| These last decades have witnessed simultaneously evolving and influencing each other the internet with faster ways to communicate around the globe,as well as large multinational companies and organizations.It is unclear whether the internet has allowed and forced organizations to grow global,or if the need to grow global has influenced research in this area.We can easily admit that they both influenced each other.This evolution has brought new ways of working,researching and bringing creativity and innovation.The central pillar on which organizations now rely is not a single talented leader,as it has become impossible to hold this position in a traditional way and make the best possible decision in such complex situations.Instead,global organizations rely mostly on working teams,which have become the most effective way to optimize output for organizations,as teams can share and challenge themselves to make a better contribution,using diversified talents and several nationalities that better fit the projects.At an international level and using the multiple means of communication that we have today,those teams are often virtual.Contrasting with the traditional face to face teams,they are globally dispersed.The way virtual teams function and react to different situations is a frequently raised topic in all organizations nowadays.They become more common and research is still at its very beginning.Our generation is facing the challenge of making individuals from different culture work together,not only having to overcome the cultural gap,but also the virtual gap as they work on different sites,different countries and connect together through the internet.This research investigates how team collectivism affects shared leadership in a virtual team.This topic enlightens the factors that influence shared leadership;based on previous studies,it is known that shared leadership in teams is strongly correlated to team performance,which is the main focus of organizations.I also look at the effect of transformational leadership and team trust on that relationship,and bring them into equation as they are also strong predictors of shared leadership.Through this analysis is explained a large percentage of the variability of shared leadership and the reader learns about the positive influence of collectivism on shared leadership,as well as the moderating effect of transformational leadership,and our findings bring a better understanding of the relationships between the variables through a thorough interpretation of the results.The goal of this research is to improve our understanding of virtual teams and participate in improving their shared leadership,hence their productivity and performance,as shared leadership is essential for virtual teams to be successful.Following the research style of the field of Organizational Behavior,the author tries to get a deeper understanding of international virtual teams,and brings new contributions to the field by studying a specific area which has not been looked at before in the same way.The measurement tools for the constructs are supported by empirical studies that will be presented in the following content.There is no major overlapping with any serious research,even though the themes discussed in this research paper have been studied previously by serious authors who can therefore be used as stepping stones.This research is done at the team level perceived by individual members.The data used to support the theory is collected from individuals,who are members of virtual teams in many different industries and organizations around the world,mostly in Asia and Europe.The data collected for this study is unprecedented,given the difficulty to reach out to virtual teams' members.The way the variables are measured is based on previous relevant studies that take into account member perception.This study provides an interesting contribution as it explores new levels of research for virtual teams,and suggests practical implications at the organizational level,and suggestions for further research.The researcher gives an analysis of data collected from 40 virtual teams and 138 team members from diverse industries in many countries of the world.It analyses the influence of several factors,such as the nation diversity,team tenure,number of team members,collectivism,and the moderating effect of two variables which are transformational leadership,and trust.At the individual level,the data analysis using SPSS Anova proves that collectivism impacts shared leadership positively,and that transformational leadership negatively moderates the relationship between collectivism and shared leadership,so that whenever transformational leadership is stronger,the impact of collectivism on shared leadership weakens.The reason for this is that a transformational leader will reinforce the vertical leadership within the team,hence weakening the effect of collectivism on shared leadership.The analysis also shows that trust does not have a significant moderating effect in the relationship between collectivism and shared leadership.The influence of each variables and how much it impacts the shared leadership within the team is known,making it possible to predict a team's shared leadership up to a certain degree of certainty.The findings contribute in proving the effect of collectivism on shared leadership and the impact of transformational leadership,which is negative,as well as proving that trust does not have a significant impact on the relationship between collectivism and shared leadership.It is important to note that these variables' correlations are studied at a team level perceived by individual members,and therefore,the findings are limited to the individual member's perception.The researcher uses the common method variance to ensure that the results are trustworthy as well as other variables to check the reliability of the findings.As one of the independent variable,collectivism proved to impact shared leadership on its own,and is positively related to it.The fact that we study virtual teams might reduce the impact of collectivism,compared to face to face teams,as a collectivist individual does not bond as easily in the “virtual world.the analysis brings interesting contribution for further research,and a better understanding of how shared leadership works in international virtual teams.Through a regression analysis using SPSS,we can know how much each variable influences the dependent variable,and its significance.The validity and reliability of each variable are proven,or the variable is ruled out as insignificant.The results explained in the main body of the research allow us to perfect our conceptual model and theory based on data collected on the field,making the study worthy for further researchers.We can also rule out the influence of variables such as nation diversity and team tenure,or trust.Finally,useful conclusions are presented and advices for further researchers are given,as well as a comprehensive way to use this research for managers of international virtual teams.There are some limitations to the study that are presented in the last chapter,and allow the researcher to plan and advice further studies in a better way.The knowledge and assumptions of the research rely on many contributors who are respected researchers in the field.The author uses studies from Avolio,Bass and Jung(1999),Schaubroeck et Al.(2007),Muethel et Al.(2012),Tsai et Al.(2012)to base the measurements,and many other relevant studies which are cited in the reference chapter.Authors such as Bass(1985)are also studied,who conceptualized transactional and transformational leadership,important concepts in the study.The research paper is also the fruit of a lot of energy and time spent in researching about the subject and about each concept studied.The knowledge inside,whether it comes from literature review,from the data collected on the field or from a new way or aspect to see the issues,brings to the reader a thorough understanding of virtual teams,and a strong knowledge that can be of much help when he/she happens to work with such teams. |
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