Making the most of your virtual team: A thematic analysis of effective and maladaptive virtual team processes in rich- and lean-media environments

Virtual teams are one of the top emerging trends in industry, with an estimated two-thirds of large companies having some form of virtual work program. Despite their ubiquity, previous research suggests that virtual teams have difficulty communicating effectively, leading to decreases in team performance. Little research, however, has been devoted to identifying the specific communication behaviours that foster virtual team performance, which could be used to inform evidence-based training. The present study used a thematic analysis to identify communication behaviours that are related to virtual team performance. A sample of 297 participants took part in a team-based virtual military simulation. Teams completed the simulation in either a high- or low-media richness environment. Following the simulation, each team received a performance score using metrics designed by naval subject matter experts. A subsample of the eight top- and bottom-performing teams in the high- and low-media richness conditions was drawn, and trained coders identified emergent themes that characterized high- versus low-performing teams. High-performing teams across both conditions were characterized by role exploration, emergent leadership, and sociability; conversely low-performing teams in both conditions were characterized by reactive, unstructured communication and a lack of emergent role behaviour.