Covid-19 Causing a Shift from Traditional to Virtual Teams: Changes in Students’ Perceptions about Teamwork in Aalto Mikkeli Campus

Objectives The main objectives of this study were to understand how students have perceived the change from traditional teams to virtual Covid-19 teams. As online teams will be used in the future, the findings from this study offer guidelines for teams working online, to work in the best possible way for a team to be efficient and have satisfied members. Summary Mixed methods were used to measure recent attitudes about teamwork, as teams have shifted from face-to-face teams to virtual teams. Quantitative data was collected through a survey that included questions about team communication, trust, belongingness and it was measured how they affect member satisfaction and perceived performance of a team. Participants answered according to their experiences from traditional and virtual teams. The sample included 51 participants from population of 225 students in a university campus. The survey included open-ended question where participants could freely share their experience about shifting from traditional teams to virtual teams. Results from quantitative and qualitative data were considered in order to arrive to the conclusions of the study. Conclusions It was found that majority of the participants felt lower satisfaction with teamwork. Lower satisfaction was expected to be caused by differences in communication, trust, belongingness and work-life balance. It was found that lower trust, feelings of belongingness and work-life balance can explain lower satisfaction in virtual teams. Approximately half of the participants responded perceiving worse performance from a team than before. The main factor that was found to explain this was increased negative attitudes about teamwork. Even though quantitative data could not support that communication has an effect on the satisfaction of the participants, it was found to appear in multiple replies when analysing the qualitative data. The qualitative data also showed that virtual team members experience lower belongingness and worsen work-life balance