There is an increased demand for a skilled workforce that is prepared for work in today's digital economy, which is often done in virtual teams. Thus, while many students today have little or no experience working in this mode, they are often placed in virtual teams early in their careers. We argue that that if students have the opportunity to…

Two important characteristics of contemporary teamwork are working with colleagues from diverse cultural backgrounds and working in virtual teams. Hence, preparing students to successfully navigate through the business world must include developing these two skills. To investigate learning for both cross-cultural and virtual collaboration, we…

Virtual teams have become a major component in the delivery of online courses at Purdue University Global (PUG) and in higher education in general (Olson, et. al, 2015). To help provide employers with qualified candidates for their talent needs, teamwork has been established as one of the six professional competencies that Purdue University Global…

Purpose: This paper aims to test if team reflexivity is a countermeasure to the detrimental effect of team virtuality on team performance improvement, in decision-making teams. Design/methodology/approach: Study 1 regarded 210 individuals (N = 44 teams) executing five decision-making tasks. Study 2 regarded 60 individuals (N = 20 teams) executing…

Using Hofstede's classification of national culture, this article examines whether culture influences peer evaluation of performance on global virtual teams (GVTs). Two separate analyses were conducted based on the hypotheses developed. The first analysis included close to 8,000 students and the second included over 3,000 students, all who…

Purpose: Research suggests that teaming routines facilitate learning in teams. This paper identifies and details how specific teaming routines, implemented in a virtual team, support its continual learning. The study's focus was to generate authentic and descriptive accounts of the interviewees' experiences with virtual teaming routines.…

Purpose: Virtual collaboration provides students with an opportunity to develop cultural intelligence while fitting into the team where the members are from diverse cultures. The purpose of this study is to explore whether global virtual team (GVT) projects raise students' understanding of cultural differences. In addition, it is interesting to…

Universities are increasingly leveraging virtual teams into their organizational structure and strategic framework for many functions including academic administration and faculty leadership. One benefit of a virtual workforce is the ability to hire the most qualified individuals regardless of where they are physically located. As the virtual…

Purpose: As technology-mediated communication improves, many organizations increasingly use new types of collaborative online tools to promote team-based learning and performance. The purpose of this study is to explore how virtual team leaders cope with process challenges in developing a context for team creativity. Design/methodology/approach:…

Corporations have become increasingly global over the past number of years. The rapid development and usage of communication technology has allowed global corporations to more readily form virtual teams to take advantage of the skills of its global workforce. Having skilled workers on teams helps to make them more productive. Productive teams tend…

This study explores the factors that contribute to shared leadership and its association with knowledge acquisition in virtual teams. Through the proposed multilevel model, we examined team empowerment at the team level and perceived virtuality at the individual level as the predictors of a team member's perceived shared leadership, which then…

This article reports on a qualitative study of strategies and competencies used by technical communication and translation students to address challenges inherent in global virtual team collaboration. The study involved students from three universities collaborating in virtual teams to write and translate instructional documents. Qualitative…

Modern learning theories stress the importance of student-centered and self-directed learning. Problem-Based Learning (PBL) supports this by focusing on small group learning centered around authentic problems. PBL, however, usually relies heavily on face-to-face team collaboration and tutor guidance. Yet, when applied in online/blended…

The paper presents the results of an investigation into the virtual teamwork of culturally mixed teams engaged in common projects in international settings. Data was collected from students attending four different universities on four continents (Asia, Europe, North America, and South America). They worked for a semester, in virtual teams, to…

Despite several efforts to bring about a clear phenomenon of virtual teams, there is still some confusion as to how virtual teams should be defined. It is probably because the characteristics of virtual teams and relationships among them have not been consistent. To address this gap, the present study explores the nature of virtual teams by…