Can a Relationship Survive Long Distance?

Team Member to Team Member Trust
Being in a virtual team can be compared to being in a long distance relationship. To sustain such a relationship, trust is of the utmost importance. The trust issue applies to virtual teams in that, for this type of team to be successful, there is a level of trust is required amongst team members (Crossman & Lee-Kelly 2004,). James and Bowie (1998) point out that a virtual team presents a paradox of structural properties that work against building trust. Trust is built through some form of shared cultural history, however in a virtual team; members may come from different cultures without any previous working relationship. Thus in such a team structure it is harder to assume that the requirements for trust-building behaviour are shared by all team members (Cummings & Bromiley, 1996). Trust building is further exacerbated by the use computer mediated communication (CMM) as this has been shown to be less robust than face-to-face communication.

Project Manager to Team Member Trust
It can be argued that project managers rely on what they can ‘see’ rather than what has been achieved as a determinant of team member’s commitment. The “If I can’t see them, how can I be sure they are working” mentality will not work for a virtual team manager. Research has shown that team members will only behave in a trustworthy manner if they believe that the organisation demonstrates trust towards them (Crossman et al., 2004 ). This means that the virtual project manager has to adopt this stance in order to build trust with team members.

Evidence has shown that trust is a contentious issue within virtual teams, it requires commitment from all team members. Although it may be difficult to develop, it does develop over time.

This post references:
- Crossman, A. & Lee-Kelly, L. 2004. Trust, commitment and team working: the paradox of virtual organisations. Global Networks. Vol.4 Issue 4
- Cummings, L.L., & Bromiley, P. 1996. The organisational Trust Inventory (OTI) development and validation. In Crossman, A. & Lee-Kelly, L. Trust, commitment and team working: the paradox of virtual organisations. Global Networks. Vol.4 Issue 4

- Jones, T.M., & Bowie, N.E. 1998. ‘Moral Hazards on the road to the virtual corporation, Business Ethics Quarterly. Vol. 8