It takes two to tango: The close interplay between trust and identification in predicting virtual team effectiveness

The purpose of this study was to examine how trust between the team-members and identification with the team are related to the effectiveness of virtual teams. The literature suggests that both trust and identification are crucial for success of virtual teams but there is a lack of empirical studies to substantiate this assumption. We hypothesized that the identification-effectiveness link should be stronger under high-trust than under low-trust conditions, and that the relationship between trust and effectiveness should be stronger when team members identify strongly with the team. In our study based on a crosssectional survey methodology and data aggregated to team level (N = 31), we found clear support for our hypotheses.