Trust is Easily Lost in Virtual Teams

While trust is an important element to creating a successful virtual group, it is vulnerable to failures and can be lost (Weems-Landingham, 2008). To overcome a lack of trust or trust lost, the author cites research showing that virtual team performance is linked to subject matter experts (SMEs) whose accessibility and cooperation are crucial. Gaining access to these persons and their cooperation is more a function of the leader’s ability to mine the social milieu of the organization. The successful leader can navigate an organization’s culture to solicit management support and SME support for her project. ICTs are merely tools that facilitate social connectedness. It is the leader’s willingness to engage on a personal level with SMEs regardless of their location or other temporal or cultural differences (Weems-Landingham, 2008). 

Weems-Landingham, V. (2008). Building Virtual Cooperation: Guidelines for Effective Performance. In N. Panteli & M. Chiasson (Eds.), Exploring virtuality within and beyond organizations (pp. 73-90). NY: Palgrave MacMillan.