Virtual teams often fail to achieve their objectives because virtual team leaders lack strategies for nurturing trust among dispersed team members. The purpose of this single case study was to explore strategies virtual team leaders in large corporate banks use to build trust among virtual team members. The population of this study included 6 virtual team leaders from a large corporate bank located in the northeast region of the United States. The interpersonal trust theory was the conceptual framework of this study. Data were collected via semistructured telephone interviews and review of company documents. The data analysis process included content analysis and thematic analysis for theme identification. Data analysis revealed four themes related to strategies that leaders of virtual teams can use to build trust among team members: reliable technology, effective communication, teamwork and participation, and respect for people and culture. A fifth theme emerged related to barriers to trust strategies. The implications for positive social change include the potential to improve work environments for virtual team members isolated because of the absence of a social context.

Globalization is a phenomena that is, because of the advances in technology, becoming more and more common. New tools for communication enables project teams to collaborate across the globe. Hence, Virtual Teams are emerging to become the new routine way of working. However, even though virtual teams are a new way of working, many project managers are expected to lead in the same way as in traditional project teams. In this qualitative bachelor thesis in informatic we have studied how trust emerges in virtual teams, and what challenges this presents. Moreover, we used these results in order to investigate and present how project managers can foster trust in virtual teams. We conducted three interviews at one of Sweden’s largest organizations with project managers well experienced with working in virtual teams. The conclusion indicates that project managers through several activities indeed can foster trust in virtual teams. In virtual teams the project manager’s interaction with the other team members is limited by the technical tools used for communication. This results in a strong dependency between trust and virtual communication. The project manager can, by establishing a continuous communication within the team, reach a higher level of coordination. This enables every team member to move forward in the same direction, towards the same end result, despite the distance between them, fostering trust. / Globalisering är ett fenomen som tack vare teknikens framsteg, blir allt vanligare. Då tekniska kommunikationsverktyg gör det möjligt för individer att kommunicera med varandra oavsett plats, har virtuella team blivit en allt mer alldaglig arbetsform. Trots att detta är ett nytt sätt att arbeta på, förväntas dock projektledare att koordinera sitt virtuella team enligt samma projektledningsmetodik som för traditionella team. Vi har i denna kvalitativa uppsats utrett hur tillit uppkommer i virtuella team, och vilka utmaningar som kan finnas för att skapa tillit i virtuella team. Med utgångspunkt i detta drar vi slutsatser om hur projektledare kan arbeta för att främja tillit i virtuella team. För att svara på uppsatsens forskningsfrågor genomfördes tre intervjuer på en av Sveriges största organisationer. Respondenterna har en lång erfarenhet av projektledning och av att arbeta i virtuella team. Slutsatsen visar att projektledare kan främja tillit i virtuella team genom olika virtuella kommunikationsaktiviteter. I virtuella team har projektledaren en begränsad kommunikationskanal till övriga projektmedlemmar, en kanal som består av tekniska kommunikationsverktyg och som skapar förutsättningar för virtuell kommunikation. Detta skapar ett starkt beroende mellan kommunikation och tillit i virtuella team. Genom att etablera en kontinuerlig kommunikation kan projektledare bättre koordinera varje projektmedlem att röra sig i rätt riktning mot ett och samma mål, vilket främjar tillit.