Managing Conflict in Virtual Teams: The Role of Communication Technologies

Abstract:     
Virtual team working through agile and flexible Information and Communication Technology (ICT) engenders globalization, pursuing new markets outside their domestic environment: customers, suppliers; operate partners. Virtual teams employ ICTs to function across geographical boundaries and to diminish the gaps in language competence, which may arise from cultural diversity. Two fundamental communication processes (conveyance and convergence) affect the use of media, which plays an important role to manage effective communication. Employing the nature of ICTs suggests that switching between media enhances the effective communication to manage conflict between virtual teams. This research investigates how different types of virtual teams adopt and adapt ICTs, and manage conflict in different ways. The findings suggest that different types of virtual teams utilize ICTs' characteristics and choose different media in an attempt to attenuate the negative effects of competitive behavior and to enhance team effectiveness during conflict management.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 25

Keywords: Globalization, Virtual teams, Information Communication Technology (ICT), Conflict management styles, Geographic dispersion, Language competence

JEL Classification: F23; L10; M19

working papers series