Katherine M. Chudoba

How virtual are we? Measuring virtuality and understanding its impact in a global organization

Abstract.  Employees in global corporations are increasingly involved in ‘virtual teams’ on a regular basis. Conflicting definitions of virtuality make it hard to measure such things as how much virtual teaming occurs and how virtual teaming affects performance. As a consequence, it is hard to allocate funding and to design infrastructures and software to support this specific mode of working. Using the concept of discontinuities, or changes in expected conditions, we propose a virtuality index to assess how ‘virtual’ a given setting is. The discontinuities used include geography, time zone, organization, national culture, work practices, and technology. The index separately measures these aspects of virtuality and their effect on perceived team performance. Data collected at a large multinational corporation clustered into three overarching discontinuities: team distribution, workplace mobility, and variety of work practices. The study revealed that being distributed in and of itself had no impact on self‐assessed team performance. Work practice predictability and sociability mitigated effects of working in discontinuous environments, while variety of practices (cultural and work process diversity) and employee mobility negatively impacted performance.

It road warriors: balancing work-family conflict, job autonomy, and work overload to mitigate turnover intentions

This study examines the antecedents of turnover intention among information technology road warriors. Road warriors are IT professionals who spend most of their workweek away from home at a client site. Building on Moores (2000) work on turnover intention, this article develops and tests a model that is context-specific to the road warrior situation. The model highlights the effects of work family conflict and job autonomy, factors especially applicable to the road warriors circumstances. Data were gathered from a company in the computer and software services industry. This study provides empirical evidence for the effects of work family conflict, perceived work overload, fairness of rewards, and job autonomy on organizational commitment and work exhaustion for road warriors. The results suggest that work family conflict is a key source of stress among IT road warriors because they have to juggle family and job duties as they work at distant client sites during the week. These findings suggest that the context of the IT worker matters to turnover intention, and that models that are adaptive to the work context will more effectively predict and explain turnover intention.

Discontinuities and continuities: a new way to understand virtual work

“Virtual” is a potent buzzword, freely applied to many situations, with many meanings. In this exploratory study, we develop a more precise understanding of “virtual” to describe changing work environments. Specifically, we propose a framework to classify work environments based on the type of discontinuities involved. Discontinuities are gaps or a lack of coherence in aspects of work. The framework allows us to compare research across different topics and work settings. We use the framework to classify 75 published articles on virtual work environments or earlier, related research streams. We observed that many studies were simultaneously addressing existing or emerging continuities, factors or strategies for overcoming discontinuities. The focus of “virtual” is on changes in the work environment; however, our analysis suggests the need to be equally aware of factors that have not changed and which may become more critical with the introduction of discontinuities.

Perceived discontinuities and constructed continuities in virtual work

Boundaries such as time, distance, organisation and culture have been a useful conceptual tool for researchers to unpack changes in the virtual work environment, moving from a dichotomous perspective that contrasts face‐to‐face and virtual work to a more nuanced hybrid perspective. However, researchers may tacitly assume that all members of a virtual team and virtual teams collectively will respond to a boundary in a similar way. We posit instead that boundaries are a dynamic phenomenon and may have different consequences under different circumstances. We offer organisational discontinuity theory as a tool for more focused investigation of the virtual work environment. Discontinuities and continuities describe the setting in which individuals in a virtual team operate, both actual work practices and the perceptions of the individuals in the virtual work environment. The terms offer a starting point to identify and understand what may otherwise seem to be paradoxical differences in how virtual team members respond to boundaries.

Virtuality and Team Performance: Understanding the Impact of Variety of Practices

Abstract In many corporations today, it is common to have teams with members located in different geographic locations, different time zones, and even different countries. These virtual teams are strategically important to organizations as they adapt to constantly changing market and political conditions such as global outsourcing. Despite the research and investment in technologies supporting virtual work, it remains unclear how virtuality, or the conditions under which virtual teams work, affects performance. Prior research suggests performance of virtual teams runs the gamete from failure to success. A global understanding of the specific impacts of virtual work on performance, positive or negative, remains elusive because researchers have not yet ascertained which aspects of virtuality are especially relevant in a given setting. In this study conducted at Intel Corporation, we examine how different components of virtuality influence specific aspects of performance of virtual teams. We use both quantitative and qualitative data in our analysis. Our findings indicate that variety of practice creates significant negative influence on several aspects of performance, including communication and trust in team members, and ability to meet commitments and complete projects on time. Also, members experiencing more variety of practice perceived less risk-taking in their teams and less ability to focus the team on the right questions for the projects being undertaken.

Misplaced resources? Factors associated with computer literacy among end-users

Abstract Some organizations provide a support infrastructure (e.g. information centers) and training to assist end-users and boost the computer knowledge of their workforce. Here we explore the relationship between support infrastructure, training, various computer configurations, and the computer literacy of work groups. Data were collected in a multi-year study of 77 computer-using work groups; this included two interviews with managers and two questionnaires completed by workers. Analyses showed that none of the measures of training were associated with computer literacy and only one kind of infrastructure support was found to be related to computer literacy: obtaining information from a resident expert in the work group. In contrast, many aspects of the configuration of the computer systems were associated with computer literacy. Implications of these findings for the management of end-user computing are discussed.

Do You Know What I Know? A Shared Understandings Perspective on Text-Based Communication

This article illustrates how the hermeneutic analysis of text illuminates how shared understandings affect our interpretations of lean communication in distributed work environments. It is proposed that in contrast to the pessimistic conclusions of media richness theory that lean communication channels cannot support complex or equivocal work tasks, miscommunications are not the result of technology, but rather occur due to a lack of shared understandings among the individuals communicating. An illustrative case study based on fieldwork in franchise organizations is presented to demonstrate the possibilities for how the hermeneutic analysis of coherence, invention, intention, and reference can be used to discover how workers create and recreate shared understandings through text.

Appropriations and patterns in the use of group support systems

This paper describes a macro-level coding scheme to distinguish patterns that occur in groups using a group support system (GSS). The coding scheme has roots in adaptive structuration theory (AST) with its emphasis on how technology is appropriated or used, and discourse analysis that requires one consider the context of the larger discussion when analyzing textual data. The macro-level coding scheme revolves around junctures that occur during group meetings such as when a group either chooses to use the GSS software or chooses to accomplish some aspect of the task without the software. After identifying a juncture, a brief description is written detailing how group members responded to the opportunity presented by the juncture. Qualitative analysis is then used to identify patterns in how the technology is used. Application of the coding scheme is demonstrated with data gathered from 17 groups that met three times over a two-week period.

Overworked and isolated? Predicting the effect of work-family conflict, autonomy, and workload on organizational commitment and turnover of virtual workers

Proposes that work-family conflict, autonomy and workload influence work exhaustion and job satisfaction. Exhaustion is also thought to influence satisfaction. The model further proposes that work exhaustion and job satisfaction affect organizational commitment, which in turn influences turnover intention. The study was conducted at a company in the computer and software services industry. Overall, good support for the proposed model was found. Work-family conflict, job autonomy and workload were found to be associated with work exhaustion and job satisfaction. Exhaustion was negatively related to job satisfaction and job satisfaction was positively related to organizational commitment and negatively related to turnover intention. Organizational commitment was found to be negatively associated with turnover intention. Implications for management are offered.

Perceived discontinuities and continuities in transdisciplinary scientific working groups

We examine the DataONE (Data Observation Network for Earth) project, a transdisciplinary organization tasked with creating a cyberinfrastructure platform to ensure preservation of and access to environmental science and biological science data. Its objective was a difficult one to achieve, requiring innovative solutions. The DataONE project used a working group structure to organize its members. We use organizational discontinuity theory as our lens to understand the factors associated with success in such projects. Based on quantitative and qualitative data collected from DataONE members, we offer recommendations for the use of working groups in transdisciplinary synthesis. Recommendations include welcome diverse opinions and world views, establish shared communication practices, schedule periodic synchronous face-to-face meetings, and ensure the active participation of bridge builders or knowledge brokers such as librarians who know how to ask questions about disciplines not their own.