Niveaux de virtualité et performance des équipes : Proposition d’une approche multidimensionnelle d’évaluation

Thanks to the advances in information and communication technologies (ICTs), virtual teams have become a reality in an increasing number of companies. Despite the advantages they provide, these teams trigger some concerns about the lack and even the absence of face-to-face communication and their effects on performance. This paper aims to propose a multidimensional approach to assess virtuality based on the identification of two key dimensions : technological and social virtuality. It also analyses virtuality effects on team performance. Technological virtuality is defined as the extent to which virtual team members use media and combine the characteristics of ICTs in order to take full advantage of their objective features. Social virtuality refers to the capacity of virtual team members to adapt ICT use to their tasks and social needs. We show how different combinations of these dimensions levels determine the overall team virtuality level and how the latter influences team performance. The proposed approach was applied to study ten virtual teams using a hybrid methodology based on observation, questionnaire and interviews with team members. We argue that high virtuality level results in low performance however low virtuality results in high performance. Beyond the theoretical contribution of our multidimensional conceptualization of the team virtuality, it can also help managers of virtual teams to better cope with the constraints related to their virtuality and thus improve their performance.