Building Effective Global Virtual Teams: An evaluation of the influence of cultural diversity, communication, rust, and leadership on the development of geographically and virtually dispersed teams.

Abstract

The overall purpose of this research is to evaluate the influence of cultural diversity, communication, trust, and leadership on the development of geographically and virtually dispersed teams. Initially, it started by identifying and studying the literature about Global Virtual Teams (GVTs). Thus, some gaps among the studies were identified, and visual representation was developed using the conceptual framework. Moreover, the author interviewed eight participants – e-leaders and software engineers from two multinational companies - to collect primary data. Thus, identifying typical pattern across interviews helped to answer the research questions. Lastly, by using Interpretivism philosophy, the author has immersed in the reality of each participant to understand the context of their background to be able to get relevant insights. Thus, applying grounded theory methodology on collected data, helped to identify codes and themes to answer the research questions. This research has uncovered a strong relationship between communication and trust, which can go both ways. Thus, trust can intensify collaboration and team performance, but communication can also influence trust development mainly when people collaborate over the camera and in regular meetings. Additionally, it has shown that Emergent Leaders are able to decrease the sense of team virtually across team members by working closely to the formal leader, thus, decentralising the decision-making process and scaling out the communication management. Furthermore, it has shown that initial trust can be fostered by introducing virtual team members to each other or by visiting other virtual teams in their countries early-on. However, delivering results and gaining credibility would help to consolidate this trust. Lastly, having an interpersonal relationship would make it more resilient and durable. Although working with GVTs can be challenging, there are some key aspects which can be taught to all team members early-on, thereby mitigating common issues. However, all members need to be willing to develop these new soft skills such as virtual sub-teaming leadership, rapport building, trust development, expectation management, and communication management, thus benefiting the team bonding and well-being of these ones directly and indirectly involved.