Summary
As technology-mediated communication improves, organizations rely more on virtual teams. Team creativity has been studied mostly in face-to-face settings, and little is known about how it is achieved when members collaborate remotely. This study explores how virtual team leaders cope with process challenges in developing a context for team creativity.
It is a qualitative study. We interviewed nine leaders, each with more than five years of work experience, who had managed virtual teams in different fields.
The interviews pointed to four main inhibitors of virtual team creativity and success: distrust, ineffective member traits, generational differences, and technology difficulties. We identified seven main strategies that leaders use in response. Trust based on open communication was named as the most important strategy when teams actively use technology-mediated communication tools. The second was building team norms and guidelines that encourage positive interactions among members.
Why it matters
HRD practitioners can use the results when assessing who is suited to lead virtual teams and when designing virtual team training.
Citation
Han, S. J., Chae, C., Macko, P., Park, W., & Beyerlein, M. (2017). How virtual team leaders cope with creativity challenges. European Journal of Training and Development, 41(3), 261–276. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJTD-10-2016-0073
Indexed in: SCOPUS
Citation
@online{2017,
author = {},
title = {How {Virtual} {Team} {Leaders} {Cope} with {Creativity}
{Challenges}},
date = {2017-04-03},
url = {https://chadchae.github.io/posts_publication/2017-04-03-virtual-team-leaders-creativity-challenges/virtual-team-leaders-creativity-challenges.html},
langid = {en}
}