Conflict and Performance in Global Virtual Teams

Increasing globalization and advances in communication technology have fuelled the emergence of global virtual teams (GVTs). There is much potential for conflict in GVTs as members work across cultural, geographical, and time boundaries. This study examines the antecedents of GVT conflict and the circumstances under which conflict affects team performance. An in-depth study of GVT conflict episodes was carried out using interviews, observations, communication logs, and documents. Based on findings from the teams under study interpreted in the light of prior literature, propositions are developed about the antecedents and effects of GVT conflict as stated. Within GVTs, cultural diversity is likely to contribute to both task and relationship conflict while functional diversity may result in task conflict. Large volumes of electronic communication and lack of immediacy of feedback in asynchronous media can contribute to task conflict. Moreover, the relationship between task conflict and team performance is likely to be contingent upon task complexity and conflict resolution approach. The influence of relationship conflict on performance may depend on task interdependence and conflict resolution approach. The conflict resolution approach may in turn be determined by the nature of conflict attribution. These propositions have been synthesized into a model to guide future empirical research and GVT practice.

[1]  R. M. Blakar,et al.  Communication: A Social Perspective on Clinical Issues , 1984 .

[2]  Henri Barki,et al.  Interpersonal Conflict and Its Management in Information System Development , 2001, MIS Q..

[3]  J. McGrath.  Time, Interaction, and Performance (TIP) , 1991 .

[4]  Alan L. Sillars.  Attributions and communication in roommate conflicts , 1980 .

[5]  John A Scigliano,et al.  Mastering Virtual Teams: Strategies, Tools, and Techniques that Succeed: Deborah L. Duarte and Nancy Tennant Snyder. (2000). 2nd ed., San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 256 pages. ISBN: 0-7879-5589-2W01. US$39.95, includes a CD-ROM , 1999, Internet High. Educ..

[6]  D. Reddy,et al.  Perceptions of functioning in mixed-sex and male medical training groups. , 1982, Journal of medical education.

[7]  Catherine Kirchmeyer,et al.  Multicultural Groups , 1992 .

[8]  Alan R. Dennis,et al.  Rethinking media richness: towards a theory of media synchronicity , 1999, Proceedings of the 32nd Annual Hawaii International Conference on Systems Sciences. 1999. HICSS-32. Abstracts and CD-ROM of Full Papers.

[9]  M. Gelfand,et al.  Culture and Negotiator Cognition: Judgment Accuracy and Negotiation Processes in Individualistic and Collectivistic Cultures. , 1999, Organizational behavior and human decision processes.

[10]  Peter Mykytyn,et al.  An Empirical Investigation of Collaborative Conflict Management Style in Group Support System-Based Global Virtual Teams , 2004, J. Manag. Inf. Syst..

[11]  C. Earley,et al.  Creating hybrid team cultures: An empirical test of transnational team functioning. , 2000 .

[12]  Jessica Lipnack,et al.  Virtual Teams: Reaching Across Space, Time, and Organizations with Technology , 1997 .

[13]  Richard E. Potter,et al.  Virtual team interaction styles: assessment and effects , 2002, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[14]  K. Eisenhardt,et al.  Conflict and Strategic Choice: How Top Management Teams Disagree , 1997 .

[15]  D. Byrne.  The Attraction Paradigm , 1971 .

[16]  Marshall Scott Poole,et al.  The Effects of Variations in Capabilities of GDSS Designs on Management of Cognitive Conflict in Groups , 1992, Inf. Syst. Res..

[17]  Steve Sawyer,et al.  Effects of intra‐group conflict on packaged software development team performance , 2001, Inf. Syst. J..

[18]  Dov Te 'eni.  : A COGNITIVE-AFFECTIVE MODEL OF ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION FOR DESIGNING IT , 2001 .

[19]  Matthew B. Miles,et al.  Qualitative Data Analysis: An Expanded Sourcebook , 1994 .

[20]  Ilze Zigurs,et al.  Paradoxes and Prerogatives in Global Virtual Collaboration , 2001, CACM.

[21]  Jennifer A. Chatman.  Matching People and Organizations: Selection and Socialization in Public Accounting Firms , 1989 .

[22]  H. P. Sims,et al.  Top management team diversity, group process, and strategic consensus , 1999 .

[23]  Robin L. Pinkley,et al.  Dimensions of conflict frame: Disputant interpretations of conflict. , 1990 .

[24]  Sigal G. Barsade,et al.  Personality, Organizational Culture, and Cooperation: Evidence from a Business Simulation. , 1995 .

[25]  Kenneth L. Kraemer,et al.  The impact of technological support on groups: An assessment of the empirical research , 1989, Decis. Support Syst..

[26]  John J. Sosik,et al.  Work-Group Characteristics and Performance in Collectivistic and Individualistic Cultures , 2002, The Journal of social psychology.

[27]  Karen Lewis,et al.  The HP Way: How Bill Hewlett and I Built Our Company , 1995 .

[28]  Deborah H. Gruenfeld,et al.  Group Composition and Decision Making: How Member Familiarity and Information Distribution Affect Process and Performance , 1996 .

[29]  Robert P. Bostrom,et al.  The Impact of Group Support Systems on Group Conflict and Conflict Management , 1993, J. Manag. Inf. Syst..

[30]  M. Davidson.  Managing Conflict in Organizations , 2008, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[31]  R. Spears,et al.  Paralanguage and social perception in computer‐mediated communication , 1992 .

[32]  Buck G. Rodgers,et al.  The IBM Way; Insights into the World's Most Successful Marketing Organizatio , 1986 .

[33]  Robert Johansen,et al.  Globalwork : bridging distance, culture, and time , 1994 .

[34]  Roland Castellanos.  A Qualitative Analysis of Conflict Types and Dimensions in Organizational Groups , 2007 .

[35]  Pamela J. Hinds,et al.  CONFLICT AND SHARED IDENTITY IN GEOGRAPHICALLY DISTRIBUTED TEAMS , 2001 .

[36]  H. Tajfel,et al.  The Social Identity Theory of Intergroup Behavior. , 2004 .

[37]  G. Northcraft,et al.  You have printed the following article : Why Differences Make a Difference : A Field Study of Diversity , Conflict , and Performance in Workgroups , 2007 .

[38]  Chao-chuan Chen,et al.  How can Cooperation be Fostered? The Cultural Effects of Individualism-Collectivism , 1998 .

[39]  E. Mannix,et al.  The Dynamic Nature of Conflict: A Longitudinal Study of Intragroup Conflict and Group Performance. , 2001 .

[40]  Anne P. Massey,et al.  Getting It Together: Temporal Coordination and Conflict Management in Global Virtual Teams , 2001 .

[41]  Douglas R. Vogel,et al.  Exploratory research on the role of national and professional cultures in a distributed learning project , 2001 .

[42]  Susan E. Brennan,et al.  The Grounding Problem in Conversations With and Through Computers , 2000 .

[43]  Joseph T. Banas,et al.  Comparing Alternative Conceptualizations of Functional Diversity in Management Teams: Process and Performance Effects , 2002 .

[44]  Ilze Zigurs,et al.  A Theory of Task/Technology Fit and Group Support Systems Effectiveness , 1998, MIS Q..

[45]  Douglas R. Vogel,et al.  Sociocultural Learning: A Perspective on GSS-Enabled Global Education , 2001, Commun. Assoc. Inf. Syst..

[46]  Peter R. Monge,et al.  Communication Processes for Virtual Organizations , 2006 .

[47]  Ronald B. Adler,et al.  Interplay: The Process of Interpersonal Communication , 1980 .

[48]  K. Eisenhardt,et al.  Exploring the Black Box: An Analysis of Work Group Diversity, Conflict and Performance , 1999 .

[49]  Pamela J. Hinds,et al.  Out of Sight, Out of Sync: Understanding Conflict in Distributed Teams , 2003, Organ. Sci..

[50]  Dorothy E. Leidner,et al.  Leadership Effectiveness in Global Virtual Teams , 2002, J. Manag. Inf. Syst..

[51]  R. Nisbett,et al.  Behavior as seen by the actor and as seen by the observer , 1973 .

[52]  Line Dubé,et al.  Global Virtual Teams , 2001, CACM.

[53]  R. Hightower,et al.  The impact of computer-mediated communication systems on biased group discussion , 1995 .

[54]  Blake Ives,et al.  Virtual teams: a review of current literature and directions for future research , 2004, DATB.

[55]  J. K. Murnighan,et al.  Demographic Diversity and Faultlines: The Compositional DYnamics of Organizational Groups , 1998 .

[56]  A. V. D. Ven,et al.  Measuring And Assessing Organizations , 1980 .

[57]  Daniel Robey,et al.  Perceptions of Conflict and Success in Information Systems Development Projects , 1993, J. Manag. Inf. Syst..

[58]  G. Hofstede,et al.  Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind , 1991 .

[59]  Terri L. Griffith,et al.  The phenomenology of conflict in virtual work teams , 2002 .

[60]  J. B. Quinn,et al.  Intelligent Enterprise: A Knowledge and Service Based Paradigm for Industry , 1992 .

[61]  Traci Carte,et al.  A Capabilities-Based Theory of Technology Deployment in Diverse Teams: Leapfrogging the Pitfalls of Diversity and Leveraging Its Potential with Collaborative Technology , 2004, J. Assoc. Inf. Syst..

[62]  L. H. Pelled.  Demographic Diversity, Conflict, and Work Group Outcomes: An Intervening Process Theory , 1996 .

[63]  L. Entrekin,et al.  Attitudes towards different sources of executive appraisal: a comparison of Hong Kong Chinese and American managers in Hong Kong , 2001 .

[64]  K. Jehn.  A Multimethod Examination of the Benefits and Detriments of Intragroup Conflict , 1995 .

[65]  E. Kelly.  Individualism and collectivism , 1901 .

[66]  Sirkka L. Jarvenpaa,et al.  Is Anybody Out There? Antecedents of Trust in Global Virtual Teams , 1998, J. Manag. Inf. Syst..

[67]  C. Cramton.  The Mutual Knowledge Problem and Its Consequences for Dispersed Collaboration , 2001 .

[68]  D. Campbell.  Task Complexity: A Review and Analysis , 1988 .