Doctoral disseration: Customer orientation is emphasised in a virtual team's climate 

Virtual teams, i.e. teams comprised of people working in different physical locations, have become increasingly common as the result of globalisation and the development of the information society. Despite the increased amount of research focusing on virtual teams, we still know rather little about them; especially the working atmosphere in virtual teams has not been studied enough.

Virolainen's dissertation focuses on the climate of virtual teams and the manifestation of various areas of working climate, such as the communication between team members over physical distances, the social relationships formed between team members who seldom meet face to face, the spirit of togetherness within the team, the success of supervisory work when the supervisor does not meet the team members in person very often, etc.

Nowadays, work is not as tightly tied to physical locations as it used to be. The information society with advanced technology has enabled an increasing number of people to work remotely, and many organisations are deploying partially or entirely distributed, i.e. virtual, teams.

Virtual co-operation does entail certain challenges; despite the technical development, people still need social interaction and face-to-face meetings. While work and customer orientation are emphasised in virtual teams' climates, they also include the human aspect.  Co-workers have often formed friendly relationships, even though they meet in person rather seldom.

In the wider perspective, community spirit, the feeling of togetherness and the creation of a corporate citizen-like working culture is nevertheless challenging for virtual teams. While the physical distance between co-workers does have an impact on the working climate, this impact seems to be quite small. Most of the factors that influence the working climate – such as the work itself, rewarding and personal chemistry between people – are independent of the organisational form.

Harri Virolainen's doctoral dissertation provides a comprehensive impression of the relevant, increasingly common and important phenomenon. The research extensively describes the climate of virtual teams and the various factors that have a particular influence on the climate. The empirical data has been collected from five Finnish organisations, represented by 10 different teams. The data was collected by interviewing 45 virtual team members, followed by a quantitative survey conducted in the same teams with a total of 118 respondents.

The information presented in the study can be utilised in several instances. With knowledge of the factors that influence the working climate, shortcomings detected in the development of working climates, and typical features of a virtual team's climate, virtual organisations and teams can enhance their practices and, consequently, improve the working atmosphere.

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Contact information: +358 50 520 0795, harri.virolainen(a)tse.fi

Picture: http://utu.fi/vaittelijat/virolainen_harri.jpg

Read the dissertation "Kai sitä ihminen on vaan semmoinen laumaeläin" - Virtuaalisen tiimin ilmapiiri in Finnish: http://info.tse.fi/julkaisut/vk/Ae8_2010.pdf