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  • Essay / The influence of trust on the performance of virtual teams

    In recent years, the work environment has become increasingly dynamic due to globalization, decentralization of work processes and advances in information and communication technologies. To adapt to these changes, organizations have adopted more flexible structures and processes, including distributed virtual teams. However, working with people from different continents, especially in communication that is primarily computerized and does not convey the same feelings and emotions as face-to-face communication. Some of the challenges lie in developing and maintaining trust within the team. Since trust facilitates collaboration, conflict resolution, team integration, and effective knowledge sharing, this could ultimately lead to greater effectiveness. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay The goal of this essay is to provide a comprehensive view of the impact of trust on the effectiveness of a distributed virtual team, based on the results of previous studies. empirical research. Virtual teams are geographically dispersed groups of colleagues coordinated through a combination of telecommunications and information technology to accomplish an organizational task. On the one hand, it can look like a dream team that offers flexibility and diversity which, in turn, fosters creativity and synergy through a more open-minded work environment. On the other hand, the lack of crucial personal elements such as team trust, personal rapport and intercultural skills often constitutes a compelling argument against this work setup, as this aspect promotes a positive work environment. safe and proactive. A virtual work environment, which relies on computer-mediated communication (CMC), indeed stimulates more chatter, because members actually intend to get to know their colleagues better; However, this is not enough to build relationships and develop trust. In a study on communication, Mehrabian (1967) determined that 55% of our communication is nonverbal and only 38% is vocal. Therefore, virtual teams cannot rely on aspects such as body posture, clothing, smell, gestures or the need for personal space, which have a greater impact on our perception of a person, to analyze whether a person is trustworthy or not. Communication is therefore another important factor of influence on the establishment of trust and the effectiveness of a team; However, I will not focus on developing this aspect, because the central topic of the essay is the influence of trust on the effectiveness of a team. Ever since distributed virtual teams were introduced to the workplace scene, intra-team trust has remained a hot topic. topic for researchers as new ways of building trust are discovered and evaluated. For example, Handy, in his 1995 research, concluded that trust is simply not present or cannot be maintained in global virtual teams, while Alshara et al. in 2017 demonstrated that there are other ways to develop and maintain trust in a virtual environment. Their studies have shown that knowledge sharing is an essential condition for distributed teams to gain confidence and therefore performance. Knowledge sharing refers to an exchange..