Virtualness and Knowledge in Teams: Managing the Love Triangle of Organizations, Individuals, and Information Technology

Griffith, Terri L.; Sawyer, John E.; Neale, Margaret A.

doi:10.2307/30036531

Cited by 592 publications

(504 citation statements)

References 72 publications

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“…Virtualness, defined as time that team members spend apart on tasks, is suggested to negatively influence collective knowledge and shared understanding (Griffith et al, 2003), and to negatively influence development of a shared cognitive structure (Griffith & Neale, 2001). The negative influence is explained by the diminishing level of integration and loyalty between employee and organization in highly virtual teams.…”

Section: Knowledge Transfermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The geographic dispersion and the reliance on information technologies hinder team members to create, transfer, store and apply knowledge (Alavi & Tiwana, 2002;Cramton, 2001;Griffith et al, 2003). Studies in innovation management (Ahuja, 2000) and organizational learning (Walsh, 1995) highlight how the distributed nature of cognition and the diversity of knowledge in team settings creates challenges for team learning and knowledge processes.…”

Section: An Internal Virtual Workforce Survey Of Twelve Hundred Emplomentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The use of collaborative technology has been suggested to moderate the effect between team virtualness and shared understanding (Griffith et al, 2003) as such technology contributes to the development of a shared cognitive structure. in turn suggest that such Collective knowledge (or collective mind) refers to explicit knowledge that has been internalized by the team members, such as teamwork procedures (Griffith et al, 2003).…”

Section: Knowledge Transfermentioning

confidence: 99%

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Knowledge processes in virtual teams: consolidating the evidence

Fang

Kwok

Schröeder

2012

Behaviour & Information Technology

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Alavi and Leidner (2001) (i.e., creation, transferring, storage/retrieval and application) INTRODUCTIONThe globalization of business competition and a growing need for customer responsiveness in the past few decades have caused an increasing number of firms to undergo dramatic organizational changes (Miles & Snow, 1992). Organizations transform to networks by flattening organizational structure and establishing inter-organizational links (Davidow & Malone, 1992). This change has promoted contemporary firms to coordinate activities that span geographical and organizational boundaries (Townsend et al., 1998). It has also increased the need for utilizing decentralized, specialized knowledge and expertise (Alavi & Tiwana, 2002;Boutellier, 1998;Penrose, 1959). Virtual teams have emerged to allow organizations to overcome these geographical boundaries and to address the emerging knowledge needs (Powell et al., 2004;Workman, 2007).Virtual teams constitute essential structures in today's organizations (Siebdrat et al., 2009). An internal virtual workforce survey of twelve hundred employees in Intel Corporationreveals that approximately 70 percent of the Intel workforce collaborates with people in different time zones without meeting face to face (Intel Corporation, 2004). Accenture, an international IT systems consulting firm, rests its viability on the performance of "customerintimate" project teams coordinated among dispersed sites (Accenture., 2005 ). Virtual teams form an essential part of today's organizations with important implications for teamwork and collaboration.A crucial aspect of virtual teams is the knowledge process among the team members. In fact, the main driver for building virtual teams is the prospect of integrating the dispersed knowledge and expertise of the team members (Alavi & Tiwana, 2002;Boutellier, 1998).However, while virtual teams are established to support knowledge integration it has been recognized that the virtual collaboration environment inhibits the team's knowledge 3 processes. The geographic dispersion and the reliance on information technologies hinder team members to create, transfer, store and apply knowledge (Alavi & Tiwana, 2002;Cramton, 2001;Griffith et al., 2003). Studies in innovation management (Ahuja, 2000) and organizational learning (Walsh, 1995) highlight how the distributed nature of cognition and the diversity of knowledge in team settings creates challenges for team learning and knowledge processes. These challenges become even more pronounced when the interaction among teams are virtual (Alavi & Tiwana, 2002).Virtual teams are in a "catch-22" situation: the opportunities of integrating dispersed knowledge promotes the emergence of virtual teams; at the same time virtual teams are arguably less capable of identifying and leveraging the collective knowledge of their members than traditional teams are. Recognizing this paradox is highly important for virtual team members as effective knowledge exchange and utilization is not achieved until the team has id...

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Section: Knowledge Transfermentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: An Internal Virtual Workforce Survey Of Twelve Hundred Emplomentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Knowledge Transfermentioning

confidence: 99%

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Knowledge processes in virtual teams: consolidating the evidence

Fang

Kwok

Schröeder

2012

Behaviour & Information Technology

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“…The most recent literature even makes a distinction between the virtual organisation and organisational virtualisation. Breu & Hemingway, (2004) claim that previous literature pertaining to virtual organisations focuses on organisational design (Chesborough & Teece., 1996;De Sanctis & Monge, 1999;Cramton, 2001;Griffith et al, 2003) while in contrast organisational virtualisation addresses the transition from the traditional bricks-and-mortar to a virtual organisation (Boudreau et al, 1998;Dutton, 1999). Additionally the authors address the problem from two perspectives;…”

Section: Virtual Organisationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating Organisational Readiness for Virtual Collaboration

Gall

Burn

2010

Networking and Telecommunications

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“…These virtual teams have unique characteristics including geographic distance, language and cultural barriers [17]. We are following the definition of Griffith who declares that a virtual team consists of Individuals that act interdependently through technology to achieve a common goal [7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards a Methodology for Managing Competencies in Virtual Teams – A Systemic Approach

Schumacher

Cardinal

Bocquet

2009

Leveraging Knowledge for Innovation in Collaborative Networks

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Abstract. Virtual instruments and tools are future trends in Engineering which are a response to the growing complexity of engineering tasks, the facility of communication and strong collaborations on the international market. Outsourcing, off-shoring, and the globalization of organisations' activities have resulted in the formation of virtual product development teams. Individuals who are working in virtual teams must be equipped with diversified competencies that provide a basis for virtual team building. Thanks to the systemic approach of the functional analysis our paper responds to the need of a methodology of competence management to build virtual teams that are active in virtual design projects in the area of New Product Development (NPD).

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Virtualness and Knowledge in Teams: Managing the Love Triangle of Organizations, Individuals, and Information Technology

Cited by 592 publications

References 72 publications

Knowledge processes in virtual teams: consolidating the evidence

Knowledge processes in virtual teams: consolidating the evidence

Evaluating Organisational Readiness for Virtual Collaboration

Towards a Methodology for Managing Competencies in Virtual Teams – A Systemic Approach

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