Organizational identification among global virtual team members: The role of individualism‐collectivism and uncertainty avoidance

Abstract

Purpose

“Organizational identification” refers to a perception of “oneness” with an organization. The purpose of this paper is to provide a model of organizational identification for virtual team workers and examine the role of cultural dimensions in a virtual setting. Specifically, it poses individualism‐collectivism and uncertainty avoidance as potential situational contingencies that may affect the determinants of an organizational identification relationship in a virtual work setting.

Design/methodology/approach

The proposed research framework delineates how cultural dimensions relate to virtual work‐associated individual (interpersonal trust, need for affiliation) and environmental (spatial and cultural dispersion, ICT‐enabled communication) factors and organizational identification. Several testable propositions emerge.

Findings

This study provides a foundation for empirical studies that examine the linkages among organizational identification, virtual work, and environment‐related factors and cultural variables.

Practical implications

This study has particular implications for managing virtual teams, as well as specific suggestions for a typology of virtual team members. The typology supports a consideration of expected levels of organizational identification, depending on virtual team member types.

Originality/value

Scholars have devoted very little attention to exploring what factors drive or impede organizational identification in cross‐cultural virtual teams. This paper attempts to fill that void by linking the immediate determinants and the contingency role of cultural variables or organizational identification in the context of virtual work.

Citation

Mukherjee, D., Hanlon, S.C., Kedia, B.L. and Srivastava, P. (2012), "Organizational identification among global virtual team members: The role of individualism‐collectivism and uncertainty avoidance", Cross Cultural Management: An International Journal, Vol. 19 No. 4, pp. 526-545. https://doi.org/10.1108/13527601211270002