I Know I Can, But Can We?

Abstract

Given the growing use of global virtual teams, one important factor to consider when examining team performance is the cultural backgrounds of the dispersed team members. Two hundred forty-three team members from universities in the United States and Hong Kong were administered three survey questionnaires during a series of virtual team projects. Results revealed that regardless of cultural background, team members reported less confidence in their ability to work in virtual team environments than traditional face-to-face environments and that team members from individualistic cultures reported higher self-efficacy beliefs (both group self-efficacy and virtual team self-efficacy) than team members from collectivist cultures. Furthermore, when the reference for efficacy beliefs changed from the individual to the group, the magnitude of change was greater for the collectivist versus individualistic team members. Implications and future research are also discussed.