Niki Panteli

Trust and conflict within virtual inter-organizational alliances: a framework for facilitating knowledge sharing

Trust and conflict are inherent issues of any organizational arrangement and central for knowledge sharing; yet they have received limited attention in the literature. In this paper, we undertake an investigation of both phenomena within the context of virtual alliances. A generic framework for understanding the dynamics of trust and conflict within the context of virtual interorganizational arrangements is presented, followed by an examination of three distinct structural forms of virtual alliances, and strategies for generating trust and minimizing dysfunctional conflict. The paper concludes with an identification of avenues for further research.

Enacting new temporal boundaries: the role of mobile phones

This paper examines how the use of mobile phones influences the temporal boundaries that people enact in order to regulate and coordinate their work and non-work activities. We investigate both the structural and interpretive aspects of socio-temporal order, so as to gain a fuller appreciation of the changes induced by the use of mobile phones. With specific reference to professionals working in traditional, physically based and hierarchically structured organizations, we found that mobile phone users are becoming more vulnerable to organizational claims and that as a result ‘the office’ is always present as professionals, because of the use of mobile phones, become available ‘anytime’. This is enabled by the characteristics of the technology itself but also by users’ own behaviour. In the paper, we discuss the properties of the emerging socio-temporal order and show how mobile phones may render the management of the social spheres in which professionals participate more challenging.

Richness, power cues and email text

The paper presents a study that assesses the level of richness in electronic-mediated communication by taking into account its text-based attributes. Though a key feature of email, only limited research has focused on the text-based attributes of email messages. The underlying assumption is that there is an organisational context that intertwines with email message texts. The study explores the extent to which these attributes differ among senders at different organisational layers. Using textual and deconstruction analysis, it analysed a series of email messages distributed within two academic departments over a period of several months, and found that email, as a communication medium, signals rather than alleviates hierarchical differences. Therefore, even though email is often presented as a lean medium, the way text-based messages are constructed may convey the social cues that are traditionally used to determine status differences in organisations. The study argues that email is a richer communication medium than is reflected in the scale of information richness theory.

The role of subgroups in the communication patterns of global virtual teams

In this paper, we explore the emergence of subgroups in global virtual teams and consider the impact that subgroups have on the communication patterns and interactions of these teams. The study presented here takes the case of eight virtual teams that were formed between two universities in two different countries. Our findings reveal that subgroups exert different degrees of impact on the team as a whole. Where the impact was high, boundaries were created between team members in different subgroups while the development of team cohesiveness was restricted. Nevertheless, all teams were able to produce high quality outcomes, suggesting that the emergence of subgroups may not always have a negative influence on team performance. We discuss the implications of these findings for research and practice.

Trust and temporary virtual teams: alternative explanations and dramaturgical relationships

The paper uses the dramaturgical perspective for conceptualising trust development within temporary virtual teams. The underlying assumption is that temporary teams do not have the luxury of time that, according to the traditional trust theories, enables familiarity among team members and promotes trust development. Yet, in these teams, trust needs to develop quickly and it is important that it lasts throughout the short duration of the project lifecycle. Using the metaphor of a theatre, a dramaturgical perspective on trust relationships is adopted and is used to present actors, co‐actors and audience as all playing a key role in scripting, staging and performing virtual plays. The dramaturgical perspective provides an illustrative approach for uncovering the interactions between key players. As it is argued, these interactions elicit the process of trust development within the temporary setting of virtual teams, constituting a type of trust relationship that is mutually negotiated and jointly constructed. This type of trust is called “situated” and emerges from the scripted, pre‐scripted, co‐scripted, re‐scripted and unscripted computer‐mediated interactions of virtual players. The implications for theory and practice are discussed.

From virtual teams to virtuality in teams

In this article we propose to go beyond the dichotomy of virtual vs collocated teams to look instead at virtuality in teams. In so doing, we argue that technology-mediated interactions do not substitute but rather complement face-to-face interactions.We adopt a definition of virtuality in teams based on discontinuities and pursue an understanding of their dynamics in an in-depth case study of an inter-organizational virtual centre of excellence.The findings present evidence suggesting the formation of ‘virtual continuities’ that mitigate the effects that create discontinuities. This, we argue, enriches our understanding of the complex dynamics of virtuality. The theoretical implications are discussed.

Discursive articulations of presence in virtual organizing

Abstract In this paper, I explore how presence is articulated in a virtual team environment. The empirical data in this paper are taken from a series of emails that were exchanged for the duration of a virtual team project. The paper argues that even though presence was identified as integral in conceptualising virtual teams, it has not previously been well articulated. Using the discourse analysis approach, the study succeeds in identifying three different articulations of presence in virtual organizing: present availability, absent unavailability and silenced availability. The paper concludes with the argument that these discursive articulations of presence are central to understanding virtual organizing and the theoretical and practical implications of this are discussed.

Video conferencing meetings: Changing patterns of business communication

Electronic mediated communication is an increasingly popular form of communication within and across organisations. This paper presents research on the implementation, training and use of video-conferencing systems on different sites of a multi-national oil company. We find that error, delay but mainly social costs influence the choice and use of this communication medium.

Revisiting the nature of virtual organizations: reflections on mobile communication systems

Abstract Virtual reality has been gaining increasing attention as an emergent and highly significant form of work organization. Discussions on the significance of virtual organizations and how information technology can help organizations to transform themselves away from their traditional physical boundaries have improved our understanding of what virtual organizations are, or what they are not. In this paper, however, we seek to challenge the efficacy of existing views of virtuality by exploring both its potential to be ‘real’ as well as its potential to be ‘organized’. The impact of these potentials on the nature of organization is then discussed with mobile telephony as an exemplar.

Virtual Social Networks: A New Dimension for Virtuality Research

Virtuality has been undergoing rapid and fundamental changes. As technology changes, so too have its applications and our uses of and experiences with them have changed as well. The emergence of new technologies such as Web 2.0 technologies offers individuals opportunities for new ways of interacting, playing, working, and learning, and companies new ways for promoting and advertising their products and services and interacting with their customers in general. The new possibilities are exciting, but there are uncertainties and anxieties too which affect individuals and organizations as well as societies in general. It is within this context, one of simultaneous excitement and anxiety, that we discuss virtual social networks in this edited collection.