1.5 Virtual team competencies – a general introduction

In the previous section we outlined the different types of virtual team and their characteristics. On this basis we can now start to consider which general and specific competencies might support virtual teamwork. What follows therefore, is a discussion of the challenges of virtual teamwork and the competencies needed for good team performance and satisfaction among team members.

A competence can generally be understood as a cluster of related knowledge, skills and attitudes (KSAs) that influence and guide performance and team satisfaction, which can be enhanced through training. In this context, it can be understood as the ability to establish ‘routines’ and a sense of 'normality' in teamwork, which facilitate the desired outcome successfully. In the context of working remotely, Wang and Haggerty (2009) define virtual competence “…as the extent of an individual’s KSAs to work and communicate in virtual environments for the purpose of completing collaborative virtual work projects” (p.578). We can say in general that when acquiring competencies, the ability to apply self-reflection and critical thinking in order to assimilate and analyse new knowledge and skills is critical. This in turn requires an openness, curiosity and respect towards others and the ability to empathise with team members while considering their perspectives. Competencies thus need to be seen as complex multi-dimensional constructs.

In the context of the multi-faceted nature of virtual teams, competencies are required in order to tackle challenges linked to technology and geographical dispersion as well as cultural diversity and team related challenges. Schulze and Krumm (2017) mention that research on required competencies for effective and satisfying virtual teamwork is still scarce. The approach taken here is to discuss the specific competencies which might positively influence team effectiveness and team satisfaction.

Technology-related competencies

Having the skills and proficiency to apply available communication technologies such as email, instant messaging, telephone or video conferencing is a basic requirement for teamwork. In fact it is the enabler of virtual teamwork. Digital media skills go beyond the mere technical expertise of simply operating the respective tools. It also involves exploiting their potentials appropriately, in order to facilitate collaborative activities in a virtual setting. At times this is also referred to as digital fluency, understood as the ability to select and use the technology that is most suitable to achieve a particular outcome in a particular context.

One important choice to be made is, for example, between synchronous and asynchronous media. Whereas synchronous media such as video conferencing enable teams to move together at the same time, asynchronous media allow team members to access information when time and circumstances allow. Generally speaking, therefore, a synchronous medium such as video is a better choice for goals such as the development of mutual understanding, collective sense making and defining goals, whereas asynchronous media is more appropriate for disseminating and processing large amounts of information.

Media skills are performative and a lack of proficiency influences the entire communication flow and coordination. For example, although it can be assumed that the functionalities of emails are widely known, when and how best to use them in a virtual team setting requires consideration and expertise. This means that the competency level refers to the ability to use  information and communication technologies for the benefit of the team's objectives.

A competency closely linked to technology use is remote self-efficacy, which relates to an individual’s belief and judgment about his or her ability to use and orchestrate an expanding IT toolkit. In addition, each member's confidence in their ability to work well with others in a remote setting is key. This is of particular relevance because working remotely in different contexts is, for many, still an uncommon way of working and the lack of face-to-face contact can have profound effects on how the team works.

Individuals with a high level of self-efficacy in virtual environments tend to be persistent in their search for mechanisms that will overcome obstacles. These individuals are motivated to mobilise efforts when dealing with non-technical issues in the absence of face-to-face interaction. With the confidence to deal with both technical and non-technical issues, they are able to develop effective communication strategies and thus improve knowledge transfer. Self-efficacy in the virtual environment is thus a key concept in enabling team members to cope and persist through difficulties in their work context.

Whereas virtual media competency is linked to concrete capabilities and skills in the use of the technologies available to them, emphasising the 'how', virtual self-efficacy focuses more on the ‘knowing what’ which is belief and attitude oriented. Both are vital to ensure team performance.

Media skills are an important stepping stone for the development of common ground as they can support relationship building, cohesion and ensure effective and trustworthy communication within a team.

Geographical dispersion related competencies

Geographical dispersion also brings about specific challenges, which need to be addressed.  A key issue here is that the further away team members are, the more likely they are to span different time zones. This can easily lead to communication and emotional disconnects. When only one or a few team members work from further afield, their geographical dispersion may result in low visibility and a feeling of being isolated and not included. Such a working environment will undoubtedly require keen coordination skills on the part of the team leader or leaders and the team members themselves. It will also require the willingness to deal with time issues, make an extra effort to ensure the accessibility of information and readiness among team members to extend their working hours beyond the norm.

Temporal dispersion means that working hours do not necessarily overlap, and vacation times also may not coincide. On a micro-level, it also requires understanding among team members that considerable time might elapse before receiving a response to an email, for example. This understanding will avoid frustration and feelings of rejection or accusations of incompetence.

Geographical dispersion may mean less interaction and a greater degree of work autonomy, which requires enhanced self and time management skills such as careful planning, strategising and scheduling. Time and self-management skills are particularly relevant in companies which are keen to ensure a work-life balance or are compelled to do so by governmental regulations. In such contexts, setting clear limits for times when meetings  should take place, either early mornings or late evenings in order to accommodate different time zones is of particular importance. 

All areas related to virtual teamwork overlap, as do the competencies that are required to mitigate its challenges. Even though the causes can appear to be quite different, all challenges can be subsumed under the dominant issues of communication, trust, relationship building and developing common ground. Dealing with these issues is thus central to ensuring good team performance and satisfaction. 

Diversity related competencies

Diversity in general and in particular cultural diversity increases the likelihood that team members will not share common ground. This means that they may not share meanings, have similar communication styles or relationship building strategies, common understandings of team goals, shared mental models of work processes or media skills. One of the major challenges in virtual teams is thus to recognise in which areas the team shares common ground, and in which areas development is required through implementation of appropriate knowledge and skills.

Virtual diversity competencies thus converge on the ability to positively influence collaboration and the development of supportive relationships among diverse team members in a virtual context. Generally speaking, this includes the ability to communicate with people of other cultures in a way that supports mutual understanding, earns their respect and trust, while encouraging a cooperative and productive virtual workplace conducive to the achievement of team goals and team satisfaction. 

This skill set represents both the ‘knowing what’ and the ‘knowing how’, because it refers to understanding the uniqueness of encounters in virtual settings and having the skills to handle them adequately, effectively and efficiently.  

Broadly speaking, three areas of virtual diversity competence can be distinguished: openness, emotional strength, and willingness to communicate. When it comes to openness, this is an attitude that involves being receptive to a wide range of ideas and ways of doing things. Having an open mind is a necessary requirement in order to think critically and rationally. 

Being open minded means being ready to step out of one's comfort zone and the readiness to listen to and consider a variety of factors that might contribute to effective teamwork or resolve a problem. This is not necessarily as easy as it might sound, and requires a readiness to change and maybe also revising beliefs and work routines. It is only openness that bears the potential for learning and personal growth. 

Emotional strength is also key to negotiating one's way through ambiguous and unfamiliar work situations. It is understood as the capacity to respond to uncertain situations in an open and vulnerable way and to acknowledge the emotions linked to dealing with uncertainties. 

Another vital area is linguistic communication. Communicative competence includes an awareness of barriers to communication, especially when a team uses a common language, which is not the mother language for some or all of the members. In this respect, the different accents used in virtual team meetings can hamper understanding, as can a lack of vocabulary. This can lead to considerable misunderstandings and information gaps. Here it is crucial to be ready to practise active listening, i.e. the act of listening attentively, checking and clarifying issues where the need arises, rather than assuming common understanding. 

Another area closely linked to this is the understanding and interpretation of intentions. This refers to our automatic ability to ‘read’ other people’s intentions, which we use to interpret and predict what someone is going to do. However, in a virtual context, there are different cues than in a face-to-face interaction, which means that we are not necessarily exposed to the same visual, verbal and auditory codes that we are used to in order to anticipate the other's intention. Of course, even in a face-to-face situation, we do not always interpret these codes correctly, but in a virtual context we need to make a special effort to understand the intentions of our team members correctly. Hence it is important to create an environment that supports virtual team members being transparent and vocal about their intentions. This is even more important in an intercultural context where the likelihood of misreading intentions may be even higher. The goal in a virtual team should thus be to share intentions and develop common habitual social practices.

Team related competencies

Virtual team competencies are closely linked to communication and include the flexibility and ability to develop interactional routines. With regard to flexibility, the ability to both adapt behaviour as well as suspend judgement are key. Adaptive behaviour can be understood in the sense that team members need to flexibly select from a repertoire of actions those that fit a range of different social and intercultural situations as well as unexpected circumstances. Closely linked to flexible behaviour is the willingness to suspend judgement, meaning that we withhold judgement and don’t become attached to conclusions which may be based on assumptions and subjective perceptions. Instead you willingly and purposely postpone a judgment or a decision until you have the relevant information, while questioning your assumptions and perceptions. 

In many instances, teams are put together because they seem best fit to carry out a task but often teams are thrown together due to circumstances. They may not know each other and if they have come from different disciplines or backgrounds are likely to have different ways of working, cooperating and problem-solving. In such an environment it is important to develop and synchronise interactional routines, meaning that team members need to develop an understanding of how they want to work together and how best they can make use of the resources in the team in order to achieve good results and a positive working climate. 'Reflected awareness' can help here, which includes the ability to become conscious about one’s own pattern of communication and routinized work behaviour within a team. This could be summarised by the phrase ‘how I usually do things’ and can be complemented by considering how this behaviour is perceived by others. This is of particular relevance in teams whose members do not know each other and are highly diverse.

A further requisite for successful virtual teamwork is the willingness and ability to consider different perspectives. This may be more difficult than it sounds, as it requires not only the readiness to acknowledge that there may be more than one way of looking at something, but also giving the other idea sufficient attention and value. It also implies a readiness to incorporate others' ideas into the team's consensus-built 'way of doing things'.

If team members are able to see issues from different angles, then they can shift gears and take a fresh look at developing cooperative and inclusive work behaviour. This also opens avenues into possible solutions that nobody would have been able to think of had each party been solely concentrated on their own ideas. This is often referred to as the ‘third way’ or new thinking. If team members are receptive to new ideas and ready to venture into new and unfamiliar fields, they are not only exposed to new ideas and approaches but lay new pathways for exploring novel ways of thinking and thus become more innovative.

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In conclusion, it can be said that a high level of virtually denotes a team in which members are located in opposite time zones, are heavily dependent on technologically mediated tools, whose members never meet their team members in person and are culturally and functional diverse. Virtuality thereby should be seen as a continuum ranging from low to high levels of virtuality. Whereas early scholars of 'virtuality' used objective measures such as physical distance between office locations, the number of countries involved and the frequency of face-to-face meetings, there has been a gradual shift towards regarding virtuality as a subjectively and psychologically perceived experience.

Virtual teams can be defined as:

"…teams whose members use technology to varying degrees in working across locational, temporal, and relational boundaries to accomplish an interdependent task."

Source: Martins, L. L. et al. (2004). Journal of management, p. 808.

This definition stresses membership of a team and working at a certain level of virtuality.

No matter whether we refer to the attribute of communication, behaviour or knowledge, the starting point is always the awareness of the self and our own multiple cultural affiliations as a reference point. Being aware of our own communication style, behavioural patterns in a specific environment and the knowledge we have of a specific culture helps us to assess, question and adjust in intercultural virtual work contexts. In this way we can be sensitive to other team member’s perspectives and values, no matter how strange and puzzling they might seem initially. All these elements help to develop a common ground of understanding, which is key for team performance and satisfaction in a virtual environment.