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
Jarvenpaa, CORE, 12/15/02
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