Global Virtual Teams and their effective functioning : The Challenge of Time Pressure

Abstract: Nowadays modern organizations move in an incredible speed and have to be flexible and adaptable to constantly changing circumstances. Global Virtual Teams (GVTs) have been proved to be one of the means to handle this challenge. While it is said that GVTs bestow an organization with flexibility and enhanced creativity, research proves that the managing of these teams is quite challenging. The modern work stress factor time pressure is said to be omnipresent in nowadays organizations and therefore undoubtedly connected to this. However time pressure within teams has until now been somewhat “under-researched”. This study therefore aims to explore how time pressure is related to the main challenges of GVTs. The qualitative research is based on empirical data collected through 15 interviews with students who participated in a global virtual competition. The main findings show that time pressure affects GVTs and their functioning on several dimensions as well as the challenges connected to the teams can also cause time pressure.