Towards a Process Model of Media Usage in Global Virtual Teams

In the networked world of today, global virtual teams (GVT) are becoming a common form of work structure. The geographic dispersion in GVT has led to members' high reliance on electronic communication media for collaboration and task performance. With advancements in ICT, the range of media to choose from has increased considerably. This complicates the process of selection and usage of media to serve different communication needs in GVT. Therefore we are motivated to investigate how GVT members perform the process of media selection and usage. This is achieved through an in-depth case study of three GVT. We conducted template coding of the teams' communications logs and lessons learnt papers, followed by cognitive mapping to derive the GVT media usage process model. The model can provide a basis for further empirical validation and deriving practical implications for GVT management.