How to break the "invisible walls": the role of communicative practices for overcoming challenges of subgroups in global teams.

Diversity becomes apparent in interaction and the way researchers could investigate the role of team diversity for contemporary organizations is by focusing on how people form subgroups and their impact on global virtual teams (GVTs). Virtual teams are essential work forms in contemporary organizations. This project investigates how objective team faultlines and subjective awareness of team subgroups as well as geographic distribution in globally distributed teams impact subgroup formation, team processes and outcomes. Utilizing faultline theory (Lau & Murnighan, 1998) and communicatively constructed identification theory (Scott, Corman & Cheney, 1998) and using a multi-method approach, the findings are based on a field study conducted on site of a global software organization drawing on both an international survey of global team members and observation and in-depth interviews with global team members. The survey results identify factors that moderate the relationship between team faultlines, subgroups and global team innovation, and satisfaction among a sample of global teams (n=165 individuals in n = 27 teams). A smaller number of teams (n = 2) utilizing iterations of agile software development served as an in-depth case study over time. The analysis illuminates which communicative practices lead team faultlines (aligned demographic differences) to turn into subgroups, how they affect global teams and identifies factors that could help teams overcome challenges of objective faultlines and prevent them from becoming salient. Quantitative findings demonstrate that team identification and psychologically safe communication climate (PSCC) moderate the relationship between faultlines and perceived team subgroups. Perceived team subgroups moderate the relationship between team faultlines and satisfaction but have no impact on the relationship between faultlines and innovation. Based on critical incident analysis (Flanagan, 1954) and interview analysis, faultlines were triggered into subgroups by two main factors: social and geographical distance. Communicative practices helped teams in overcoming challenges of subgroups. Proximity and communicative brokers helped teams manage social distance, while distanced leadership skills and strategic Enterprise Social Media (ESM) use helped overcome geographical distance. The study contributes to theory and practice of globally distributed teams as it is taking a more dynamic, communicative view of subgroups and how they evolve over time.Ph.D.Includes bibliographical referencesby Maggie Boyra