Comparing traditional and virtual group forms: identity, communication and trust in naturally occurring project teams

Abstract

This study compares three types of project teams in a global high-tech organization: traditional (co-located), virtual (completely distributed), and ‘semi-virtual’ or hybrid (containing both local and remote members). We use in-group/out-group theories of subgroups to help explain the findings. Specifically, local members of semi-virtual teams report much more positive perceptions of their local than their remote members, while traditional and virtual team members appear similar. We conclude by drawing implications for practice, such as the avoidance of semi-virtual teams whenever possible and the development of strong team identities.

Keywords:

• distributed team
• in-group
• subgroup
• virtual
• group identity

Acknowledgements

An earlier version of this article was presented at the 18th Annual Conference of the Society for Industrial/Organizational Psychology, April 2003, Orlando, FL. This research was funded from a grant to Jane Webster from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. We would like to thank Ann Frances Cameron for her research assistance and Amy Lewis, Sandy Staples, Paul Tesluck, David Zweig and the participants of the Queen's School of Business Research Forum for their comments on an earlier version of this article.

Notes

1 Due to the design of this study (with repeated measures on only one type of team, semi-virtual teams, as only these teams have subgroups), a causal model across the three types of teams could not be created or tested. However, we proposed that the dependent variables would interrelate, and MANOVA handles correlated dependent variables.