Many virtual team leaders lack strategies to build and maintain trust among virtual team members, which affects performance and productivity. The purpose of this exploratory single case study was to provide organizational leaders with information about the strategies that virtual team leaders use to build and maintain trust among virtual team members to enhance job performance. Cognition-based and affect-based theories of interpersonal relationships were used as a conceptual framework. In-depth, semistructured electronic interviews were conducted with 10 virtual team leaders of a multinational global organization specializing in management consulting and technology services that has headquarters in Dublin, Ireland. Interview data and documents from virtual team memos and progress reports were content analyzed with NVivo software, and member checking was used to validate transcribed data. Two major thematic categories emerged from data analysis (a) the need for effective organizational and leadership skills and (b) strategies for building and maintaining trust among virtual team members. Recommendations include reevaluating the hiring processes of virtual team leaders and members, providing adequate cross-cultural training to virtual team leaders and members, creating effective strategies for interpersonal relationships, and investing in communication technologies that foster face-to-face collaboration. Building and maintaining trust among virtual team members helps increase team performance and productivity. Implications for social change include promoting social stability, reducing projects' failure, and improving the bottom line.

Abstract The rapid advances in technology and the globalization of the economy have led corporate leaders to invest heavily in virtual teams to increase their global coverage. The problem in this phenomenological study was that many organizational leaders do not understand the extent to which they need to manage virtual teams differently from traditional, face-to-face teams. This is significant, because due to geographical differences and possibly cultural differences, virtual teams require various modes of communication. The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the lived experiences of effective virtual-team leaders and the operational strategies employed to lead them. The answer to the research questions included strategies that virtual-team leaders applied to make their teams successful. The conceptual framework was comprised of the theories of transformational leadership and leader-member exchange. Data collection took place through open-ended interviews with 20 virtual-team leaders. Moustakas' modified version of the van Kaam analysis method was used to code and organize the data. The interview data were classified into common themes to provide a better understanding of the participants' perceptions and experiences. The results indicated that the primary virtual team challenges were communication and face-to-face connections. The strategies for managing these challenges included more open and scheduled communication, making sure the team members know their roles and responsibilities, and clear and concise goals and objectives from the virtual-team leaders. The implication for positive social change is that the effectiveness of virtual-team leaders may improve thus benefiting management, employees, and customers.

Det sätt organisationer generellt hanterar att vara uppdaterade och ligga i framkant är genom arbete i team. Det är välkänt inom tidigare forskning att arbete i team leder till högre grad av kreativitet och prestation, vilket möjliggör för att ligga i framkant. Till följd av covid-19 pandemin har arbete i team blivit mer komplicerat. Utökat distansarbete i virtuella team och de utmaningar som virtuella team står inför har blivit mer påtagliga. Tidigare forskning visar att några utmaningar är kommunikation, tillit och stöd mellan medarbetare och chef. Vidare visar tidigare forskning att psykologisk trygghet är en viktig förutsättning för ett teams samarbets- och innovationsförmåga. Team som arbetar inom tech-branschen arbetar idag ofta virtuellt och ställs inför ett högt innovationstryck, de måste därför ständigt ligga i framkant och hålla sig uppdaterade på den senaste utvecklingen. Då forskning inom området vad gäller psykologisk trygghet i virtuella team är något begränsad har syftet med denna studie varit att undersöka, ur ett medarbetarperspektiv, hur psykologisk trygghet kan etableras av chefer till virtuella team. För att besvara studiens syfte har data samlats in genom en enkätundersökning riktat till medarbetare som arbetar i team vid två organisationer inom tech-branschen. Studiens resultat visade att kommunikation, tillit och stöd har en effekt på den psykologiska tryggheten på ett mer komplext sätt än vad tidigare forskning indikerat. Resultatet visade att det fanns olika underliggande dimensioner i kommunikation, tillit och stöd som är viktiga för chefer att använda sig av för att skapa ett klimat präglat av psykologisk trygghet i virtuella team. Studiens slutsatser är att psykologisk trygghet i virtuella team är en utmaning för chefer och deras ledarskap. För att övervinna utmaningar som virtuella team ställs inför och för att kunna skapa ett klimat präglat av psykologisk trygghet visade studiens resultat att det krävs ett ledarskap där chefer framför allt lägger fokus på tillitsfull kommunikation till sina medarbetare.

With funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Ira A. Fulton College of Engineering and Technology at BYU has been furthering their research on Global Virtual Teams. After Cultural Competence lessons were implemented into the classroom setting in 2010, it was decided that teaching the lessons online asynchronously could have advantages in decreasing the time professors needed to cover the content in class. In 2011, Jennifer Alexander teamed with faculty involved with the NSF grant to design and develop online Cultural Competence lessons. Beginning in August 2011 students at BYU and other cooperating campuses participated in the online Cultural Competence lessons. The online lessons were complete and ready for implementation on time; changes were made after implementation based on feedback given in student interviews; and the lessons are now ready for further development and implementation. The lessons will be shared openly with a global audience through Global Hub beginning in summer 2012.

Organisationer genomgår ständiga förändringar av olika anledningar. En förändring till följd av covid-19 är att distansarbete har haft en snabb ökning då rekommendationerna för arbetsplatser var att ställa om för att begränsa smittspridning. Att arbeta på distans kan medföra många utmaningar som ställer krav på ledare att förändra eller anpassa sitt ledarskap för att hantera omställningen effektivt. Studier om effektivt ledarskapsbeteende i en snabb och oförutsägbar organisationsförändring som under covid-19 pandemin finns det färre av.  Syftet med denna studie är att få en djupare förståelse hur ledarskap har påverkats av en påtvingad förändring till distansledarskap till följd av covid-19 samt hur ledare upplever förändringen. För att genomföra studien och få en djupare förståelse har en kvalitativ forskningsmetod använts. För att samla in data har åtta semistrukturerade intervjuer genomförts.  Genom en kvalitativ studie med intervjuer visar resultatet att ledarskapets främsta utmaningar var att fånga upp medarbetarnas välmående, avsaknaden av den sociala distansen och spontana möten. Studiens reslutat visar att relationer som tidigare funnits i hög grad fortsätter fungera bra även vid distansledarskap. Kommunikationen har utvecklas med digital hjälp och på grund av digitaliseringen och distansarbete funnits som substitut till fysiska möten. För att behålla den sociala kontakten har kommunikationen ökats för att kunna ha regelbundna möten och avstämningar.  Denna studie drar slutsatsen att det finns egenskaper ledare upplever som viktiga i deras ledarskap under distansarbete. Kommunikation, närvara och bygga relationer samt välmående anses som viktiga under distansarbete. / Organizations are undergoing constant changes for various reasons and one change as a result of covid-19 is that teleworking has had a rapid, increase as the recommendations for workplaces were to change to limit the spread of infection. Working remotely can lead to many challenges that require leaders to change or adapt their leadership to handle the transition effectively. Studying effective leadership behavior in a rapid and unpredictable organizational change the during the covid-19 pandemic has been less studied.  The purpose of this study is to gain a deeper understanding of how leadership has been affected by a forced change to distance leadership as a result of covid-19 and how leaders experience the change. A qualitative research method has been used to conduct studies and gain a deeper understanding. To collect data, eight semi-structured interview were conducted.  Through a qualitative study and interviews and theory, the results show that the main challenges of leadership were to capture the well-being of employees, the lack of social distance and spontaneous meetings. The results of the study show that relationships that previously existed to a large extent continue to work well even with distance leadership. Communication has been developed with digital help and has been a substitute for physical meetings. In order to maintain social contact, communication has increased in order to have regular meetings and reconciliations.  This study concludes that there are other qualities that leaders perceive as important in their leadership during teleworking. Communication, presence and building relationships as well as well-being are considered important during telework.

The influence of leadership on team success has been noted extensively in research and practice. However, as organizations move to flatter team based structures with workers communicating virtually across space and time, our conceptualization of team leadership must change to meet these new workplace demands. Given this need, the current study aims to begin untangling the effects of distribution and virtuality on team leadership structure and subsequent team outcomes that may be affected by differences in conceptualizing such structures. Specifically, the goals of this study were threefold. First, this study investigated how the physical distribution of members may impact perceptions of team leadership structure, depending on virtual tool type utilized for communicating. Second, this study explored how different indices of team leadership structure may have different influences on team outcomes, specifically in terms of conceptualizing the degree to which multiple members are perceived as collectively enacting particular leadership behaviors via a network density metric, and conceptualizing team leadership in regards to the specialization of members into particular behavioral roles, as captured via role distance and role variety indices. Finally, this study expanded on current research regarding team leadership structure by examining how the collective enactment of particular leadership (i.e., structuring/planning, problem solving, supporting social climate) behaviors may facilitate specific teamwork processes (i.e., transition, action, interpersonal), leading to enhanced team performance, as well as how leadership role specialization may impact overall teamwork and team performance. Findings from a laboratory study of 188 teams participating in a simulated decision making task reveal a significant interaction for the influences of physical distribution and iv virtuality on perceptions of leadership structure, such that less distributed teams (i.e., those with fewer isolated members) were more likely to perceive their distributed members as participating in the collective enactment of necessary leadership responsibilities when communicating via richer media (i.e., videoconferencing, teleconferencing) than less rich media (i.e., instant messaging). However, virtuality and distribution did not impact the degree to which members were perceived as specializing in a particular leadership role, or the overall variety of leadership roles being performed. In terms of team outcomes, the perceived collective enactment of leadership emanating from distributed team members significantly predicted teamwork, while the perceived collective leadership of collocated members did not have a significant impact. Specifically, greater distributed team member involvement in the collective enactment of structuring/planning leadership positively impacted team transition processes, while the collective enactment of supporting the social climate positively predicted team interpersonal processes. Although the relationship between perceived leadership role specialization, in terms of role distance and role variety, and team performance was mediated by overall teamwork processes as expected, leadership role specialization had a negative impact on overall teamwork. Finally, while team action processes did not serve to mediate the relationship between perceived problem solving network density and team performance, team transition processes mediated the relationships between the collective enactment of structuring/planning for distributed members and team performance. The collective enactment of supporting the social climate by distributed team members and its relationship to team performance was also mediated by interpersonal teamwork processes. Together, these results reveal the importance in considering context, specifically virtuality and physical distribution, when designing, developing v and maintaining effective team leadership, teamwork, and team performance. Furthermore, they provide unique insight regarding how different configurations of leadership may be possible in teams. Study limitations, practical implications, and recommendations for future research and practice are further discussed.

Då det finns ett intresse för den kollektiva lärprocessen inom många organisationer är syftet med studien att undersöka hur processen sker och hur den påverkas inom team som arbetar helt eller delvis på distans. För att förstå vad som påverkar lärprocessen och hur den kan främjas har studien undersökt vilka förutsättningar för kollektivt lärande som finns i teamen, främst utifrån en teori om att praktikgemenskaper underlättar teamets lärande. Studien utfördes enligt en komparativ fallstudiedesign med semistrukturerade intervjuer samt en observation, där två olika team jämfördes med varandra. Resultatet visade att det finns möjlighet att uppnå kollektivt lärande inom team som arbetar helt eller delvis på distans men att utfallet i enlighet med teorin påverkas av huruvida det finns ett delat kunskapsområde där medlemmarna utgår från ett gemensamt mål, en gemensam praktik med en tydlig struktur för kommunikation samt en stark gemenskap inom teamet. Däremot gick det inte att helt bortse från vikten av att träffas ansikte mot ansikte. / As there is an interest in the collective learning process within many organizations, the aim of the study is to investigate how the process takes place and how it is affected within teams that work fully or partially remotely. In order to understand what influences the learning process and how it can be promoted, the study has investigated the conditions for collective learning which exist in teams, primarily based on a theory that communities of practice facilitate team learning. The study was carried out according to a comparative case study design with semi-structured interviews and an observation, where two different teams were compared to one another. The results showed that it is possible to achieve collective learning within teams that work partially or fully remotely, but that the outcome, in accordance with the theory, is affected by whether there is a domain of knowledge where the members share a common goal, a shared practice with a clear structure for communication and a strong community within the team. However, the importance of meeting face to face could not be completely ignored.

The use of virtual teams (VTs) in the workplace has increased rapidly as companies seek to coordinate the collaboration of geographically dispersed employees effectively. This study involved an experimental comparison of VTs and face-to-face teams engaged in coopetition. Coopetition occurs when a relationship is characterized by simultaneous cooperation and competition. This study differed from previous research because many previous studies of team coopetition place their focus on traditional face-to-face teams and fail to touch upon the intricacies of VT coopetition. Because of this, investigating the intricacies of coopetition among VT members is an essential addition to the large body of research on face-to-face teams. This study examined team coopetition through separate measures of competitiveness and cooperativeness. The constructs competitiveness and cooperativeness were measured separately instead of together on a single continuum. This method determined team members’ coopetitive proclivities, the balance between one’s tendency to perform behaviors directed toward achieving a self-serving goal or goals and one’s tendency to perform behaviors directed toward achieving a group-serving goal or goals within the context of a coopetitive relationship. Team members’ coopetitive proclivities were examined through a combination of videogame play and electronic surveys. All participants in this experiment were female. No significant differences between the coopetitive proclivities of virtual and face-to-face teams were found. We found that the ratings of competence that participants received from their partners tended to be lower under the virtual condition. We found that extroverted team members were more likely to cooperate. We also found that the ratings of competitiveness that participants received from their partners were negatively correlated with the ratings of desirability for future collaboration (i.e., team viability) that participants received from their partners. Further, it was determined that the ratings of cooperativeness that participants received from their partners were positively correlated with the ratings of team viability that participants received from their partners. Additional results indicated a positive relationship between team members’ self-reported levels of agreeableness and the ratings of competence that participants received from their partners. Results also indicated a positive relationship between team members’ self-reported levels of openness and the ratings of competence that participants received from their partners. This paper discusses the implications of these results and possible directions for future study.

Current research has established the importance of establishing individual trust in global virtual teams to achieve project success. Global virtual teams (GVTs) emerged as a result of the growth of multi-national corporations (MNCs) conducting business operations in more than one country. This research explores eliminating the need to establish individual trust among the members of short-lived global virtual teams and suggests an institutional trust in the project’s processes can suffice. Beginning with an exploration of various aspects of trust, it draws from the current literature on individual and institutional trust in the real and virtual worlds. The data were gathered using two versions of an online survey administered to global virtual teams working for Infosys®, Inc., a global leader in technology services and consulting. The analysis was limited to small, short-lived Information Technology (IT) virtual teams of four to six members. Survey responses were received from 273 managers and 195 virtual team members. The results found support for institutional trust in the process, established through the team members’ favorable perception of their project’s online processes, as having a significant effect on supporting both individual trust among the team members, as well as ensuring project success. The paper concludes with potential costs and benefits to multi-national companies in their management and training of virtual teams. Finally, I provide suggestions for further research into the elimination of trust building exercises for short-lived virtual teams, as well as implications of these results for academicians and practitioners. Key words: trust, trustworthiness, reliance, process knowledge, multi-national Companies (MNCs), global virtual teams, computer-mediated environments / Business Administration/Strategic Management

Distansarbete är ett fenomen som har vuxit fram de senaste decennierna och som förväntas att öka mer inom den närmaste framtiden. Fenomenet kan påverka individer och organisationer på ett antal olika sätt och kan medföra både positiva och negativa effekter. Denna studie undersöker hur hybridarbetsmodeller påverkar kommunikations- och samarbetsdynamiken inom en kundtjänstavdelning. När fler organisationer övergår till hybridarbetsplatser, där arbetstagare skiftar mellan distans- och kontorsarbete, har nya utmaningar dykt upp som kan påverka både kommunikation och samarbete mellan arbetstagare. Syftet med denna undersökning är att utforska personalens erfarenheter och upplevelser på en hybridarbetsplats, med särskilt fokus på deras kommunikation och samarbete. Genom att analysera den specifika kontexten för hybridarbete, är målet med studien att belysa hur olika arbetssätt påverkar samarbetet och informationsutbytet mellan kollegor, vilket i sin tur kan ge värdefulla insikter om hur arbetsplatser kan utformas för att främja effektiv kommunikation och samarbete. Studien undersöker detta genom att fokusera på följande frågeställningar:1. Vilka möjligheter och utmaningar ser medarbetare med hybridarbetet när det kommer till kommunikation?2. Vilka möjligheter och utmaningar ser medarbetare med hybridarbetet när det kommer till samarbete?3. Hur påverkar arbetsvana inom branschen medarbetarnas behov av kommunikation och samarbete?Baserat på den empiriska data som samlats in genom semistrukturerade intervjuer, visar studien hur semi-virtuella team, där medarbetare delvis arbetar på distans och delvis arbetar på kontoret, hanterar kommunikation och samarbete. Semi-virtuella team står inför utmaningar som påverkar kommunikationen på grund av fysisk frånvaro, vilket kräver användning av digitala verktyg och plattformar. Dessa utmaningar inkluderar risk förmissförstånd och fördröjda svarstider i asynkron kommunikation. Resultaten från studien understryker vikten av att utveckla starka kommunikationskanaler och tekniska lösningar som stödjer både synkron och asynkron kommunikation.Slutligen framhåller studien att övergången till hybridsarbete innebär både möjligheter och utmaningar för kommunikation och samarbete inom organisationer, och kräver väl utvecklade tekniska lösningar och kommunikationsstrategier. Effektiva verktyg och metoder för både synkron och asynkron kommunikation är viktiga för att minimera missförstånd och maximera samarbete. / Telecommuting is a phenomenon that has grown steadily over the past few decades and is expected to increase more in the near future. The phenomenon can affect individuals and organizations in many different ways and can have both positive and negative effects. Thisstudy investigates how hybrid work models affect communication and work dynamics within a customer service department. As more organizations shift to hybrid workplaces, where employees switch between remote and office work, new challenges have appeared that can affect both communication and cooperation between employees. The purpose of this study is to explore employees' experiences in this hybrid environment, with a particular focus on communication and collaboration. By analyzing the specific context of hybrid work, the aim of the study is to illuminate how different working methods affect collaboration and information exchange between employees, which in turn can provide valuable insights into how workplaces can be designed to promote effective communication and cooperation.The study investigates this by focusing on the following research questions:1.Which opportunities and challenges do employees see with hybrid work when it comes to communication?2. Which opportunities and challenges do employees see with hybrid work when it comes to collaboration?3. How does work experience within the field affect the employees´ need for communication and collaboration?Based on the empirical data collected through semi-structured interviews, the study shows how semi-virtual teams, where employees partly work remotely and partly work in the office, manage communication and collaboration. Semi-virtual teams face challenges that affect communication due to physical absence, requiring the use of digital tools and platforms. These challenges include risk of misunderstanding and delay the feedback and responses in asynchronous communication. The results of the study underline the importance of developing strong communication channels and technical solutions that support both synchronous and asynchronous communication.Finally, the study highlights that the transition to hybrid work means both opportunities and challenges for communication and collaboration within organizations that require welldeveloped technical solutions and communication strategies. Effective tools and methods for both synchronous and asynchronous communication are important to minimize misunderstandings and maximize collaboration.