Ecological approach to virtual team effectiveness

Abstract

This paper attempts to address the need for more research on virtual team effectiveness, and outlines an ecological theoretical framework. Prior empirical studies on virtual team effectiveness used frameworks of traditional team effectiveness and mainly followed Hackman's normative model (input-process-output). We propose an ecological approach for virtual team effectiveness that accounts for team boundaries management, technology use, and external environment, properties which were previously either non-existent or contextual. The ecological framework suggests that three components, external environment, internal environment, and boundary management, reciprocally interact with effectiveness. The significance of the proposed framework is the holistic perspective that takes into account the complexity of the external and internal environment of the team.