7.1: Virtual Team

The Summer of 2007, I had the opportunity to be a part of a virtual “team.” The actors of the online community were seven Organization Development Consultants (and myself) who worked for the same company. Although, their offices were all in the same building, they were rarely there due to their consultant work that took place in other parts of city; typically, they sat with the businesses they supported. Therefore, the “team” did not see one another as a team in the typical workplace sense. They did not work together, nor did the performance of one actor directly affect the performance or outcome of another. They were completely independent of one another, aside from their professional title. So, they preferred to look at one another as colleagues in an information network. Since the field of Organization Development is always changing with new research, practices, and theories, the actors of this community rely on one another for information-sharing and assistance with predominately occupation-related questions.

According to Etzioni and Etzioni a community must have two attributes: “a web of affect-laden relationships that encompasses a group of individuals—relationships that crisscross and reinforce one another…and a measure of commitment to a set of shared values, mores, meanings, and a shared historical identity.” These characteristics are prevalent in the OD consultant community. They have an underlying set of values which is derived from the Organizational Culture of both the company they work for and the group that they work in; it stresses learning, technology, ethics, and strong business acumen. Additionally, the community has a strong “bond” since any of the actors can contact one another for anything at any time. Generally, the questions that are asked are sent to a listserve or a forum; that way, the entire team can receive the question and anyone who feels they can contribute to an answer has the chance to enter their opinion.

Reciprocity and common ground is an important aspect of Social Network Analysis. The community’s information sharing processes was based solely on reciprocity. Although Haythornwaite postulated that reciprocal self-disclosure would strengthen the ties among the actors, it appears that reciprocal information-sharing has bonded the OD community together. When actors share information they have that might be pertinent to the OD profession, other actors will share information as well. Additionally, in the OD community there is no shortage of common ground. They are all Organization Development consultants who work for the same company. Although they have their individual differences, (i.e. how many years they worked for the company or in OD) the common ground, or the topic that brought them together, was Organization Development.

Also, according to Haythornwaite, the OD consultant community displays relational multiplexity, which “indicates a stronger tie between pairs because of their more multi-threaded engagement with each other.” Not only does the community discuss questions to work-related OD issues, but they talk about schools to go to for OD, books and articles to read, social events that the OD team will be attending, current issues in the business-world in general, and other generalized questions that you would ask a friend whose opinion you respected. In the article, Haythornwaite discussed media multiplexity as well, which means “the stronger the tie, the more media used.” Although all interactions in the OD community start via CMC (most people send out an e-mail through “crack”berry) the individual relationships and the magnitude of the question will determine which media they will respond with. It is not uncommon for an e-mail to be followed up with a FtF meeting or a phone call, in order to discuss the information further. The ability to use richer media shows the strength of tie between the actors in the community.

Fortunately, there is both online and offline synergy among this group. Since the team works so well in CMC, they have no qualms in FtF. The manager of the virtual team believes that it is important for the group to engage in social events, in order to maintain good relations. Therefore every Friday, the manager sets up lunch for his team, where the conversations range for work-related issues to nice vacation spots.