The purpose of this study was to develop a deeper understanding of theissues facing virtual team facilitators as they implement and facilitate virtualteams. The study asked the following research question:How do facilitators of virtual teams build relationships with theirvirtual team members?Because virtual teams are a new form of highly dynamic and ambiguouscollaborative interaction, a major challenge of this study was the need to generaterelevant data and analyze it in an appropriate manner. To achieve this, a researchframework involving a training program format was instituted based on methodsdeveloped in Action Learning (AL), with data collection and analysis based ongrounded theory approaches (Glaser and Strauss, 1967).The AL-based 'virtual team facilitation' training program used in thisstudy was designed to achieve the following three goals: to generate interest andincentive for would-be participants, to give participants information and skills toinitiate and facilitate their own virtual teams, and to generate data for analysis.After being recruited, participants were broadly interviewed to determine theirprior experience with virtual teams and their perceived needs and concerns inimplementing and facilitating their own virtual team. The researcher thendeveloped a ten-week training program to meet these needs. A pilot program andtwo subsequent training programs were held. During the training programs, eachparticipant planned for, or actually initiated and facilitated a virtual team withintheir own organizational context. Every two weeks the participants met with theresearcher to investigate issues related to initiating and facilitating virtual teamsand to discuss issues that were arising in their own virtual teams.In all seven participants from a variety of New Zealand organizationstook part in the study. The seven participants formed a diverse group, from themanaging director of a one-man, global virtual organization who workedexclusively in global virtual team settings to a self-employed consultant managing a local virtual work team. The participants were in various stages oftheir virtual team lifecycle, from planning through initiation to full-scalefacilitation and evaluation of a just-completed virtual team project. Theparticipants' virtual team project tasks ranged from managing a politicalcampaign on the other side of the world to developing and running a nationalweb-based academic assessment center. A unique feature of this study is that itinvolves organizational professionals as opposed to students.Data was collected from face-to-face and telephone interviews, groupdiscussions and e-mail correspondences. Data collection extended to severalmonths beyond the end of the training sessions. Using grounded theorytechniques, the data was analyzed using "a general method of (constant)comparative analysis". Data was collected and coded simultaneously over thecourse of the training sessions, with subsequent coding confirming, refining,extending and modify the data.The data showed very clearly that the facilitators considered it essential tobuild some level of personal relationship with their virtual team members beforecommencing a virtual working relationship. Further, a unifying framework ofthree inter-related theoretical steps in the overall process a virtual facilitator goesthrough when building relationships with virtual team members was inductivelyderived from this study. These three steps are Assessing Conditions, ChoosingLevel of Relationship, and Creating Strategies.This study is the first to identify the steps a virtual team facilitatorundertakes when building relationships with virtual team members. It hasimplications for virtual team practice, research and training.
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