C. Virtual Team Outputs
The outputs of a virtual team are the consequences of a
group’s collaboration as they relate to task and non-task items.
The results reported below are the characteristics identified
with virtual team outputs.
1) Team Cohesiveness: Cohesion is the degree to which
members are motivated to remain in a group. The most
consistently important factor that builds cohesion is whether
members of a group think that they have something in common
with other members and tend to like being with them [4]. Team
cohesiveness has several benefits for a group. Greatest among
these is the heightened quantity and quality of group
interaction within a team [8]. A second benefit is that it
influences members to conform to group norms [5]. Team
cohesiveness is also an indicator of individual satisfaction,
and is necessary for effective exchange of information,
regardless of the means by which the information is
exchanged (i.e., e-mail, memo, telephone) [8]. Cohesiveness is
based upon interpersonal attraction among members and
identification with the group in general, and the extent that
individual group members want to remain in a group. In
measuring the cohesiveness of the virtual team we found that
individual members ranked cohesiveness fairly high
(1.54/5.00), with the responses ranging between 1 (very
cohesive) and 3 (neutral) on a two-item measure. Strong
cohesiveness among members created strong relationships:
The survey also revealed that team members found the quality
of relationship with each other to be quite good (mean = 1.45)
on a scale that ranged from 1 = a very good relationship, to 5
= a very bad relationship. All responses ranged from 1 to 3.