What is Team Virtuality

Consists of three components: the degree that teams use virtual tools to coordinate and communicate; information value; and synchronicity (Kirkman & Mathieu, 2005). The first dimension is the reliance on virtual tools, and refers to the extent which teams use virtual technologies (i.e., e-mail, video conferencing, chat, document sharing, etc.) to coordinate work activities and to communicate when compared to face-to-face interaction. The second dimension, informational value, consists of communication and/or data that is valuable to a team’s effectiveness such as the technology’s capability to transmit rich information (e.g., nonverbal cues such as facial expressions and body-language) as well as the content of the data itself. At issue is how important that information is to the success of the virtual team. The final dimension is synchronicity, which concerns how well the team is able to support simultaneous communication (e.g., face-to-face interactions and technologies such as video conferencing and instant messaging accommodate interactive immediate exchanges).

Collective Identity and Learning in a Virtual Team

Garry G. Burnett (George Washington University, USA)