Open Access

The annual instructional virtual team Project X brings together professors and students from across the globe to engage in client projects. The 2020 project was challenged by the global disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper draws on a quantitative dataset from a post-project survey among 500 participating students and a qualitative narrative inquiry of personal experiences of the faculty members. The findings reveal how innovative use of a variety of collaboration and communication technologies helped students and their professors in building emotional connection and compassion to support each other in the midst of the crisis, and to accomplish the project despite connectivity disruptions. The results suggest that the role of an instructor changed to a coach and mentor, and technology was used to create a greater sense of inclusion and co-presence in student-faculty interactions. Ultimately, the paper highlights the role of technology to help the participants navigate sudden crisis affecting a global online instructional team project. The adaptive instructional teaching strategies and technologies depicted in this study offer transformative potential for future developments in higher education.

This study examines the impact of perceived foreign language proficiency on hybrid culture building in multicultural teams. Hybrid culture includes a mutually shared set of norms, communication patterns, problem-solving approaches, and synergistic task coordination that result from the diverse cultural backgrounds of the team members. Language is the main vehicle for communication and plays a major role in social interaction and therefore hybrid culture building. We argue that the level of perceived language proficiency of multicultural team members influences hybrid culture building; consequently, adequate language skills lead not only to an efficient task solution but are also an important factor in creating interpersonal relationships and building a shared culture. Our empirical analysis supports the positive influence of language proficiency in hybrid teams; however, foreign language proficiency is more influential on cognitively oriented areas of multicultural teamwork than on affective ones.

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.

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.

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.