The space between – linking trust with individual and team performance in virtual teams
ISSN: 1352-7592
Article publication date: 31 October 2018
Issue publication date: 7 March 2019
Abstract
Purpose
Understanding the relationship between performance and trust in virtual teams is receiving significant attention due to “connected” virtual team contexts becoming more prevalent. This paper reports on new findings relating to the dynamics of trust and performance in virtual team contexts. The study aims to explore the evolution of trust and its mediating role in determining the performance of virtual teams, as well as to investigate if and how performance itself affected trust.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based on a longitudinal quantitative survey of 71 international virtual student teams working in four universities in Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Russia.
Findings
In line with swift trust and social norms theory, the authors found that relatively high levels of initial trust did not change over the period of the teams’ projects in general, but in teams where feedback on performance was negative, both trust and trustworthiness declined significantly. Trust had a small mediating effect between group performances in two consecutive measurement points, meaning that past performance had an impact on trust, which in turn impacted the teams’ next performance. However, no mediating effect was present between individual and team performance.
Practical implications
The authors conclude that managing virtual teams should concentrate on team actions and achieving and recognising small quick wins at least as much as dealing with trust, specifically. Negative performance feedback should not deteriorate members’ perception of benevolence and integrity in the team.
Originality/value
The paper distinguishes the dynamics of two trust components and tests new models with these as partial mediators in determining virtual team performance. Importantly, the authors challenge the notion that emotional component of trust, perceived trustworthiness, is less relevant in virtual teams.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors are indebted to Emeritus Professor Ray W. Cooksey and Professor Terri Griffith for their insightful comments and advice. The authors thank the two anonymous reviewers and appreciate the role of Peter Zettinig, Katja Einola, Danijela Majdenic, George Varlamov and Santa Sproge-Rimsa throughout the international virtual collaboration project. This study was partly supported by Project IUT20-49 Structural Change as the Factor of Productivity Growth in the Case of Catching up Economies.
Citation
Jaakson, K., Reino, A. and McClenaghan, P.B. (2019), "The space between – linking trust with individual and team performance in virtual teams", Team Performance Management, Vol. 25 No. 1/2, pp. 30-46. https://doi.org/10.1108/TPM-03-2018-0024
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited