Utilizing Virtual Team: Lessons Learned from MMORPGs Players

Abstract

Virtual teams, with the advantage of bridging over geographical and temporal restriction, have been widely utilized by companies around the world to make the best use of talents from different domains and areas to accomplish complex missions and assignments. However, it is always a challenging task to build up a perfect environment for virtual teams to deliver outstanding performance.

The current study utilized online survey to collect data from MMORPGs (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Play Games) players, a special type of virtual team, to investigate critical issues on the journey of attaining operational goals. The major objective is to figure out relationships among different factors that were proposed, from the literature or practical evidences, to affect the performance of virtual teams. The results are concluded as follows: (1) Trust among virtual team members has positive influences on team cooperation; (2) The cohesiveness of virtual team members has positive influences on team cooperation; (3) Team cooperation has positive influences on team performance; (4) Communication among virtual team members would decrease the influence of team cooperation on team performance. Managerial implication and directions for further studies are provided at the end of the current study.