How virtual are we? Measuring virtuality and understanding its impact in a global organization

We’re becoming more virtual all the time!” is heard in many global corporations today. But basing decisions on this is elusive, as “virtuality” itself isn’t measurable. Lack of definition makes it hard to assess how virtual teaming affects performance, or to design infrastructures and toolsets to support distributed work. Using the concept of discontinuities, or a decrease in expected cohesion, we propose a virtuality index to assess how “virtual” a given setting is. The virtuality index is a tool to segment aspects of virtuality and their effects on performance. Data collected at Intel Corporation reveal that virtual teaming can be measured by three overarching discontinuities: team distribution, workplace mobility, and variety of work practices. We found that being distributed in and of itself had no impact on self-assessed team performance. Work practice predictability and sociability mitigated effects of working in discontinuous environments; while variety of practices (cultural and work process diversity) and employee mobility negatively impacted performance. Implications for the design of collaborative technologies and work practices are discussed. The study also identified the prevalence of multiteaming at Intel as an important area for future research of virtual teaming.