Division of Research Working Paper Abstract

97-095

IS LEARNING IN VIRTUAL TEAMS REAL?

Maryam Alavi and Youngjin Yoo

This paper investigated the effectiveness of communication technology in support of executive learning in virtual team environments. The investigation is motivated by two widely observed recent phenomena. First, advanced communication technology and globalization are fueling a transition toward new organizational forms. One such form is the virtual organization (Byrne 1993, Davidow and Malone 1992, Grenier and Metes 1995), which consist of individuals collaborating and working out of physically dispersed locations (Fulk and DeSanctis 1995). Virtual organizations, thus, rely on virtual teams for obtaining member participation and coordinating individual effort in productive work. Second, our society and economy are moving into a "knowledge era" in which knowledge is becoming a key factor in production and wealth creation. In a knowledge economy, organizational learning (stemming from executive learning) is a key factor in maintaining competitiveness. Thus, creating virtual organizational forms that are conducive to learning is fundamental for organizational performance in the 21st century.

Two alternative communication technology infrastructures were used to design and evaluate two virtual team environments. One was an e-mail system used in conjunction with the World Wide Web; the second was a sophisticated groupware system referred to as Beta system. Two hundred and six executives of a large federal government agency participated in the study as a part of an executive development program at a large state university. The executives worked in small virtual teams over a ten-week period to complete a complex and realistic project designed to enhance their individual learning. None of the team members were co-located and therefore no face-to-face interactions occurred during the project execution. The teams used one of the two communication infrastructure to complete their projects.

The findings of the study provide some interesting insights for creating virtual team structural forms and suggest areas for productive future research.

GM
26 pages