Trust and performance in virtual teams and organizations - the influence of psychological, techno-structural, and social factors.

本研究考察了社会闲散、沟通媒体、领导风格以及文化、情绪和时间对虚拟组织中团队领导信任、团队成员信任以及团队绩效的影响。信任是虚拟组织中合作与协作的一个特别关键的条件，因为这种组织的环境具有高风险、不确定性、信息不对称和机会主义行为的危险。理解信任的产生和影响是一个重要的研究问题，在普通管理学、经济学和心理学研究中受到了越来越多的关注。然而，对于以往的研究来说，(1)纵向研究信任的前因和结果，(2)了解虚拟团队成员之间如何建立和维持信任，(3)分析信任在不同文化背景下在虚拟工作中的作用，(4)了解时间、文化和情绪等主持人对信任和绩效关系的影响，以及(5)研究信任对象的不同影响，这对以往的研究一直是一个挑战。我们的研究环境提供了一个独特的机会，通过与27个国家和地区的大型多人在线游戏(MMOG)进行纵向研究设计，采用数据三角方法(来自日志文件、调查数据和现场实验数据的行为数据)来解决上述研究差距。该项目是路德维希-马克西米利安-慕尼黑大学、慕尼黑工业大学、南卡罗来纳大学和小石城阿肯色大学的学者之间的多学科合作。

In this study we investigate the influence of social loafing, communication media, leadership style as well as the moderating influence of culture, emotions and time on trust in team leadership and team members as well as team performance in virtual organizations. Trust is an especially critical condition for cooperation and collaboration in the context of virtual organizations, as the context of such organizations is characterized by high risk, uncertainty, information asymmetry and the danger of opportunistic behavior. Understanding the creation and implications of trust is an important research issue that has received increased attention in general management, economic and psychological research. However, it has been a challenge for previous research to (1) study the antecedents and consequences of trust longitudinally, (2) to understand how trust is created and maintained between virtual team members, (3) to analyze the role of trust in virtual work across several cultures, (4) to understand the influence of moderators such as time, culture, and emotions on the trust and performance relationships and (5) to study differential impact of trust referents. Our research setting offers a unique opportunity to address the aforementioned research gaps by pursuing a data triangulation approach (behavioral data from log-files, survey data, and field experimental data) through collaboration with a Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) in a longitudinal research design in 27 countries. This project is a multidisciplinary collaboration among scholars from the Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, the Technical University of Munich, the University of South Carolina, and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.