The Effects of Virtuality on Team Conflict

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The Effects of Virtuality on Team Conflict

• Patricia J. Holahan, Stevens
• Ann C. Mooney, Stevens
• Roger C. Mayer, University of Akron
• Laura Finnerty Paul, Stevens
• HSATM Presentation, November, 2008

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Conflict in Teams

• Critical area of study across multiple
  disciplines, including management and psychology.
• Conflict is multi-dimensional with both
  constructive and destructive forms.
• Managing conflict effectively is essential
  because it allows teams to benefit from
  constructive conflict without incurring the costs
  of destructive conflict.

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Virtuality and Conflict

• Although weve learned a lot about how to manage
  conflict in traditional, face-to-face teams, we
  know very little about how to manage conflict in
  virtual teams.
• This is particularly problematic because research
  has shown that virtual teams may experience more
  conflict than face-to-face teams.

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Our Research Question

• How can virtual teams manage conflict effectively?

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Our Research Approach

• We begin with what we know about conflict
  management in face-to-face teams.
• Based on an in-depth literature review, we then
  expand on that knowledge by considering how it
  changes in light of virtual working conditions.
• The end result is a working research model that
  we will further test with virtual teams.

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Conflict Management in F2F Teams

• (What we know already)

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Conflict is Multi-dimensional

• Constructive conflict occurs when teams share
  diverse perspectives about the tasks at hand.
• CC has been shown to promote exchange of ideas,
  surfacing of assumptions, and synthesis of
  diverse perspectives, which improves decision
  making and performance.
• Destructive conflict occurs when teams share
  diverse perspectives that are outside the context
  of the tasks and focused on more emotional and
  relationship issues.
• DC has been shown to lower decision quality,
  relationship acceptance, and satisfaction, which
  impairs decision making and performance.

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Constructive Conflict Triggers Destructive
Conflict

• Constructive conflict has a tendency to trigger
  destructive conflict, making the two forms of
  conflict difficult to disentangle.
• Researchers have explained this has to do with
  attribution and social judgment theories
• Attribution Theory explains that team members
  constantly try to interpret other team members
  intentions and motivations during decision
  making.
• Social Judgment Theory explains that team
  members cannot fully account for decisions that
  are reached, there is speculation as to why one
  course of action was chosen over another.

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Team Trust Weakens the CC/DC Relationship

• Trust is a willingness to be vulnerable to the
  trustee when the trustee cannot be monitored or
  controlled.
• Trust is determined by the trustors perception
  of the trustees trustworthiness (ability,
  benevolence, and integrity).
• Trust serves as a means of coping with
  uncertainty when risk is present.
• If team members dont trust one another, they
  will experience a need to control the outcomes or
  otherwise protect their own interests. This
  leads to a greater likelihood of misattributions
  and damaging social judgments that underpin the
  tendency for constructive conflict to trigger
  destructive conflict.

-
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Behavioral Integration (BI) Weakens the CC/DC
Relationship

• Behavioral integration refers to a teams norms
  of mutual and collective interaction.
• Behavioral integration provides opportunity for
  team members to share and explain the rationale
  for their perspectives. As a result, other team
  members are more likely to understand each
  others perspectives and less likely to make
  faulty attributions and social judgments.
• Thus, when teams experience behavioral
  integration, constructive conflict is less likely
  to trigger destructive conflict.

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Figure 1Conflict Management in F2F Teams(What
we Know Already)
Trustworthiness
()
Trust
Behavioral Integration
(-)
CONSTRUCTIVE CONFLICT
DESTRUCTIVE CONFLICT
(-)
()
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Conflict Management in Virtual Teams

• (The New Frontier
• i.e. What we Dont Know)

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Defining Virtuality

• We define virtuality as (Kirkman Mathieu,
  2005)
• the extent to which team members use
  communication technology to coordinate and
  execute team processes,
• the amount of informational value or richness
  provided by such technology, and
• the synchronicity of team member interactions
• Geographic dispersion is not a prerequisite for
  virtuality
• When teams use synchronous communication
  technologies that convey rich, valuable
  information, their exchanges are less virtual.

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Media Richness Theory (MRT) and Media
Synchronicity Theory (MST)

• Richness and Synchronicity are key
  characteristics of communication technologies.
• Richness and synchronicity equate to the ability
  of information to change understanding in a
  timely manner, or the clarity with which
  information can be communicated through a
  specific technology in a way that reduces
  information ambiguity in a timely manner.

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Media Richness Theory (MRT) and Media
Synchronicity Theory (MST)

• Communication technologies differ in their
  richness and synchronicity.
• The more limited the media richness and
  synchronicity the more constrained the social
  context and social cues.
• This, in turn, limits social influence and the
  development of shared meaning and identification
  with the group.

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The Effects on Virtual Teams

• Virtual teams have been found to differ from
  traditional teams
• Conformity is lower.
• Interpersonal bonds and cohesiveness are lower.
• Member satisfaction with group interaction is
  lower.
• These findings suggest that the limited social
  context and cues conveyed by technology-mediated
  communication may affect the development of
  social ties and shared meaning.

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Virtuality and Trustworthiness

• As teams become more virtual, it becomes
  increasingly difficult to convey the social cues
  that allow team members to evaluate one anothers
  trustworthiness.
• Because assessments of trustworthiness entail
  the assessment of socio-emotional dimensions,
  visual and voice cues (e.g., smiling. nodding,
  voice inflections, etc.) play a central role.
• We contend that technology low in richness and
  synchronicity limit ones ability to gather
  social cues outside the literal message being
  communicated and inhibit the process by which one
  person can assess a teammates trustworthiness.

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Hypothesis 1
H1 Virtuality will relate negatively to team
trustworthiness
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Virtuality and Behavioral Integration

• Researchers have shown that the lessening of
  social influence and social identification
  processes will make the establishment of strong
  team norms and the identification with the
  groups norms more problematic.
• This is consistent with MST, which proposes that
  shared understanding of one anothers
  expectations (norms) can only be had when teams
  use communication technology that is high in
  richness and synchronicity.
• Thus, we argue that virtuality makes it more
  difficult for teams to establish mutual and
  collective teams norms i.e., exhibit
  behavioral integration.

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Hypothesis 2
H2 Virtuality will relate negatively to
behavioral integration
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Figure 2The Influence of Virtuality on Conflict
(-)
Virtuality
Trustworthiness
()
(-)
Trust
Behavioral Integration
()
(-)
(-)
CONSTRUCTIVE CONFLICT
DESTRUCTIVE CONFLICT
()
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The News Isnt All Bad

• Virtual Teams Can Avoid the Pitfalls of
  Virtuality by Developing the Right Experience.

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Experience with the Communication Technology

• Researchers have proposed that team members
  experience with the communication technology
  (e.g., email, discussion boards, video
  conferencing) may in fact mitigate the negative
  effect of virtuality on communication processes.
• As team members become more experienced with a
  given communication technology, they are likely
  to become more comfortable with its shortcomings
  and adapt it accordingly, in essence enriching
  it enabling more social cues and thereby
  weakening the negative effects of virtuality.

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Hypotheses 3a 3b
H3a The negative relationship between
virtuality and trustworthiness will be weaker
when experience with the communication technology
is high.
H3b The negative relationship between
virtuality and behavioral integration will be
weaker when experience with the communication
technology is high.
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Experience with One Another and Trustworthiness

• Consistent with other researchers, we contend
  that the relationship between virtuality and the
  ability to assess trustworthiness depends on the
  extent to which team members understand, or have
  knowledge regarding one another.
• The message conveyed (shaped by the communication
  technology used) combined with our experience
  with one another should interact to shape the
  accuracy of our impressions of the meaning behind
  the message, and thus the trustworthiness of the
  sender.

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Hypothesis 4a
H4a The negative relationship between
virtuality and team trustworthiness will be
weaker when experience with one another is high.
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Experience with One Another and Behavioral
Integration

• Virtual teams comprised of members who have
  experience with one another would be expected to
  enact shared mental models, roles, and norms from
  their prior experience of working together
  (Maruping Argarwal, 2004).
• This shared understanding around norms, roles,
  goals, etc., lessens the effects of virtuality on
  behavioral integration.

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Hypothesis 4b
H4b The negative relationship between
virtuality and behavioral integration will be
weaker when experience with one another is high.
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Feedback Loops

• The key moderators of conflict trust and
  behavioral integration should be inhibited by
  virtuality as well as the effects of time.
• The literature suggests that as team members
  experience destructive conflict, they adjust
  their observations and perceptions of team
  members.
• The more emotional and relationship issues
  related to destructive conflict seem likely, over
  time, to make team members less likely to
  perceive their fellow team members as
  trustworthy. It should also make it less likely
  for team members to work together with mutual and
  collective norms, i.e., exhibit behavioral
  integration.

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Hypotheses 5a 5b
H5a Destructive conflict will relate negatively
to team members subsequent perceptions of team
trustworthiness. H5b Destructive conflict
will relate negatively the teams subsequent
behavioral integration.
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Figure 2The Influence of Virtuality on Conflict
(-)
Virtuality
Trustworthiness
()
()
()
(-)
(-)
Experience with Comm, Technology Teammates
Trust
Behavioral Integration
()
(-)
(-)
DESTRUCTIVE CONFLICT
CONSTRUCTIVE CONFLICT
()
(-)
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Our Contribution

• Our research focuses on how virtuality affects
  the relationship between constructive and
  destructive conflict.
• Our model proposes that virtuality makes conflict
  more difficult to manage because virtuality
  inhibits the team trustworthiness and behavioral
  integration that are essential to keeping
  conflict constructive.
• These negative effects of virtuality can be
  mitigated when team members have experience with
  the communication technology used and experience
  working with each other.

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Preliminary Insights

• Advice for Managers

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Develop Experience with Virtual Communication
Technologies

• Dont rely solely on on-the-job training for
  virtual communication technologies.
• Training should begin when employees join the
  organization and refreshed on a regular basis.
• Focus not only on depth understanding a
  technology well but breadth being proficient
  in a wide variety of communication technologies.
• Provide instruction of the advantages and
  disadvantages of different technologies and how
  to choose technologies that are well-suited for
  their communication processes

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Develop the Virtual Teams Experience with One
Another

• Consider including team members that have prior
  experience working together.
• Offer team building opportunities to help team
  members without prior experience together gel.
• Time team building opportunities at the beginning
  of the project.
• Consider some time face-to-face team building
  opportunities.

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Next Steps for Our Research

• Model Development and Empirical Test

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Next Steps

• Improve model by
• Reviewing literature more extensively
• Interviewing experienced industry professionals.
• Prepare and submit a conceptual paper for
  publication.
• Empirically test model by
• Examining conflict management in virtual and
  face-to-face courses
• Conducting a large-scale survey study of virtual
  industry teams.
• Prepare and submit empirical paper(s) for
  publication.