Diversity in Global Virtual Teams: A Partnership Development Perspective

This dissertation is an attempt to develop and test a comprehensive model for global virtual team effectiveness based on development of partnership among diverse team members and the moderating role of collaborative technology and task interdependence. The model will be tested using filed survey methodology. The model is based on traditional I-P-O framework for understanding team effectiveness. Team diversity in terms of, surface level, deep level and functional, and diversity perceptions are treated as the central tenant of team inputs. Collaborative partnership quality is at the process level, moderated by task interdependence and use of collaborative technology as characterized by parallelism, transparency, and sociality. At the outcome level this dissertation is more interested in global virtual team effectiveness as measured by team performance and individual member satisfaction and the effect of partnership development towards relational conflict.