Telematics and Informatics 31 (2014) 459–462 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Telematics and Informatics journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tele Factors affecting virtual team performance in telecommunication support environment ⇑ Oussama Saafein , Gholam A. Shaykhian University of Phoenix, Tempe, Arizona, USA article info abstract Article history: Over the past two decades, many organizations have been taking advantage of globaliza- Received 17 January 2013 tion, outsourcing, and communication technology advances to enter new markets and Accepted 27 October 2013 compete wherever and whenever possible (Copeland, 2006). Telecommunication compa- Available online 5 November 2013 nies are among those companies that strive most to expand their customer base globally. Telecommunication industry is expected to grow on a worldwide basis to $2.7 trillion in Keywords: 2017 (RCR Wireless, 2012). This global growth necessitates comparable expansion of sup- Virtual team port teams to service an expanded and distributed global customer base. Support function Leadership in the telecommunication industry has unique provisions and complex activities associated Leaders Virtualization with troubleshooting customers’ networks. According to Williamson et al. (2004), trouble- Telecommunication shooting customers’ networks involves complex activities such as making real-time traffic Support affecting decisions. Hence, identifying challenges that may face leaders in such complex and fast growing industry and factors that may influence the performance of support teams is critical. In addition, understanding the role and influence of leaders in virtual settings can help organizations in allocating resources and sorting teams’ priorities. In this study, we investigated factors that affect virtual team performance; factors considered include communication tools, cohesion and collaboration, leadership, trust, the location of team members and team size. One-hundred-twenty professionals in high-technology telecom- munication industry participated in a survey to reveal the importance of how factors affecting virtual team performance. The findings indicated that support professionals perceived reliable communication tools and cohesion among team members as more significant performance factors than leadership. Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Challenges of virtual support environment Virtual work settings may cause some organizational challenges such as maintaining remote leadership, managing cul- tural differences, and developing trust relationships among the teams. Staples and Zhao (2006) suggested other challenges that virtual teams need to deal with such as communication difficulties, decreased cohesion, and high level of conflicts among teams. Indiramma and Anandakumar (2009) added the handling of technological issues such as adaptation and reg- ular use of communication tools as another challenge that faces virtual teams. Those challenges may pose a threat to the performance of any virtual teams. However, the problem can be more perceptible in support teams in which troubleshooting customers’ technical problems is inherently complex and challenging (Cavaiani, 2005; Williamson et al., 2004). Trouble- shooting in virtual environment involves communication with remote customers and collaborating with other virtual teams, which introduces a new layer of challenges to support teams. Customers and support professionals have to collaborate to ⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 866 766 0766. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (O. Saafein), [email protected], [email protected] (G.A. Shaykhian). 0736-5853/$ - see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2013.10.004 460 O. Saafein, G.A. Shaykhian / Telematics and Informatics 31 (2014) 459–462 make the troubleshooting process succeed. Leaders of support organizations need to overcome the challenges of distributed settings to resolve technical problems and satisfy their customers. 2. Leadership challenges in virtual environment Virtual teams create challenges to leaders such as leading remotely, building trust relationship among team members without personal face-to-face interaction, and using technologies that facilitate virtual collaboration (Neufeld et al., 2008). Leaders of virtual support teams face various challenges, which differ from those facing leaders in traditional face- to-face environment. Leaders’ inability to meet their teams face-to-face may limit their influence on team members (Piccoli et al., 2004). Those challenges were not experienced before in traditional face-to-face environment. Bengt (2005) stated that the objective of becoming an effective leader in virtual environment can be demanding for many leaders. Leaders may face challenges to setup, design, manage, and financially operate virtual teams, which may result in less productivity and low performance (Gibson and Gibbs, 2006). One effect of virtualization in today’s teams-based business environment is that lead- ers must assume more responsibility for working with followers who are at a distance (Sivunen, 2008). 3. What are the characteristics of virtual support teams’ leaders? Leaders stimulate followers to be high performers through effective use of motivational and communication skills on individual and group levels (Bolman and Deal, 2003). Virtual team leaders may need different leadership characteristics from leaders of traditional teams when setting goals, offering support and guidance, and inspiring team members. Leaders in sup- port environment need to address challenges facing their teams in addition to technical problems reported by their custom- ers; which increases their responsibilities to include satisfying their leaders, subordinates, and external customers. 3.1. Leaders versus managers Leaders’ roles and responsibilities may differ from managers’. Leadership entails strategic thinking, effective communica- tion skills, and constant reinforcement of organizational needs to involve others for success (Fincham, 2009). On the other hand, managers primarily coordinate day-to-day operations, maintain balanced budget, and assist in directing the activities of others. However, it is the leader who enables the organization to move forward and perform effectively. The complexity of virtual environment makes it hard for managers to manage teams in the traditional way. Instead, to effectively deal with technological complexity and virtual settings, today’s managers are becoming ‘working leaders’ who manage relationships to succeed (Bateman and Snell, 2007). 3.2. Critical characteristics of support leaders Challenges in virtual environment require leadership styles that have different personal skill sets, leadership strategies, and communication techniques (Neufeld et al., 2008). Leaders in virtual teams tend to be informal, convincing, and possess effective communication skills because they need to influence employees not seen in a face-to-face setting (Beranek et al., 2005). Hence, virtual team leaders may need to possess additional qualities to those of traditional face-to-face team leaders such as the ability to collaborate and communicate across physical, organizational, and cultural boundaries (Beranek et al., 2005). The outcomes of Sivunen’s research (2008) to explore leadership communication strategies in virtual environment revealed that team members require four behaviors in their leaders, namely, motivating members to participate, offering support, providing guidance, and setting clear goals. In another study by Neufeld et al. (2008), which examined remote lead- ership and the influence of physical distance on leadership performance, the researchers confirmed a positive relationship between communication effectiveness and leadership performance. The study found that leaders who engage in effective and consistent communication with followers are perceived as demonstrating strong performance. Furthermore, because leaders of virtual teams need to motivate their team members to participate, offer support and guidance, setting clear goal, the primary function of ‘virtual leaders’ may become coordinators rather than involved leaders. This proposition is supported by the study of Wakefield et al. (2008), which indicated that members of virtual teams perceived leaders more as coordinators. 4. Method A research conducted by the authors to investigate the relationship between support team performance and the mode of operation among support professionals working for telecommunication companies. A survey instrument was used to invite 200 participants in high-technology telecommunication industry; from which, one-hundred-twenty professionals chose to participate. The research study was aimed to uncover the importance of how factors affecting virtual team performance, leadership, and challenges that face support teams in virtual settings. The list of potentials participants has been compiled using a non-probability convenience sampling method from support professionals working for telecommunication compa- nies in California’s Silicon Valley. Participants from Silicon Valley received an email with a web link to a questionnaire Download English Version: https://daneshyari.com/en/article/466487 Download Persian Version: https://daneshyari.com/article/466487 Daneshyari.com.