Advances in information and communication technology allow organizations use virtual teamwork to meet their strategic goals. Research results regarding virtual teamwork outcomes are contradicting. From one side, virtual teams have been reported to produce better work outcomes, make more effective decisions, generate unique and high-quality ideas, develop more original solutions to problems, allow organizations to cut back time and expenses on traveling, recruit talents worldwide, and react quickly to global trends. On the other hand, virtuality has been reported to generate problems related to communication trust, knowledge sharing, coordination, etc. Also, virtual team members are exposed to increased occupational risk factors, including physical and psychosocial risks, due to blurred boundaries between home and work, decreased workplace ergonomics, and working from isolation.
Prior studies have shown that individual competencies of virtual team members can mitigate or even reverse the problems and risks caused by virtual context. Besides individual abilities, the situational context, such as leadership and organizational culture, play an important role in increasing virtual team members' effectiveness and decreasing occupational risk factors. Thus, to materialize the benefits of virtual teamwork and successfully manage the global workforces, organizations need to be able to both: identify and develop individual virtual teamworking competencies and develop an organizational culture that supports the actualization and (further) development of the competencies needed for virtual working environment. The main challenge now lies in the limited knowledge about a) virtual teamworking competencies and b) the complex relationships between competencies and the environmental aspects increasing or decreasing the actualization of the competencies.
The current study thus aimed to develop an academic and practical understanding of competencies and the complex relationship between competence actualization and external team-and organization-level aspects. Critical realism and case study approaches were selected to meet the overall aim of the research, as they allow the development of contextual understandings of complex phenomena. In the current research – contrary to the most virtual team and management-related research – an agency was given to the individuals. It was believed that individuals are the main drivers of the virtual teams' success and the best source for understanding the complex process of overcoming constraints in virtual teams. Thus, the data was gathered through in-depth interviews with 24 professionals working for the virtual teams daily.
In the analysis process, the researcher moved iteratively between theory and data, which helped to develop an empirically grounded and theoretically supported understanding of the individual competencies and organizational support mechanisms. Content and narrative analysis approaches were used to allow both: categorizing and connecting between different findings. The study included three distinct yet interconnected steps: 1) identifying the main challenges that virtual team members experience, 2) identifying individual competencies that help to overcome the challenges, and 3) identifying external team- and organizational-level aspects to support the application of competencies.
The analysis of empirical findings and literature in step one resulted in a thorough overview of the challenges that may hinder the effectiveness of virtual team members. However, it is important to note that the main body of virtual team-related literature treats the topic of challenges as if they were static and as if everybody would experience them in the same way. There is an alternative stream of literature acknowledging that the way people experience challenges depends on their prior experiences, competencies, social situations, etc. Though, an approach to challenges from the experience-based view is relatively complex as there are so many different aspects to consider. However, the current study can help shed light on some generalizable patterns and processes across different situations and individuals. Namely, the present study revealed a pattern of challenges emerging based on individuals' prior virtual teamwork-related work experience. The current study revealed that individuals undergo three distinct phases when adapting to virtual teamwork, which all include different challenges and require different competencies and organizational support mechanisms.
Acknowledging the challenges and processes that virtual team members go through, the attention was turned to academic and empirical insights about competencies that can help overcome the challenges. A comprehensive virtual teamwork-related competence framework was developed by systemizing the existing body of knowledge in the virtual team's literature, integrating competencies from other fields, and adding findings from the empirical data. In addition, before developing the framework, a thorough overview of the conceptualizations of the term competence and related attributes (values, attitudes, knowledge, and skills) was developed, which can contribute to overcoming the conceptual fuzziness related to the term competence in the academic literature.
Step three brought the researcher to the most unoccupied area in the academic literature. While there can be some indications found from the organizational learning (OL) research regarding the interventions that can help to support the application competencies, the OL scholars themselves call for more research that would provide concrete tools to use in the organizational settings. The current study responded to this call as well as the aim of the current study by incorporating the Self-Determination Theory (SDT) from the motivational theory as a framework that helps to explain the complex relationship between external situational characteristics and competence application. Using the SDT as a framework, several aspects were highlighted based on the literature and empirical findings to support the competence actualisation in virtual teams. To summarise, it can be said that focusing on the fit between the individual process of adjusting to virtual teams and constraints experienced, individual competencies, and team-and organisational level support mechanisms can significantly help to advance the success of implementing virtual teams.
The main contribution of the current study is that it provides a framework for connecting different studies in the virtual team's literature, which have the same aim – to explain the success factors of virtual teams. So far, these studies have been carried out in isolation. Although closely connected, it was challenging to understand where they belong on the complex landscape of aspects related to virtual team-related success. Based on the results of the current study, three distinct yet interconnected research streams are proposed: a) research on virtual team-related constraints, b) research on virtual team member's individual characteristics (such as competencies, motivations, prior experiences, etc.), and c) research on team- and organisational level support mechanisms (such as tools, leadership, culture, etc.). The higher the congruency between factors in these streams – the higher the success of virtual teams.