Essay Example on Ability of individuals to manage technical Uncertainties

Dani et al 2006 also identify the ability of individuals to manage technical uncertainties whilst taking leadership as additional attributes to the facilitation of trust formation within groups Communication behaviours that maintain trust in a group are predictable communication as well as substantial and timely responses Other beneficial factors include the presence of positive leadership and the ability to react steadily to crises Overall their eight week study on these GVTs supported the concept of swift trust Panteli 2005 performed a case analysis by extending the case study conducted by Jarvenpaa and Leidner 1998 by focusing on GVTs within a business context The teams were part of a global IT organization The analysis was done by measuring teams in two general categories high trust or low trust Results highlighted that shared goals were important in high trust teams GVTs that commonly perform effectively connect via regular communications through synchronous devices such as telephone and videoconferencing systems Jarvenpaa and Leidner s findings were reinforced as the high trust teams again established a social and fun aspect in their communications Furthermore multiple factors such as common social norms recurring interactions and mutual experiences have been recognized in facilitating the development of trust Bradach Eccles 1988 Mayer et al 1995 An additional feature identified to encourage trust and cooperation is the expectation of future association Powell 1990 

The expectation of future association is higher with co located team members than with physically dispersed members The immediacy of threats from failing to meet commitments is said to be amplified within co located teams whilst also strengthening social connection expectations and shared values Latane et al 1995 Therefore when building and repairing shattered trust face to face relationships are considered inimitable Nohria Eccles 1992 O Hara Devereaux Johansen 1994 Proposition 6 Trust is a key determinant of GVT effectiveness Proposition 7 Differences in national culture within GVTS can have an adverse effect on the trust within GVTs Leadership GVTs are more reliant on peer to peer interaction flat usually decentralized management structure unlike the hierarchical relationships tall centralized management structure which usually exist in co located team Gallenkamp et al 2011 While project leaders are clearly defined within teams projects remain highly reliant on a team s capability to make use of each other s knowledge no matter what individual roles are allocated and work simultaneously Kerber et al 2004 Such inter dependency generates an increase in importance with a distributed virtual environment However the roles and goals of a project may be unclear as a result of project complexity thereby leading to weak leadership competing lines of authority and reduced delegation A GVT is often created with the rationale of carrying out certain tasks more promptly but also requires the prevention of any lost productivity as a result of its short term nature Kankanhalli et al 2006 

However as a result of the need to produce output quickly it is significant that leaders are effective in communicating their message when motivating remote team members to meet astounding deadline pressure Therefore strong leadership is critical for GVTs to progress and be successful In order to reduce the potential for misinterpretations leaders are responsible for encouraging regular communication and feedback among the team members whilst putting particular importance on establishing standards for communicating contextual cues with each message Zigurs 2003 Hence leaders are required to think globally when communicating with team members Moreover many case studies of GVT have supported the view of leadership being a crucial factor in determining the performance of such teams Armstrong Cole 2002 proposed strong leadership as being a key determinant in the success of GVTs Specifically leaders who generated discussion among team members strove to reach agreement modelled group norms coached team members acknowledged difficulties posed by distance and virtual communication created concrete expectations and goals and rewarded performance were able to lead successful teams Purvanova and Bono 2009 identified in study that transformational leadership had a greater impact on team performance in virtual than in face to face teams Their findings propose that transformational leadership behaviours are particularly instrumental to team performance under the more indefinite communication conditions fashioned by electronic communication media Leaders are required to produce clear expectations that the outcome of objectives dependant on all involved regardless of their location When tasks are virtually assigned to the team members there is always a risk for miscommunication or misinterpretation therefore delegation of responsibilities to GVTs is dependent on robust and clear communication Explicit communication of ownership at all levels is required 

The evaluation criteria to be used in order to clarify the intended results and outcomes delegation should be communicated well in advance Lee 2009 Zhang et al 2008 highlight the importance of delegation as a GVT management strategy by suggesting that organizations should train GVT leaders on the value and effects of delegation Zhang et al however claim that in reality there becomes a push and pull effect in which management wish to delegate more because the task of managing a GVT means more communication odd hours of work scheduled for communication and care needed to avoid miscommunications Thus leading to the push to delegate However the pull effect is that if a team leader does not possess global thinking caused by a lack of knowledge on language and cultural differences he or she will be cautious to effectively delegate to the team It is also ordinary to see team members struggle with their roles in times of pressure Individuals will then begin questioning the ability of others within the team and begin trying to protect themselves from the possibility of failures caused by others Therefore highlighting the importance of defining and clearly interpreting who has the power and accountability over assigned tasks especially in a GVT