Refine
Document Type
- Conference Proceeding (6) (remove)
Language
- English (6)
Has Fulltext
- no (6)
Is part of the Bibliography
- no (6)
Keywords
Institute
Psychological safety, the feeling of being comfortable to express one’s ideas or opinions in teams, is a key determinant of successful global virtual teams. Even though there exists considerable knowledge about its antecedents, it is unknown how team-based (e.g., clarification of deliverables and deadlines) and technology-based (e.g., digital reminder nudges/ DRN) interventions foster psychological safety given cultural variations of team members. Based on a survey involving 148 participants, our data shows that both team-based interventions (TBI) and digital nudges foster psychological safety in global virtual teams. TBI are even more effective for high-context, indirect communicators than for low-context, direct communicators. However, digital nudges were equally effective across cultures for building psychological safety. These findings contribute to the literature on psychological safety as we show that not all antecedents hold equally across cultures and to the literature of digital nudges as we show the effectiveness of technology-based interventions in a team context.
Natural Language Processing, such as speech-to-text technology, is increasingly implemented in collaboration software that is used by global virtual teams (GVT). GVT collaboration has become ubiquitous and has additionally accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic. The main issues of global virtual teams are technology difficulties, language and time zone differences, and lower levels of psychological safety. Advances in collaboration technology aim at improving collaboration for GVT. But we know little about the acceptance of these technologies. Therefore, the objective of this study is to explore how Millennial and Gen Z members of GVT accept speech-to-text technology; namely, automated captions in virtual conferences and automated meetings transcripts. Particularly, we are comparing antecedents of acceptance across levels of language proficiency and psychological safety. We surveyed 530 users of speech-to-text technology in GVT both before and after they used the technology. The pre-survey was administered before the COVID-19 pandemic hit; when participants completed the post-survey all were under some degree of lockdown. Results suggest that use of the technology reduces anxiety and effort, but decreases performance expectation and hedonic motivation. Non-native speakers rate the technology more positively. The impact of psychological safety is limited to self-efficacy and anxiety.
Teams are beginning to rely on smart communication technology that is enhanced by Artificial Intelligence (AI). Yet, we lack understanding of how these smart communication technologies (SCT) influence team collaboration, especially in global virtual teams (GVT). This study empirically investigates how cultural values and practices influence the acceptance of SCT and how the use of this technology impacts communication effectiveness in GVT. We surveyed 643 members of 109 GVT before and after using the SCT. Results showed that team members from individualistic, future oriented cultures generally had more positive expectations towards the performance and enjoyment of using the technology. Uncertainty avoidance increased effort expectancy. After using SCT for communicating in the GVT, most differences disappeared. Regarding communication effectiveness, SCT had a positive influence, which was stronger for performance and future oriented cultures.
Virtual teams that use integrated communication technologies are ubiquitous in cross-border collaboration. This study explored media use and communication performance in multilingual virtual teams. Based on surveys from 96 virtual teams (with 578 team members), the research showed that more time spent in synchronous communication channels such as online conferences increased inclusion and satisfaction. Team members with lower language proficiency felt less included in synchronous and asynchronous collaboration, whereas team members with higher language proficiency felt less satisfied with asynchronous collaboration. Also, limited language proficiency speakers were significantly less likely to view synchronous tools as helpful for their teams to reach a mutual decision. Our data supports Media Synchronicity Theory (MST) for native and highly proficient English speakers. However, MST needs to be adjusted to account for different levels of language proficiency.
Meeting recordings and algorithmic tools that process and evaluate recorded meeting data may provide many new opportunities for employees, teams, and organizations. Yet, the use of this data raises important consent, data use, and privacy issues. The purpose of this research is to identify key tensions that should be addressed in organizational policymaking about data use from recorded work meetings. Based on interviews with 50 professionals in the United States, China, and Germany, we identify the following five key tensions (anticipated boundary turbulence) that should be addressed in a social contract approach to organizational policymaking for data use of recorded work meetings: disruption versus help in relationships, privacy versus transparency, employee control versus management control, learning versus evaluation, and trust in AI versus trust in people.
Collaboration platforms for teams, such as Slack, are increasingly used in virtual teams. Conventional wisdom suggests attitudes about adopting these types of platforms is primarily driven by their affordances. Our project emerged from the premise that psychological safety and personality traits can also significantly influence attitudes related to technology adoption. This research of roughly 300 global virtual teams showed that psychological safety influences views of collaboration platforms in terms of performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and hedonic motivation. In addition, this research showed that personality traits influence views of collaboration platforms. These findings about psychological safety and personality traits suggest a team-development approach is an integral component of the technology adoption process. Recommendations for future research are provided.