Conflict and Performance in Global Virtual Teams

Kankanhalli, Atreyi; Tan, Bernard C. Y.; Wei, Kwok‐Kee

doi:10.2753/nus0742-1222230309

Cited by 127 publications

(152 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…In this sense, the Netia case study does not support the conclusion of Barki & Hartwick (2001) and Marciniak (1996), who observed avoidance management style as associated with negative results in terms of conflict solving. Our results are in line with the attribution theory (Cramton, 2001) and some empirical studies, which show that conflict situations managed by team members are linked to conflict reduction (Kankanhalli et al, 2006) or team performance improvement (Jehn & Mannix, 2001) because of trust, respect, open and consensual discussions. These studies have been conducted mainly on task-oriented conflicts, whereas our observations extend the results to sociopolitical conflicts that are considered as being more difficult situations that managers prefer to avoid to be involved in (Edmondson & Smith, 2006, p. 25).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 79%

“…To a large extent, IS literature invites managers not to remain passive (Leidner & Kayworth, 2006, p. 381) and to solve users' resistance by identifying conflict situations in order to prevent a project from evolving negatively. Similarly, some empirical studies observe conflict situations that are selfmanaged by team members to be linked to conflict reduction (Kankanhalli et al, 2006) or team performance improvement (Jehn & Mannix, 2001). In other words, there is no evidence that, depending on the context, a management style relying on teams' self-ability to resolve resistance would not be suitable.…”

Section: Conflict Management Stylesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Burke (1970a, b) identifies five different management styles concerning conflict resolution. These conflict resolution modes have been validated and used in many management and IS projects (Marciniak, 1996;Barki & Hartwick, 2001), as well as virtual teams (Kankanhalli et al, 2006). We decided to adopt these five conflict resolution styles (see Table 2).…”

Section: Conflict Management Stylesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Toward an ‘IT Conflict-Resistance Theory’: action research during IT pre-implementation

Meissonier

Houzé

2010

European Journal of Information Systems

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Most empirical research on users' resistance toward Information Technology (IT) has been conducted after implementation of IT in organisations. Little research has been done on the way individual and group resistance emerges and evolves during prior stages of projects. This focus on pre-implementation phases is important since Information Systems (IS) managers need to anticipate potential conflicts and users' resistance that can involve project failure. While IS literature has separately developed theories on resistance and conflicts, we conceptualise a whole theoretic-system we call 'IT Conflict-Resistance Theory' (IT-CRT). This theory is used as driver for a 2-year action research project conducted at Netia Corporation (a worldwide leader in video and audio broadcasting) during preliminary phases of its Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation project. According to our findings, while conflicts toward IT implementation are often considered to have negative effects and require being actively managed by top managers, the case study delivers an alternative observation: a passivelike attitude of managers during the IT pre-implantation phase does not prevent the resolution of a socio-political oriented conflict between two groups of employees. Our observations illustrate how the avoidance management style invites team members to cope with conflict situations and to express tacit causes of resistance. While most Management Information System methods tend naturally to maximise users' satisfaction and to reduce potential resistance, the IT-CRT theory developed in this article supports an alternative approach: enhancing resistance in order to anticipate and resolve latent conflicts that are directly or indirectly related to the project. The underlying message of this article for researchers and practitioners is to consider users' resistance toward IT as a key process embedded into IT choices and IS design.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 79%

Section: Conflict Management Stylesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Conflict Management Stylesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Toward an ‘IT Conflict-Resistance Theory’: action research during IT pre-implementation

Meissonier

Houzé

2010

European Journal of Information Systems

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“…Table 1 lists some of the disadvantages of virtual teams as uncovered by past research. [9] Cultural and functional diversity in virtual teams leads to differences in the thought processes of members [10] Virtual team members require special training and encouragement [11] Everything needs to be reinforced in a more structured and formal process [12] It appears that virtual teams have more difficulty in developing a conceptual understanding of a problem [13,14] …”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the Use of Computer-Mediated Video Communication in Engineering Projects in South Africa

Meyer

Bond-Barnard

Steyn

et al. 2016

SAJIE

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Globally-expanding organisations that are trying to capitalise on distributed skills are increasingly using virtual project teams to shorten product development time and increase quality. These virtual teams, which are distributed across countries, cultures, and time zones, are required to use faster and better ways of interacting. Past research has shown that virtual teams that use computer-mediated communication (CMC) instead of face-to-face communication are less cohesive because they struggle with mistrust, controlling behaviour, and communication breakdowns. This study aims to determine whether project practitioners in South Africa perceive virtual teams that use videoconferencing as suffering from the same CMC disadvantages described in past research in other environments; and if they do, what the possible causes could be. This paper reports on a survey of 106 project practitioners in South Africa. The results show that these project practitioners prefer faceto-face communication over CMC, and perceive virtual teams using videoconferencing to be less cohesive and to suffer from mistrust and communication breakdowns, but not from increased conflict and power struggles. The perceived shortcomings of videoconferencing might result from virtual teams that use this medium having less time to build interpersonal relationships. OPSOMMINGOrganisasies maak toenemend gebruik van virtuele projekspanne wat verspreid is oor lande, kulture en tydsones en verbeterde maniere van interaksie benodig. Vorige navorsing het egter getoon dat virtuele spanne wat gebruik maak van rekenaar-bemiddelde kommunikasie (CMC) i.p.v. aangesig-tot-aangesig kommunikasie minder samehorig is omdat hulle sukkel met wantroue, beherende gedrag en gebrek aan kommunikasie. Hierdie studie ondersoek of 106 Suid-Afrikaanse projekpraktisyns van spanne wat videokonferensies gebruik ook meen dat die spanne ly aan die nadele van CMC wat in ander omgewings ondersoek is. Die resultate toon dat die respondente aangesig-tot-aangesig kommunikasie bo CMC verkies. Dit toon ook dat virtuele spanne wat gebruikmaak van videokonferensies minder samehorig is en ly aan wantroue en gebrek aan kommunikasie, maar nie aan verhoogde konflik en magstryd nie.

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“…The paper by Kankanhalli et al (2007) is valuable in that it focuses on conflict episodes in global virtual teams rather than the somewhat rosier side of the picture that is painted by some of the authors above. Although based on work with student teams, which potentially limits the strength of their findings, it is clear that cultural differences between people from North America, Europe, and Asia were significant causes of team conflict.…”

Section: Global Virtual Teamsmentioning

confidence: 99%

ICTs and Global Working in a Non-Flat World

Walsham

Information Technology in the Service Economy: Challenges and Possibilities for the 21st Century

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Conflict and Performance in Global Virtual Teams

Cited by 127 publications

References 67 publications

Toward an ‘IT Conflict-Resistance Theory’: action research during IT pre-implementation

Toward an ‘IT Conflict-Resistance Theory’: action research during IT pre-implementation

Exploring the Use of Computer-Mediated Video Communication in Engineering Projects in South Africa

ICTs and Global Working in a Non-Flat World

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