Results of two interventions aimed at improving collaboration in virtual teams through feedback and emotional management
This article presents a summary of the results obtained by the research carried out by the author of the article and his colleagues from IDOCAL at the University of Valencia and the Department of Social Psychology at the University of Seville into two interventions designed to improve collaboration in virtual teams. One of these interventions is based on feedback, while the other is based on training team members in emotional management. These interventions have been examined based on experimental studies with a group that received feedback on or training in emotional management and a control group. The results confirmed that virtual teams that received process and outcome feedback experienced an improvement in their perception of group learning and reduced social loafing. The latter also improved virtual teams’ affective outcomes. On the other hand, training in emotional management improved virtual teams’ resilience and reduced relational conflict. There is also an improvement in group engagement in those teams that received training in emotional management. The article concludes with a series of recommendations for improving virtual team collaboration based on the results of this research.
ODS
Vicente Peñarroja CabañeroDoctorate in Psychology from the University of Valencia. Currently associate professor at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) and member of the interdisciplinary ICT research group i2TIC at the UOC (http://i2TIC.net) and of the digitalization and teamwork research group en IDOCAL (University of Valencia). His research has primarily focused on studying the processes and results of teamwork as communicated via Information and Communication Technologies. However, other lines of research in which he has taken part include: the influence of inter-group conflict on rational decision-making, the influence of organizational intervention on the perceptions of employees and users of the quality of service in organizations, and knowledge exchange in virtual communities. The results of his research have been published in various prestigious international magazines, such as: Computers in Human Behavior, PlosOne, Social Science Computer Review, and Behaviour & Information Technology, among others.
