Jarvenpaa, CORE 12/15/02

Geographical Diversity in Global Virtual Teams

Jeffrey T. Polzer C. Brad CrispHarvard University Indiana University

Sirkka L. Jarvenpaa Won-Yong KimUniversity of Texas Harvard University

Jarvenpaa, CORE, 12/15/02

Agenda

Theory Study overview Hypotheses Methods Results Discussion

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Theory

Global virtual teams (O'Hara-Devereaux and Johansen 1994)• Highly geographically dispersed; transcend temporal and

geographical boundaries

Group diversity research (Williams & O’Reilly, 1998)• “Value in diversity” approach• Members’ differences cause misunderstandings, destructive

conflict, and decreased trust due to social categorization processes

Faultline hypothesis (Lau & Murnighan, 1998)• “Faultlines” are differences that divide a group into distinct

subgroups.• Strongest intergroup dynamics occur across strong faultlines.

Our interest is geographical dispersion as a dimension of diversity

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Group Diversity

• Geographical Dispersion: Configuration of locations where a location entails a unique class in a unique university (colocated people were physically present in the same classroom at regular intervals)

• Diversity arises from differences that are readily and immediately obvious (Pelled, 1996)

• in virtual teams, geographical differences are potentially more salient than other differences such as demographic characteristics ( the type of electronic media affects the salience of temporal dispersion).

• Location can influence the amount and nature of interaction – the

differential availability of communication media

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Definitions:Definitions:

Global virtual team: A self-managing knowledge work team, with distributed expertise that forms and disbands to address specific organizational goals; fluid membership, leadership, and boundaries; advanced use of communication and information technologies

Trust: “the willingness of a party to be vulnerable to the actions of another party based on the expectation that the other will perform a particular action important to the trustor, irrespective of the ability to monitor or control that other party” (Mayer et al, 1995, p. 712).

Conflict: Conflict refers to disagreements (manifested or latent) among group members that imply perceived incompabilities or discrepant views and goals among the members (Jehn, 1995).

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Study Overview

Research question• How does geographical diversity affect trust and conflict?

We compare three configurations of geographical diversity in six-person groups:• Fully dispersed (six locations, one person in each location)

• Three subgroups (three locations, two people in each location)

• Two subgroups (two locations, three people in each location)

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Three Configurations of Geographical Diversity

Fully Dispersed Three Subgroups Two Subgroups

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Hypotheses

Diversity hypothesis• Greater geographical diversity will cause more conflict, less

trust.H1a: Fully dispersed groups will experience more conflict and

less trust than groups with three subgroups, which will in turn experience more conflict and less trust than groups with two subgroups.

Faultline hypothesis• Stronger faultline will cause more conflict, less trust.H1b: Groups with two subgroups will experience more conflict

and less trust than groups with three subgroups, which will in turn experience more conflict and less trust than fully dispersed groups.

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Diversity Hypothesis

Fully Dispersed Three Subgroups Two Subgroups

Most ConflictLeast Trust

Least ConflictMost Trust

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Faultline Hypothesis

Fully Dispersed Three Subgroups Two Subgroups

Least ConflictMost Trust

Most ConflictLeast Trust

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Methods

Participants• 270 MBA students at 15 schools

• Each assigned to a six-person group for six week project (45 groups)

• Group task: Conceive and write a business plan

Design• Three colocation conditions:

• Fully dispersed, three subgroups, two subgroups

Dependent measures• Ratings of conflict and trust on end-of-project survey

• Ratings of group overall and each group member

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Methods cont.

Controls• By Design

• Equal size subgroups• Maximum demographic heterogeneity (e.g., each group had at

least 4 home countries represented)• By Measurement

• Team experience• Nationality• Gender• Age• Communication volume• Temporal dispersion

Possible Confounds: university and class however potential confounding factors do not favor either hypothesis

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Results

Group-level analyses (ANCOVA):

Mean ConflictFully dispersed Three subgroups Two subgroups

2.40 a 2.53 a,b 2.85 b

Mean TrustFully dispersed Three subgroups Two subgroups

3.20 a 2.88 b 2.76 b

Group-level results support the faultline hypothesis (H1b)

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Results

Dyad-level analyses• Quadratic Assignment Procedure to account for non-independence

Significantly less conflict, more trust between colocated dyads than distant dyads• Pattern of results holds within two-subgroup and three-subgroup

conditions

Dyad-level results support the faultline hypothesis (H1b)

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Discussion

The configuration of the virtual team matters! Watch for hybrid forms! Colocated subgroups provide many

practical benefits in virtual teams, but this study suggests a potential downside.

Colocated subgroups can create faultlines that increase conflict and decrease trust compared to greater dispersion (and presumably no dispersion).

Faultline strength may increase with:

Greater similarity within subgroups (language, local culture, etc.)

More face-to-face communication within subgroups Purely electronic mediated communication can alleviate the

boundaries between ingroup and outgroup

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Future Research

Team Design/Team configurations Fluidity in teams (e.g., changing membership) Manager (vs. self-managing team) perspective Remedial Interventions enabled by IT Theorizing the “context” Multilevel research