Trust, Team Effectiveness, and Strategies: A Comparative Study between Virtual and Face-to-Face Teams

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to widespread implementation of virtual teams (VTs) in the built environment industry, transitioning the industry to virtualization. However, to our best knowledge, studies are limited on trust-building and team effectiveness of VTs compared with traditional face-to-face teams (TFTs). As such, this research aims to: 1) investigate the differences in factors affecting trust and levels of team effectiveness between VTs and TFTs; and 2) propose strategies that can effectively develop trust in VTs. To achieve these objectives, trust-influencing factors were identified under cognitive and affective dimensions through comprehensive literature reviews. Additionally, team effectiveness was assessed based on team performance and team satisfaction, followed by a structured questionnaire survey validated by experts to identify the significant factors affecting trust-building, to evaluate levels of team effectiveness in VTs and TFTs, and to assess feasible strategies to develop trust in VTs. Moreover, interviews with industry experts were conducted to validate the survey results. The results showed that the most significant factors affecting trust were competence, integrity, and relation in VTs and TFTs, although these factors showed different relative importance. Further, the factors affecting VTs were more affective-based and less cognitive-based than TFTs. In terms of effectiveness, the result showed that VTs had a higher team performance level, while their team satisfaction levels were lower than TFTs. The top-three strategies that could assist trust-building in VTs were proved to be sharing of personal interest and information, ice-breaker exercises, and face-to-face meetings when possible. The findings of this study can serve as a guide to improve the trust and effectiveness of VTs in the built environment industry, providing a valuable reference for organizations moving toward more digitalization and virtualization of their team meetings.