The Impact of Informal Communication on Virtual Team Effectiveness

The Impact of Informal Communication on Virtual Team Effectiveness Chapter 1. Introduction Background of the Problem Teams, defined as collections of individuals tasked to achieve a specific, discrete goal within an organization, have become highly popular in business settings. In particular, because of globalization and other factors, virtual teams have proliferated. Virtual teams are highly reliant on synchronous electronic communication, such as that enabled by Instant Messaging (IM), to achieve alignment and efficiency. The quality of such communication allows team members to coordinate their actions, increase their productivity, and make other contributions to team success. Scholars are divided over the effectiveness of IM to virtual team success. Some scholars have reached the conclusion that IM is not as effective a means of communication as face-to-face and telephone-based communications, because IM conversations are often insubstantial and time-wasting. Other scholars have argued that IM contributes to team success because IM use builds team morale and cohesion. Scholarly work on the contribution of IM to virtual team success has been largely qualitative in nature, with very few quantitative studies on this topic. However, qualitative studies cannot in themselves furnish guidance for businesses that want to know whether IM helps or hinders their virtual teams. For such guidance, quantitative analysis is also necessary. In the absence of such analysis, making an objective business case for the presence or absence of IM from a virtual team environment is highly difficult. In this quasi-experimental case study, 8 employees at a major corporation, all of whom were on the same virtual team, were equipped with an IM system and observed for a period of 6 weeks. After the observation period, quantitative and qualitative data on the contribution of IM to virtual team effectiveness were collected. These data were utilized to reach primary conclusions about how, why, and to what extent IM use can contribute to virtual team effectiveness. Statement of the Problem The problem is that the contribution of electronic communication to virtual team effectiveness is not well understood. In the absence of this understanding, businesses lack insight into which electronic communication tools to deploy in virtual teams, and how to deploy them. Purpose of the Study The purpose of this mixed-methods case study based on data from a large technology corporation was twofold. The first, quantitative purpose of the study was to quantify the contribution of the ad hoc communication tool of IM to virtual team success. The second, qualitative purpose of the study was to explore how and why IM might contribute or fail to contribute to virtual team success. These purposes were achieved by answering three research questions. Research Questions RQ1: What is the contribution of IM to virtual team success? RQ2: How and Read More

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