Impact of individual virtual competence on work outcomes in virtual IT projects

As the world becomes more globalized and information technology develops more rapidly, companies are increasingly exploring the benefits of using virtual teams to work on projects that allow them to achieve their objectives. This phenomenon though keeps raising questions regarding the best practices in selection and management of employees whose work would be mostly conducted in virtual settings instead of traditional co-located teams. We have investigated the conditions of virtuality, identifying its benefits and challenges and came up to a conclusion that in order to be an effective virtual team member, a special set of skills and abilities may be needed. The central question of this study is: What individual knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) that comprise virtual competence (IVC) should the virtual project team members possess, which could contribute to overcoming challenges of the virtual environment? To answer this question a variety of theories on a virtual team, professional competencies, team management and project management were examined. Quantitative research has been utilized to measure the relationship between the conceptualised construct of individual virtual competence and individual work outcomes in a project that is conducted by distributed global teams. Data on the skills of the individuals conducting their work in virtual IT project settings were collected with an online survey which was distributed among the chosen sample. The results of the survey indicated that the most important characteristics that contribute to overcoming challenges of virtuality are self-efficacy, social, and media skills, which also have a positive reflection on the individual work performance and job satisfaction. There are also interesting results regarding the effect of demographic characteristics on variables when compared with the results from the similar study conducted with a different group of respondents. In the end, a revised model of individual virtual competence is proposed that can shed some light on its impact on job performance and job satisfaction of an individual working in virtual project teams