November 14, 2023
ECU COB Research Spotlight: A longitudinal study of the interplay between team dynamics and media use in virtual teams
Publication Name: International Journal of Networking and Virtual Organisations
Authors: Chris Furner (ECU), John Drake (ECU), and Ravi Paul (ECU)
Summary: This longitudinal study explores the use of various media (email, text, video conferencing, etc.) and their differential influences on virtual team dynamics (trust and perceptions of teamwork) and performance over time. More specifically, the study explores in what ways virtual team media selection changes over time and in what ways these different media choices influence virtual team dynamics and performance differentially over time.
What types of practitioners can take action based on your research?
Project Team leads and Project Managers of virtual teams
What are the top three takeaways from your findings?
- Video conferencing increases both trust formation and performance in the early stages of teamwork but not in the latter stages. This indicates that virtual team leaders should prioritize rich media for early interactions, even if doing so is time-consuming.
- The potential benefits of social presence on future team performance suggest that it may be worth the investment of time during the early phases.
- E-mail use is tied to better performance during the later phases of interaction between virtual team members, while richer media (video conferencing, for instance) are not. Thus, virtual team managers should gauge the extent to which team members have developed intra-team trust, and if trust is high, allow the team to use less rich media (deprioritize video conferencing), which should let the members thoughtfully focus on the work at hand with little disruption.
- Categories:
- Management Information Systems