Question

(Gilson, et al., 2015) posited that establishing trust, which is one of the major factors of project success in virtual teams, is much more difficult to achieve. Concurrently, Katzenbach & Smith, (2004) suggests that placing team members physically together for roughly a week on project start-up will aid in building trust and cohesiveness. So are we arguing that the antidote to project failure due to impermanence of virtual teams is to build trust?

Answer 1

Answer: Yes, these arguments points to the fact that building trust is an antidote for the project failures. Virtual teams are not permanent and the people in such teams keep on changing. Such teams are often disbanded after project is over. The team members have a limited type of interaction with each other. Lack of trust among st the members of the virtual teams is considered to be a major factor behind the failures of the projects that are carried out by the virtual teams. There is an absence of social interactions among st the team members of the virtual teams who do not meet directly with one another. This is a major cause of the lack of trust that visibly exists between the members of the virtual teams. Hence the scholars are now increasingly highlighting the lack of trust as a major reason why such projects fail. They are suggesting the remedies like short term physical meetings of the members of the virtual teams. Trust has emerged as a solution for the project failures that are taking place because of the impermanence of the virtual teams.