brought together the chapter authors so that we could shareideas with each other and with practitioners. We at CEO also receivedsupplemental funding from the Center for Innovation and Management Studiesat the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and the Laboratory for Infor-mation Technology and Culture received funding from the Wayne State Univer-sity Targets of Opportunity extend warm gratitude to all of the chapter authors for their insights, cre-ativity, and willingness to craft their ideas in such a manner that resulted in anintegrated book.