Conceptual Model of Virtual Team Leader Actions for Better Technology Appropriation

With the availability of round-the-clock labor and inexpensive programming in India and other countries, software development projects increasingly take place in a virtual team setting. Adaptive structuration theory (AST) describes the process by which groups, such as virtual teams, use advanced information technologies. According to AST, people, technology and task structures interact, resulting in virtual team outcomes. Much virtual team research has focused on the people and other input factors. Technology as it relates to interaction processes remains under-examined in relation to virtual team leadership and should be explored. This paper applies AST and relevant current research on virtual teams to develop a framework and propositions regarding virtual team leader actions supporting technology appropriation.