Virtual distance is a term that refers to the feelings of separation engendered by communicating by e-mail, text, audioconferencing, and so on.21 Probably the effect felt most is the inability to chat informally in the hall, inside offices, and by the water cooler. The impromptu and casual conversations that employees have in the lounge or by the coffee machine are often where the most difficult problems are solved and important interpersonal issues are addressed. Beyond a very short distance, people miss the spontaneous exchanges that occur outside of formal meetings. Remote group members feel excluded from key conversations that occur over lunch and in the hall. Spontaneous communication plays a pivotal role in mitigating conflict in distributed teams.22 Not surprisingly, distributed teams experience more relationship and task conflict than do collocated teams. Companies often try to be creative about virtual teamwork. For example, Sodexo managers host “parties in a box” to celebrate life achievements of far-flung virtual team members. For one virtual baby shower, the mom-to-be was sent a box of gifts, and team members received the same box before the virtual gathering so that everyone could enjoy the presents together as if they were in the same room.23

Another negative impact of physical separation is feedback; greater distance tends to block the corrective feedback loops provided by chance encounters. One manager contrasted how employees who worked in his home office related to his decisions compared with employees 15 kilometers away.24 Engineers in the home office would drop by and catch him in the hall or at lunch. “I heard you were planning to change project X,” they would say. “Let me tell you why that would be stupid.” The manager would listen to their points, clarify some details, and all would part better informed. In contrast, employees at the remote site would greet his weekly visits with formally prepared objections, which took much longer to discuss and were rarely resolved as completely as the more informal hallway discussions. In short, groups working remotely do not get the coincidental chances to detect and correct problems on a casual basis. Geographic sites promote an informal, spontaneous group identity, reinforced by close physical proximity and the dense communication it promotes. Those working in an office all tend to have friends in nearby companies or groups, hear the same industry rumors, and share similar beliefs about technological trends. Thus, any distance—whether it is 12 miles or 12,000 miles—is problematic in this regard.

Another impact of information technology is the loss of informal modeling and observational learning. Casual observation is invaluable for monitoring and mentoring performance, especially for one-on-one team coaching. The inability of remote employees to observe successful project managers is a barrier to effective coaching of task and interpersonal skills.

Distant employees tend to be left out of discussions or forgotten altogether. In a sense, they are out of sight, out of mind. The default behavior is to ignore the person on the speakerphone. This is especially magnified when the person or group with less status is on the phone.

Time differences amplify the effects of physical distance. Distributed group members face the challenge of finding each other at the same time while they are living in different time zones. Time differences sometimes highlight cultural differences. However, teams can try to overcome these cultural barriers. One group based in the United States and Italy celebrated a project milestone in their weekly videoconference by sharing foods on the video screen. The East Coast team, at 9 a.m., sent images of bagels and coffee. The Italian team, at 3 p.m. in their time zone, sent images of champagne and cookies.

Conflicts are expressed, recognized, and addressed more quickly if group members work in close proximity. A manager can spot a problem, nip it in the bud, and solve the problem quickly. In geographically separated groups, the issues are more likely to just get dropped and go unresolved, contributing to a slow buildup in aggravation. People complain to their coworkers, reinforcing local perceptions of events, but do not complain to the distant leaders until feelings reach extremely high levels.

Although there are many disadvantages of distance, it is not always a liability for teams. The formality of a scheduled phone meeting compels each party to prepare for the meeting and to address the issues more efficiently. In addition, distance can reduce micromanagement. Some managers hinder their employees’ performance by monitoring them too closely and demanding frequent updates. Edmondson provides four tactics to help people reframe their purpose on their team:25

1. Tell yourself that the project is different from anything you’ve done before and presents a challenging and exciting opportunity to try out a new approach and learn.

2. See yourself as vitally important to a successful outcome, and to achieve the goal, you need the willing participation of others.

3. Tell yourself that others are vitally important to a successful outcome and may bring key pieces of the puzzle that you don’t anticipate.

4. Communicate with others on the team as you would if the above three statements were true.

E-mail changes the nature of behavior and team dynamics. When asked to communicate tones such as sarcasm and sincerity via e-mail, people believe they convey the correct tone, when in fact, their messages are often misunderstood. Communicating via e-mail strips the message “of the paralinguistic and nonverbal cues that enable us to communicate these sorts of subtle emotions and tones.”30 However, people are still able to send and receive emotional messages in text, through the process of emotional contagion. In one investigation, a team member textually communicated anger or happiness in a virtual team and either typed a “resolute” or “flexible” message.31 The task facing the virtual team involved a negotiation with a performance-based reward. Even when the communication was only text based, emotional contagion occurred. What was particularly problematic was when the emotion did not match the behavior. Thus, a happy tone combined with a resolute message or an angry tone combined with flexibility led to greater negative emotion in the team.

The problem of conveying mood and tone via e-mail communication is a challenge for teams. Because it is easy to send a message and social norms are not present when sending e-mail, people often take more risks. Furthermore, there is virtually no competition to attain and hold the floor, so people are at liberty to send frequent and long messages. Some people receive several hundred electronic messages each day. However, that is no excuse for responding in a sloppy fashion. Responding with misspellings and hastily written text can lead the recipient to form a negative dispositional impression of the sender, even if there is a perfectly valid reason for the typos. A study that examined how technical language violation (i.e., spelling and grammatical errors) as well as deviations from etiquette norms (i.e., short messages lacking a conversational tone) affected recipients’ impressions revealed that people form negative perceptions of senders.32 Unfortunately, when the sender was from a different culture, even perfectly valid extenuating circumstances did not deter receivers from forming negative impressions. There is etiquette to consider when planning a virtual meeting. A checklist to help plan virtual meetings can be found in Exhibit 13-4.

The purpose of e-mail and other types of computer-mediated communication is to increase productivity and efficiency. But does it? One study found that corporate employees receive and send 105 e-mails per work day, many of which are unnecessary. However, the most productive (and least stressed employees) are those who don’t check their mailboxes regularly.33 In another investigation, 13 information technology employees agreed to completely ignore e-mails for 5 days. Those who continued to read e-mail had more constant, elevated heart rates, while the “vacationers” had more natural, variable heart rates. The e-mail vacationers were less stressed and felt more productive.34 French information technology company Atos has taken the unusual step of eliminating e-mails altogether! CEO Thierry Breton estimated that 10 percent of the 200 messages employees received each day were useful, while a full 18 percent are spam. At the time of the change, Atos himself claimed to not have sent a work-related e-mail in years. The 74,000 employees of Atos instead began communicating through instant messaging and an internal Facebook-style interface. Response from employees was overwhelmingly positive.35

Excessive use of information technology may lead to psychological and somatic problems. A study of 4,100 people in Sweden revealed that those who never turn off their smartphones and computers are prone to sleeping disorders, depression, and mental illness.36 And, medical professionals attribute excessive preoccupation with information technology devices to an alarming increase in accidents of children age 5 and under; in short, parents are no longer monitoring their children because they are checking their e-mail.37 Another study found a relationship between people’s stress levels and the number of times the smartphone was checked for messages. Participants reporting the highest amount of stress levels were experiencing phantom vibrations from their phones when in fact there had been no message alerts. The study established the existence of a new stress cycle associated with their digital connectivity—devices that had originally benefitted an individual by managing their work load began to exert a different pressure to keep abreast of the individual’s expanded virtual life. The more stressed the individual became, the more compulsively the individual checked their digital device.38 Moreover, the mere sight of technology may plummet people into negative mood. In one study, people engaged in a 10-minute conversation with another person about an interesting event in their lives. When a mobile phone was placed on the table between them (but not actually used), people felt less close, less connected, and had less rewarding conversations than when a spiral notebook was on the table.39

Information technology leads to the formation of virtual groups and communities. It might seem that this type of community interaction is a far cry from the business world of information technology, but that is just the point. It is becoming harder to separate the personal lives of people and the communities to which they belong from their professional or business lives.

There are a variety of technologies that are designed to support virtual teams. The key is to not let the technology drive the entire virtual team. Rather, the technology should support the team. A key barrier to effective virtual teamwork is user adoption and technological and organizational challenges. Indeed, a study of virtual teams in organizations revealed that social capital, in particular boundary spanning and knowledge of social networks, was associated with greater knowledge sharing among professionals in virtual teams in high-tech industries.79 As the opening example suggests, robots are becoming popular employees. For example, The Wall Street Journal and software company Evernote use the QB-82 robot, which takes on the presence of an employee and is placed in the office while the employee is stationed in another office. The robot is 6 feet tall and the person directing it can hear and see what the robot sees. It enables the two offices to have face time and has spurred more personal connection with employees who work in different office across the country.80 To further enhance virtual reality, Evernote uses a video wall that displays the office headquarters’ view of the mountains. People in remote offices enjoy the view and also observe people walking by and stop them virtually to chat or ask a question.81

Boundary objects are documents and shared vocabulary that allow people from different teams, organizations, cultures, and so on to build a shared understanding. Boundary objects include artifacts, such as tools, documents, models, discourse and language, and process, such as routines and procedures. In this regard, boundary objects are similar to the transactive memory system discussed in Chapter 6. Boundary objects will be interpreted differently by the different communities, and it is the acknowledgment and discussion of these differences that enable a shared understanding to be formed. For example, a field study of a Jamaican-Indian virtual team using software and project management tools as boundary objects revealed that under some circumstances, boundary objects facilitated collaboration but other times, they led to greater conflict. Specifically, when boundary objects were used during transitions that involved definitional control and redistribution of power and authority, knowledge sharing was hindered and negative stereotyping increased. Conversely, when boundary objects were used in relation to timelines and project meetings, morale was high and teams developed a shared identity.82

Bringing together team members for a short, face-to-face experience is often used by companies who want to lay a groundwork of trust and communication for later teamwork that will be conducted strictly electronically. It is much easier for people to work together if they have met face-to-face. Face-to-face contact humanizes people and creates expectations for team members to use in their subsequent long-distance work together. A study of 208 senior business students revealed that compared to the members who met face-to-face for an introductory meeting, those who only met electronically lagged significantly behind in terms of trust and collaboration.83 The introductory face-to-face meeting plays a large role in the development of trust and collaboration, especially when the context is competitive. Charlie Hoffman, managing director at HSBC Private Bank, accredits the persistent need for face-to-face meetings to the importance of body language. Observing one another during a conversation permits an advisor and a client to communicate with greater effectiveness than they would be able to do via e-mail or telephone.84

Schmoozing (as described in Chapter 5) is our name for contact between people that has the psychological effect of having established a relationship with someone. Also referred to as the virtual handshake,85 the exchange of some basic personal information significantly expedites the operation of virtual teams. There are a variety of non–face-to-face schmoozing strategies, such as exchanging pictures or biographical information or engaging in a simple get-acquainted e-mail exchange. Schmoozing increases liking and rapport and results in more profitable business deals than when people just get down to business.86 Perhaps the most attractive aspect of schmoozing is that it is relatively low cost and efficient. Merely exchanging a few short e-mails describing yourself can lead to better business relations. However, you should not expect people to naturally schmooze—at least at the outset of a business relationship. In fact, team members working remotely have a tendency to be highly task focused. A field study of 43 teams, 22 colocated and 21 distributed from a large multinational company revealed that virtual teams reported more task and interpersonal conflict than did colocated teams. However, the teams that engaged in spontaneous communication developed a stronger sense of shared group identity and mitigated conflict.87 In this study, spontaneous communication, like schmoozing, referred to informal, unplanned interactions among team members.

Distributed (virtual) teams experience higher levels of conflict than colocated teams.88 Being distant from one’s team and relying on technology to interact can breed conflict because team members do not feel that they have a shared sense of identity and do not know one another. Thus, it is important to become familiar to your team. The mere-exposure effect refers to the tendency of people to like those whom they are exposed to more often. In other words, if you are familiar to people, they like you more.However, virtual teams can severely inhibit familiarity. Therefore, it is important to take every opportunity to talk with your team by phone and schedule face-to-face meetings (even if they are only 10 minutes long) whenever you can.89

Consider the following best practices for improving the productivity of virtual teams (see also Exhibit 13-4, the virtual meeting checklist).90

• Top management should support remote employees : This may be done by involving them in the larger goal or mission of the team and organization.

• Establish the purpose and importance of the team up front: The goal of the team and of each meeting of the team needs to be clear. This means writing it down and making sure everyone receives the goal before the communication commences.

  Before the Meeting	During the Meeting	After the Meeting
  Limit the number of participants and know who they will be in name and in title. Plan the meeting agenda and assign ownership responsibilities to each agenda item. Identify the technology to be used for the meeting and if necessary, reach out to IT to troubleshoot. Practice running the technology, make a test call, establish camera pre-sets, check room lighting and sound issues. Determine meeting room protocols and team norms in advance. Send out related session materials in advance of meeting.	Create a participant map and track decision points made. Encourage meeting attendees to introduce themselves and identify each other by name when speaking. Walk through meeting agenda and establish meeting timeframe. Periodically pause the meeting to summarize key points, ask for feedback or questions, check on technology, and meeting progress. Provide reminders to participants to speak clearly and direct their comments to the microphone. Pause 5 seconds after a mute button is used to ensure private conversations are "off-line”.	In a timely manner, distribute meeting notes and action item summary. Contact meeting participants to ensure communications were clear and to receive candid feedback. If necessary, schedule any follow-up meetings. Execute any action items agreed to during meeting.

  Ask for feedback about the relevance of the goal. Invite people to critique whether a meeting at this time is mission critical for achieving the goal.

• Some face-to-face contact, preferably at the outset of teamwork is important . Some real contact is paramount for success. And the earlier, the better in the process.

• Talent trumps location: Many companies are faced with the choice of limits in local talent or navigating the virtual abyss. Employers prefer access to the best talent possible regardless of location.91

• Listen actively: In a face-to-face meeting, we can often decipher meaning from the context of the participants and their nonverbal behavior. However, none of these nonverbal cues are readily available in a virtual team meeting. Most people listen passively; in virtual teams, it is important to actively listen. This means asking questions.

• Avoid monologues: The tendency to “show and tell” can be overpowering in a virtual team meeting. Avoid the monologue trap by inviting interaction and input from others. Ask particular people for input, rather than just saying, “What do you all think?” One investigation of 47 technical and administration work teams in a multinational energy company revealed that larger teams were more likely to use technology to dominate one another rather than to collaborate.92 Moreover, such “appropriation” was negatively related to team outcomes. And, teams with more sophisticated knowledge of technology were the most likely to dominate via appropriation.

• Summarize often and confirm understanding: Throughout the conversation, summarize progress and decisions. Refer back to the goal of the meeting. A study of 115 teams in 20 subsidiaries of a multinational organization revealed that responsiveness and knowledge management increased learning within the team and led to better performance and interpersonal relations.93

• Agree on actions and next steps: Never conclude a virtual meeting without discussing the future. Think at least 3 months out and get commitments on what every team member will do and when they will deliver. Summarize the plan and then follow up with an e-mail or posting that people can refer to.

• Actively build organizational culture : Just because someone is not physically present does not mean they cannot feel they are part of larger mission or purpose. Companies should immerse virtual employees in the organization’s culture.94 For example, Automattic Inc. does not have a primary physical location, so they assign each new hire to a mentor to inculcate employees in practices, people, and policies.

• Impression management : On virtual teams, reputations are formed quickly and often create a self-fulfilling prophecy. The first 30 days are very important. One of the best ways to get a reputation for being a “good virtual team” member is to be reliable. To be thought of as reliable, you need to deliver what you promise. Many people overpromise and underdeliver. A far better approach is to undercommit and overdeliver.

Consider three steps for building your own reliability capital : (1) Keep a written list of all the agreements, promises, and commitments you make. Check it frequently. (2) Ask your team to tell you one thing you can do to be more reliable in their eyes, and then do it. (3) Be available to support and respond to team members. When you are not available, follow up as soon as possible.95

Virtual teamwork creates situations ripe for taking advantage, hidden agendas, and confusion. Without daily face-to-face opportunities to discuss situations and share concerns, people may start to question the integrity of some team members. It is important to demonstrate your integrity in your virtual team interactions. Consider four steps to demonstrate integrity to your virtual team: (1) Be truthful and forthright without being obnoxious. This means providing others with honest feedback. (2) Avoid sarcasm, joking, and teasing in your distance interactions. Jokes can be misinterpreted and set the stage for evasive conversations. (3) Maintain confidences; don’t spread gossip or share confidential information. Tell people your standards. (4) Handle sensitive material appropriately.96

Wageman’s model of coaching the virtual team focuses on interventions at team launch, natural breakpoints, and at the end of a performance period.97 The launch of a virtual team should outline a goal and motivating purpose that will shape virtual team members’ motivation. In addition, the team should have a set of clear boundaries, such that all members know who is on the team and why. This is a good point to apprise members of the skills of others. Another opportunity for coaching occurs at natural breakpoints, such as when a milestone has occurred.

For people from individualistic cultures, the pursuit of happiness and regard for personal welfare is paramount. The focus is on the individual as a distinctive level of analysis. For people in collectivist cultures, the focus is on the social group or unit. The fundamental unit of analysis is not the individual, in possession of his or her unalienable rights; rather, the focus is on the social group. People from individualistic cultures are more likely to use I, me, and mine pronouns; people from collectivistic cultures are more likely to use plural pronouns, such as we, us, and ours. Most modern Western and democratic societies and their organizations place ultimate value on the individual person; this creates an intrinsic and inherently irresolvable

tension between the individual and the group and the individual and the organization.107 In contrast, Eastern and Asian societies have a synergistic view of the person and the group. One intriguing study examined American and Singaporean perceptions of leaders and their teams.108 In comparing cultural differences in how leaders are viewed, Americans (individualistic culture) represented leaders standing ahead of their groups. Conversely, Asians represented leaders standing behind their groups. Moreover, Singaporeans evaluated the back leaders more favorably than did the Americans. Perhaps it is for this reason that when publishing house Wolters Kluwer needed to penetrate in China, they used a team model. Pairs of salespeople worked together and were compensated as a team.109

Egalitarianism versus hierarchy refers to how the different status layers in a society or organization relate to one another. In egalitarian cultures, members of high- and low-status groups communicate frequently and do not go to great lengths to perpetuate differences. Further, the status levels in egalitarian cultures are inherently permeable—meaning that if a person works hard enough, he or she can advance in an organization. In hierarchical cultures and organizations, status differences are not easily permeated. As a consequence, members of different classes or status levels do not communicate frequently, and there is a deep sense of obligation among those at the highest levels to provide for and protect those at the lowest-status levels who in turn put their trust in the high-status members of their organization.

One study examined how Anglo-Americans versus Asian Americans make judgments about their own moral status.110 It was reasoned that Americans represented a dignity culture, whereas Asians represented a face culture (i.e., saving face). Asians felt the greatest concern about their own morality when thinking about how others would judge them; conversely, Anglos were primarily concerned about their own behaviors, not about third-party perceptions.

A key difference among cultures is in terms of how people communicate. Some cultures are characterized by direct communication between organizational actors. In other cultures, communication, particularly that between members of different status levels, is indirect and highly nuanced.

When members of different cultures interact, there is a mutual adaptation process that takes place. Knowledge of cultural differences allows people to know what to expect when they interact with members of different cultural groups. Indeed, team members who are high in cognitive complexity (i.e., think analytically and deeply about things) and have a shared cognition about the social diversity of their team are better able to overcome the barriers to global teamwork.112 In addition, team members who have knowledge of cultural norms are able to reduce uncertainty in ambiguous and novel situations. Moreover, people who are high in need for closure (NFC) have a strong desire to get firm answers so as to reduce uncertainty. For this reason, people who are high in NFC are more likely to rely on dominant cultural norms when they are in a foreign country and deciding how to interact with others.113

Some people may be either unwilling or incapable of making changes and adaptations necessary for effective cross-cultural teamwork. Cultural inertia refers to a resistance to cultural change, unless change is already occurring. Groups high in cultural inertia resist change because of perceived pressures from outside forces.114 Change itself is perceived differently in teams as a function of how well the team matches the current dominant culture. Cultural inertia is higher when people do not identify with a given cultural group, hold low esteem for that group, and perceive that the culture is not changing.

Teams that have a developed transactive memory (knowledge of who knows what) of their team are more effective than teams who are low in transactive memory. A study of 60 global virtual supply teams from a large multinational organization found that transactive memory systems and preparation activities were critical for team effectiveness.115 Members who allocated a greater percentage of their time to the team initially led to a positive influence on preparation, but led to a negative influence as interdependence was reduced.